This is abhorrent. All of it. The pastor's actions. His unrepentance. The town vilifying the victim. The judge's response. Just wrong, wrong, wrong on all counts. The idea that anyone would be given a lighter sentence because of their professed religious convictions is, I agree, unconstitutional. Personally, I would think that if one were to take religion into account in sentencing, I would want to sentence someone who professes devout religious adherence but acts undeniably in opposition thereto even more strongly than the average person. As an aside, I object to the term "Good Christian". Even Jesus Himself, when someone addressed him as "Good Teacher" responded "Why do you call me 'good'? No one is good but God alone." (Luke 18:19). My goal and desire is to live according to Jesus' dictates, but I know I fail at that every day. Any "goodness" I (or anyone) may have is only by the grace of God.
Just to clarify, the prosecutor did his job, he got conviction and asked for long sentence so should not be lumped with judge, defendant or community as @jonnyboy implied. Interesting take on "good Christian", that was explicitly reason for relatively light sentence Thanks for input.
Man that post was hard to read. Couldn't even care about the question. But I must say, I don't thing the tale of this scum bag has anything to do with Christians, nor does it reflect on them. He is just a scum bag, not a Christian.
Wrong. You are either a Christian or you're not a Christian. There is no such thing as a good Christian.
An interesting experiment would be to see if I'd go to hell for torturing this guy. Too bad nobody likes science.
Obviously, a judge has leeway for all kinds of inappropriate reasons/justifications to go easy on a criminal. Growing up in poverty/abuse or as a minority are the most often cited "reasons" for letting monsters skate, and liberal courts in blue states are the most lenient in the nation. Religion is rarely cited but just as indefensible. The judge is facing recall, and likely is done being a judge. He seems to be the only fly in the ointment. It appears the only reason he ever got to be a judge, and remain a judge, is because nobody ever ran against him. This is the norm nationwide, and why our judges are so pathetically partisan/corrupt. https://ballotpedia.org/Steven_W._Sword https://www.change.org/p/bill-lee-j...ould-be-removed-from-his-position?signed=true I can't find anything to support your claim that the town, other than a tiny group from his church, took the rapist's side against his victim, and the local jury unanimously convicted him in a mere 3 hours. Since the victim was adopted, maybe a federal Human Trafficking for the purposes of pedophilia charge could be prosecuted?
Last time I looked in a history book, King James was not a God nor did he speak for one. KJV is a government manifesto, nothing more.
Sigh. Sometimes being principled is hard. Some people said they hope other prisoners give this scumbag a taste of his own medicine. So tempting But... I'm against rape. No exceptions. I have no problem with him rotting in prison the rest of his life, but no one should be sentenced to rape. If I say one person deserves rape, well, who gets to decide who else deserves it?