[Vision2020] Steven Sitler (was Re: [Vision2020] Dale and Being picky)

[Taro Tanaka]

J Ford wrote:

[[ This is one creep that needs to stay in jail - forever - since we do not 
have a system in this country for executing child molesters/rappists. ]]

Not every case that would be legally classified in this country as "child 
molestation" corresponds to what the Bible considers a capital crime; 
however, there are certainly child molesters and rapists that deserve, 
biblically speaking, the death penalty. I don't know the details of Sitler's 
case, but it is conceivable that he committed crimes deserving of the death 
penalty. It should be noted that the biblical perspective metes out the 
death penalty based on the nature of the crime and the need for the criminal 
to make restitution to God through the forfeiture of his own life, rather 
than on the basis of a statistical possibility of the crime being repeated 
in the future. From the church's perspective, a criminal's being sentenced 
to death is by no means necessarily a sentence to eternal damnation: it is 
entirely possible that a condemned criminal could be fully repentant and go 
to meet Jesus in Heaven upon his execution. And the church would have no 
problem with that.

On the other hand, lifetime incarceration is truly cruel and unusual 
punishment. It is cruel to both the victims and to the criminal. Outright 
execution of people who had committed capital crimes would be much more 
merciful.

Assuming for a moment (and we can only assume that for argument's sake 
because we don't know enough of the details) that Sitler's crimes were 
clearly worthy of death, Rev. Wilson's life as a pastor would have been much 
simpler if the State would simply put someone like Steven Sitler to death. 
But the State doesn't, and therefore problems like Steven Sitler get dumped 
in Rev. Wilson's lap.

J Ford's allies over at Little Jim-Bob Way dot com are spinning this as "The 
First United Church of CYA." If Rev. Wilson was really the sort of person 
his enemies claim he is, the easiest thing for him to do as pastor of Christ 
Church would have been, immediately upon Sitler's problems coming to his 
attention, to hold a press conference announcing to the whole world what had 
happened, and calling for victims everywhere to come forward into the light 
to join in the public prosecution of this criminal. The easiest thing for 
him to do would have been to write to the judge, "Lock him up and throw away 
the key." In other words, the easiest thing for him to do, if he was the 
kind of man his enemies claim he is, would have been exactly the sorts of 
things they loudly proclaim he should have done. Now that would be CYA. But 
what did he do? Knowing full well that this could not be kept secret, and 
knowing full well that his enemies would have a field day with it, he took 
an approach that shows genuine concern for achieving healing -- both on the 
part of the victims and on the part of the perpetrator. Since the details 
are not knowable, it is not possible for me to say whether Rev. Wilson took 
the course of greatest wisdom in the way he dealt with it. But what this 
whole incident makes manifestly obvious is that his overriding concern as 
pastor is to faithfully serve Jesus Christ. It is safe to surmise from this 
that compared with his concern for faithfully serving Jesus Christ, he could 
care less what his enemies think about him -- indeed, he could care less 
what his own flock thinks about him. I say that not in any absolute sense, 
but only relatively speaking. In the end, when push comes to shove, he only 
cares about what Jesus Christ thinks about him, and nothing else. Because if 
he was any other kind of man, publicly washing his hands of Steven Sitler 
would have been the easiest thing to do. I'm not saying we can conclude that 
Rev. Wilson took the wisest course of action. But this whole incident 
reveals mountains about the essential purity of his most basic faith 
commitment. And the fact that Rev. Wilson's enemies can't see this plain 
fact is because they are the sort of people that he claims they are: 
spiritually blind.

-- Princess Sushitushi

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