Republicans, Democrats, and Independents probably all agree—in some cases, for different reasons—that the outgoing Kentucky governor’s last-minute pardons for murderers and rapists were horrifically wrong.
His argument about redemption is also, from a Christian perspective, completely wrong. As a Christian, I believe in God’s redemption for all sinners (including me and the rest of the human race) through Jesus Christ, even those guilty of heinous crimes.
But not even the forgiveness and redemption of God means that those convicted of murder, rape, or other crimes should be exempted from punishment.
Pope John Paul II famously visited the prison where the man who nearly killed him in Vatican Square. There, he forgave his assailant. But he still left the man in prison to pay his debt to the nation whose law he violated.
Scripture teaches that God rules in two ways.
God governs first in the kingdom of grace in which those who repent and believe in Christ voluntarily accede to His authority.
In the kingdom of the Law, God governs by coercion through governments. Governments are charged with keeping peace so that people can live securely.
The former Kentucky governor, with his spate of last-minute pardons, violated the will of God and made people less secure and safe. The pardons are indefensible as the Christian acts he claims them to be.
They were, quite clearly, un-Christian.
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