My husband and I had an interesting discussion today. We talked about all the violent crimes in our society today. At one point, my husband said that some people were just going to continue to be violent and needed to be locked up so that they wouldn’t hurt others. I could understand his point of view, but I had a different one because of my mom.
My mother was a mentally and emotionally abusive woman. At a certain point, I had to accept the fact that no matter what I said or did, nothing would ever make a difference, she would always be abusive. I had to distance myself from her to protect myself from her, but that didn’t mean totally cutting myself off from her. When she needed me, I still did my best to be there for her.
When I brought this up to my husband, he stated that he understood, but if she had been physically abusive, he wouldn’t have wanted me to have any contact with her. I understood his point of view, but it still didn’t matter. I have often wondered what I would do if my own husband had been physically abusive. Of course, I would leave and limit my contact with him, but at the same time, I made a vow to God to love him for the rest of my life no matter what happened. I couldn’t just throw that away because he made a mistake.
The Bible’s advice on this whole subject is very difficult. On one hand, it says that if your right hand offends thee, you should cut it off. However, on their other hand, it says that if your brother hits you, you should offer him your other cheek. I’ve struggled with this one for years and I probably will for the rest of my life. I think it all boils down to the commandment of love others as you would love yourself. I wouldn’t want to give up on myself just because I’m not perfect or I made some bad mistakes. I know people could say that I am not a mass murderer or violent criminal, but I could be. I want to believe that I couldn’t, but under the worst circumstances any of us could be violent and commit atrocities. Accepting that about myself and still loving myself means that I must love all my brothers and sisters in Christ even the ones that make terrible mistakes and commit horrible unthinkable acts. If God can forgive them, then surely, I can as well.
I don’t know if all violent criminals need to be locked up, but I do know that they shouldn’t be thrown away. I know that we shouldn’t give up on them. No matter what they did or what evil exist in their hearts, the light of God is still burning deep inside of them. It just takes a really brave soul to look really deep inside to see it.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
