Our Hangout

Justice???

Linh Chen (a visa student from China) has been arrested and is charged with first degree murder for the kidnapping & murder of Cecilia Zhang. A girl he lived with is also charged although they have not given many details on her or the charges against her.

The facts, the girl in question lived with the Zhang family for two years previously. The accused also visited the home and wasn't a stranger to the family or to Cecilia. The parents have left the city as, anyone could understand, the news were devastating. He had spent time with them, shared their hospitality.

It's still too early to know much. The police is talking as if the case is a done deal. But I've seen too much injustice over the last few years to know that there aren't a lot of things that are just black and white when it comes to justice. When parents who abuse their children, lock them up in cages, and make them eat their own feces only get 9 months in jail - something's wrong with the system. So, I hope that if this guy is guilty that he is punished to the full extent of the law.

I spent part of the afternoon listening to a call-in show (radio) on the matter. I found several things interesting.

1. This crime is considered by most people as the worst possible type of crime, for which there is no rehabilitation.
2. If someone is found guilty or in this case even suspected - kill them because the world will be better off - and if they're innocent, which would be unlikely with today's technology and DNA - killing an innocent person might be worth the message it sends. (I'm not making this up.)

As a Christian father who was hit pretty deeply by this and other recent child murders. Someone who thinks that they didn't deserve this, that our children must be protected, and that punishment and hopefully rehabilitation is in order. I was somewhat bothered by what I heard.

My heart resonated with some of it as a concerned parent - but I'm a Christian and several things come to mind. Is this really something that someone cannot be rehabilitated from? Is the only solution for these "monsters" (as they were referred to on the broadcast) to exterminate them?

At one point the gentleman conducting the broadcast made an interesting statement, "There but for the grace of God it could have been my kid!" And don't miss this, I thank God that this nothing like this has happened to one of my kids, and surely I would struggle with my emotions if it did, but I was surprised by the little deviation in the use of this common phrase. It has been most commonly used as "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

The point? The issue here is the only thing that keeps me from being a monster is the grace of God. That as Paul says if I consider myself the worst of sinners, there's hope even for a man like this and others like him. That indeed there is no one that is good. We like to quantify sin and personally categorize the depth of depravity. But the truth we must discover before we can really discover the truth that sets us free is that we're depraved. That in the right circumstances, the right environment, the right upbringing, I could be that man.

I am the worst of sinners, before God I am no better than him. And yet, the grace of God has brought rehabilitation to my life - and could do so for someone like him as well.

I long for justice for Cecilia, and for protection from these crimes for all children. But the question that's filled my mind as a Christian this afternoon - do I long for the life changing, transforming power of God's grace to touch this man's life more?

Am I a vessel of the same grace and love that looked at my sin and set me free? Or am I a vessel of condemnation, mercilessness and accusation?

Whose son am I?

Posted by ed | TrackBack