There isn’t enough time to write all the draft blog posts that circulate through my head. Solution? SNIPPETY. SNIPPETY is an irregular mishmash blog post of news, views and other snippets. Feel free to interact with the mash in the comments.
Sacrifice and Submission // Andy and Stephanie Judd were featured in a good short video on SMH across the weekend about a word change to the Anglican marriage vows. I think it’s a good change. Kelly Burke doesn’t and she rolled out some usual anti Sydney Anglican suspects who also disagree. Some good follow up letters from friends and colleagues here. Julia Baird then followed that up with an opinion piece yesterday. With some good follow up letters today too. Kelly Burke has another article in the SMH today suggesting that a word change could be in violation of the marriage act… ironic considering the push from the gay-marriage lobby to totally redefine marriage! Some good commentary on all these issues from John Sandeman; Sandy Grant; and Lionel Windsor. I understand there are more media spots to come in days to come, stay tuned… EDIT 29AUG12: Archbishop Peter Jensen has an article in today’s SMH.
Life Is Cheap in Norway: C. S. Lewis on the Sentence of Anders Breivik // Anders Breivik’s sentence for killing 77 people in Norway on July 22, 2011 is outrageous. He was deemed sane and sentenced to serve 21 years in prison “in a three-cell suite of rooms equipped with exercise equipment, a television and a laptop.” That’s 100 days of posh prison time for each person he murdered, with a legal release possible at age 53. Life is cheap in Norway. John Piper pulls together some C.S. Lewis quotes to discuss the relationship of mercy to justice.
Edge of the abyss // “Michael Schofield thought his young daughter, Janni, was a genius, until he realised her bright mind masked an inner darkness.” A moving story…
Dads create children’s app empire // Outsourcing win.
THE TIME I DANCED FOR 24 HOURS // I don’t know Josh Hawkins, but we’ve got a number of mutual friends. He makes some pretty zany vids. Check out this one where he wins a 24hour dancing competition.
These Infinite Spaces // It happened a month ago, but I only just noticed that Craig Schwarze is blogging again. Check out his site. He was one of the top Sydney Christian blog dogs for many years. Welcome back.
Hi Dave,
On Piper’s concern regarding Breivik’s sentence, I am not a proponent of a ‘humanitarian theory of punishment’, but nor am I under any illusions that any form of punishment, rehabilitation or justice on this earth is a human construction. I am not sure how Piper envisions a just or deserving punishment to be meted out to someone who has unrepentantly killed 77 people. Executing? Lashings? The rest of his days in solitary confinement? Surely none of these punishments ‘fit the crime’. Piper (and Lewis – although it is Piper’s reading of Lewis) seems to be confusing a human/legal conception of justice with a metaphysical/theological conception of justice – a great problem in the US.
Having living in the US for a year now (which does not make me an expert on their culture) I think Piper’s reflections stem more from his culture and less from the wisdom of Lewis or scripture. The US has a well documented love-affair with prisons and punishment. In a country founded on the ideology of freedom, the greatest punishment is deprivation of that freedom, anything less is unjust (i.e. in Australia we fine people a lot more instead of sending them to prison).
A man in Centre Country Pennsylvania, where I am living, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for burglary and perving at naked college girls in the shower. In a country where these sentences are delivered without so much as whimper from the press, community or church. I can see how Brevik’s sentence is such an affront – further solidifying the cultural belief that old Europe (liberals) are decaying due to a rotten core.
If a system of justice is tyrannous when it doesn’t punish and shows mercy, what do we call a system of justice that excessively punishes an repeatedly refuses to show mercy?
Chris
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the comment. Really appreciate your reflections.
I particularly like the conclusion/question:
If a system of justice is tyrannous when it doesn’t punish and shows mercy, what do we call a system of justice that excessively punishes an repeatedly refuses to show mercy?
What do you think we call it? Do you think it would be possible to bring more mercy to the system?
thanks bro.