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April 18, 2008
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
A Step in the Right Direction?, by Rubel Shelly
Some of the things we do in the name of justice don't make a lot of
sense. I was marginally involved several years ago in a case that
serves to illustrate my point. A man who had fraudulently used a credit
card for several hundred dollars was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days
in jail.
The reason behind his use of the credit card made it impossible for him
to make amends or make a deal. (He was flat broke.) His wife and two
children became the responsibility of others. (She was pregnant with
their third child.) And the year in jail both made the marriage harder
to hold together and did nothing to repay the fellow whose card he had
misused. (I don't know if the poor guy ever got his money back or his
credit score cleaned up.)
Why don't we do more things like the Hebrew justice system required? A
man who stole a neighbor's sheep, for example, didn't go to jail for a
year. He had to restore four sheep for every one he took. If he took an
ox, it was a five-for-one restitution that was required. Get the
picture? The community didn't house and feed him in jail for a year.
The thief worked, sacrificed, and lived with the community's awareness
of his sin. Stiff punishment and victim compensation. (For a quick
glance at this subject, check out http://www.SearchGodsWord.org and
search on restitution.)
This concept of making restitution is what makes me appreciate the
thing Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon did a few months back. They had been
gone from their home near Montgomery, Alabama, for a week. When they
got back, the surprise awaiting them was that a burglar had looted the
place.
They entered their home, Mrs. McKinnon saw a practically empty house,
and she burst into tears. Not only were her possessions gone but her
new house had been ransacked. "Tears just rolled down my face," she
said, "as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all
over my house."
He made the crook clean up the house.
Mr. McKinnon dashed through the house to investigate – and caught the
thief red-handed. He had apparently freelanced the operation and done
it solo. He was making one more trip to the house to pick up a few
remaining items of value and walked into the homeowner – wearing Mr.
McKinnon's hat, no less!
Adrian McKinnon took charge. He held the thief at gunpoint, while
Tiffany called the police. Then he decided there was no need for him
and his wife to have to undo all the chaos the 33-year-old bungling
burglar had wreaked. So he forced him to pick up trash, put broken and
discarded items back in place, and clean up the house he had wrecked in
their absence.
When the police arrived, the thief had the gall to complain about being
forced to clean up the mess he had made. The policeman laughed and told
him that somebody else might have shot him dead. The whining stopped.
Maybe the McKinnon's could make a lecture tour to law schools across
the country to explain the basics of restitution. I think they're onto
something.
---------
(c) 2008 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life"
printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for previous issues of
the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* Letter from a Thief
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200609/20060916_letterfromathief.html
* I Was Robbed!
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200703/20070308_robbed.html
* The Truth in Broken Glass
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200411/20041111_brokenglass.html
* RubelShelly.com
http://www.rubelshelly.com/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200804/20080418_step.html
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