Justice must have a way of enforcing itself though and this, at least in our society, is punishment. The main aims of punishment are the protection of society and of the offender, reform of the offender, deterrence, retribution for society and vindication of the law. The main Christian aims of punishment can be seen as protection and reform of which reform is especially important as it ties in with the Christian ideal of forgiveness. Reform helps offenders to become more productive members of society and hopefully turn away from the ways of crime. This might be by learning a trade or gaining qualifications so more jobs become available to the person. This can help them get a job where before they may have been refused and therefore gained a resentment of other people and their property or simply have been unable to survive because of low or no pay.
Forgiveness is something which was taught by Jesus to replace the “eye for eye”3 teaching of the Old Testament. The Christian view is to turn the other cheek, not seek vengeance and forgive them for what they have done. It is a view of conquering hate through love. A person who cannot forgive can become bitter and twisted. They focus on the events for the rest of their lives instead of moving on. Forgiving though does not mean forgetting the events that take place as it is a way to reach closure in life.
AO2 - Name one crime you consider to be serious. Explain how a Christian would want a criminal who committed this crime to be treated.
One of the most serious crimes today is murder as it breaks the sanctity of life. The sanctity of life is the belief that all life is precious and should be protected and respected and it is a belief that many people hold whether it is their basic instinct or religious connections that cause this to occur. It is a belief that is very important in Christianity, this is because God created us in his image and gave us the gift of life which should be cherished and respected.
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”3
This also plays a big part in acceptable punishments for murder. These would be punishments that allow reform but would not harm the person. This belief means that capital punishment is not acceptable to a Christian because it disrespects God but also because it degrades the people involved with the execution, making them also effectively murderers. Christians also believe that as God is unconditionally loving, just and fair; it is him who decides what happens to the offender and we have no place to take away a life, the judging should be left to God.
A Christian would want the offender to be treated as a human being and not cast away like litter of society. Christians promote reform and forgiveness so they would want the world and the victims to forgive the offender and for the offender to come to terms with their actions. Repentance is an important issue for this to happen because if someone cannot come to terms with what they did, feel for the victims and be truly sorry for their actions then they cannot be helped. Another possible desire of a Christian would be for the offender to be helped through their guilt as they could go through a truly traumatic time and for both the victim and the offender to reach some closure between them. This does not mean though that the person would forgo punishment as society must be respected but if the person has repented fully they would still be forgiven by God. This is shown in the Penitent Thief where one of the criminals being crucified with Jesus shows he accepts his punishment as what he deserves for his crimes but he asks Jesus for forgiveness. Jesus repays this willingness to learn and repent with forgiveness and assures the thief that he will be in paradise with Jesus. This shows that it is never too late to repent and God will forgive if the person is also willing.
A03-"There could be no such thing as prison in a truly Christian society." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer, showing that you have considered more than one point of view.
I agree with this statement to an extent but some things have to be taken into consideration. If everyone in this Christian society was a faithful Christian then prison would have no use as God’s law would be supreme and everyone would follow it causing prison to be redundant. This would be a form of the idyllic Kingdom of God that Christians yearn to earn their place in. However there are factors that come into play such as our freedom of thought which affects how people act drastically and this would come into play if the society was based strictly around Christian morals and God’s law. People would then think about all the choices open to them and even contest their laws set by society which could cause civil unrest. This is because people have free will and even in a Christian based society people would still be able to think freely from Christian beliefs. Poverty is another issue that would be tackled as in a truly Christian society people would share what they have with the less fortunate though human nature and freedom of thought could affect this causing people to be unwilling to share and succumbing to greed. A knock-on effect would occur and people may have the need to steal and commit crimes to survive and this would maybe then create a need for a prison again though there would be ways of getting around this.
Another way to look at the situation is to see if prisons fit in with Christian ideals which in some ways they do as they allow for reform of offenders but people must sacrifice their freedom as punishment and as a way to gain this opportunity. This takes away what is one of the laws already discussed when God said everyone is equal. Those without freedom of movement are then not equal to others.
I feel that rather than saying “there could be no such thing as prison”, assuming that everyone in this society were devoted Christians and not just the few heading the society or the laws the statement should be modified to say “there should be no need for such a thing as prison”.
