KenVincent
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Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 103
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The Big Questions 1. "Rehabilitation" often refers to treatments intended to help someone recover from injury, illness or disease to as normal a condition as possible. What does it mean when applied to moral failures? 2. How does rehabilitation differ from merely giving someone a second chance? 3. Should rehabilitation be society's goal for every offender, no matter how heinous that person's crime? Why or why not? What is the Bible's answer to that question? 4. Given the church's teaching that God will forgive the sins of anyone who accepts Christ, should Christians favor rehabilitation for all penitents? 5. How do we distinguish if a person's acts of contrition are evidence of true moral rehabilitation or are merely "jumping through the hoops" to achieve reinstatement?
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Ken Vincent
Online Forum Moderator
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Albuquerque, NM |
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WillHoffman
Registered: 01/04/08
Posts: 98
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1. I think rehabilitation of moral failure rather than treatment of physical ill is more difficult to identify and prescribe. Rehabilitation entails reconciliation, restoration and renewal. It is a mutual act of contrition, penance, remorse by the sinner and the response of acceptance of being "sorry" and forgiveness by the person sinned against.
2. Giving a second chance usually entails not so much a transgression but an error in judgement, omission or failure to do the"right thing." Rehabilitation entails an acknowledgement of sin with the resolute desire to make amends and avoid repetition, a concomitant response of trust from the "injured" party, and a mutually-agreed prescription, like treatment for a physical ailment, for a turning round right. Thus "trust" is like the cited Amos 5:23: "let justice roll down like waters."
3. I think "rehabilitation" is a term that almost disappeared from our justice lexicon. It came to the fore at the beginning of the 20th century during an era of innocence and optimism, compassion and ministry, public education and increased opportunity. As wars, depression, and organized crime made inroads, concepts like rehabilitation, even justice, were supplanted by principals of public safety and national security. Unfortunately, I believe the pendulum swung too far in the other direction with the concepts of "law and order," punishment, and capital punishment.
I think much involved fear and racism sparked by the urban riots of the 1960s and the ensuing counter-revolution against the New Frontier and the Great Society,
ambitious yet flawed. Jails were built and filled; 2 million mostly men and half of them blacks have been shunned, isolated and punished. The time has come again for the principals of rehabilitation, distributive justice, and optimism.
As for unconditional rehabilitation, I don't think Americans are ready for that; just one-step at a time. We need to put trust first and fear last, then we can begin with conditional, then unconditional acceptance, forgiveness, and trust. While I support the abolition of capital punishment, there is still an impulse in me to treat the most heinous murders in like fashion out of a sense of retribution and vengeance
4. One quote not found in this week's discussion is John 20:23: "If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
In context, this quote is part of Christ's Great Commission to his disciples (followers, students) to go forth into the world. Martin Luther struggled with whether to include penance as a sacrament, along with baptism and communion, with the authority vested in the clergy. Thus, there is no resolution; there is a tension between total and conditional forgiveness, perhaps because there is still a distinction between divine and human forgiveness. Is absolute denial of rehabilitation tantamount to condemnation? I think so. Who is responsible to provide rehabilitation after denial of freedom? I think we all are. I call it unconditional grace and mercy, from God through humanity.
5. As part of the sacrament of penance or confession, Catholic clergy grant absolution after The Act of Contrition. I think that is an appropriate mechanism for forgiveness. Confession in the Lutheran tradition is an act of witness to and trust in our faith in God's mercy and humanity's responsibility. We all have second thoughts and second chances. That's what makes us human.
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