Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sunday Reflection: A biblical value in the Constitution
This morning, I will be off speaking at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Burnsville-- another great opportunity. I'm very lucky that way.
An article I wrote in the last few months, for the St. Thomas Law Journal, is now available through SSRN here. Just click the button at the top that says "download this paper."
Here is the core of it:
There is little debate that mercy through clemency is in the Constitution—it is, after all, explicit on the very face of the text. Less examined, yet just as clear, is the presence of mercy through clemency in the Bible. It does not take long to find clemency—not just analogies to clemency, but the actual thing of it—in the story of Jesus. Looking beyond the simple healings and grants of forgiveness dispensed by Christ, the Gospels reveal instances in which clemency is in play explicitly within the realm of criminal law. I will consider here just a few of the more obvious moments in the chronicles of Christ’s life where the pardon power is described as a positive virtue.
For many Christians, including myself, it was God who wrote the story of Jesus’s life on Earth, with every known detail imbued with deep meaning. Should it not it matter then that mercy through pardon, within the specific context of criminal law, comes up again and again in the life of Christ?
An article I wrote in the last few months, for the St. Thomas Law Journal, is now available through SSRN here. Just click the button at the top that says "download this paper."
Here is the core of it:
There is little debate that mercy through clemency is in the Constitution—it is, after all, explicit on the very face of the text. Less examined, yet just as clear, is the presence of mercy through clemency in the Bible. It does not take long to find clemency—not just analogies to clemency, but the actual thing of it—in the story of Jesus. Looking beyond the simple healings and grants of forgiveness dispensed by Christ, the Gospels reveal instances in which clemency is in play explicitly within the realm of criminal law. I will consider here just a few of the more obvious moments in the chronicles of Christ’s life where the pardon power is described as a positive virtue.
For many Christians, including myself, it was God who wrote the story of Jesus’s life on Earth, with every known detail imbued with deep meaning. Should it not it matter then that mercy through pardon, within the specific context of criminal law, comes up again and again in the life of Christ?
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