THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9506300075
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Mathews Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
GOV. GEORGE ALLEN has done a most un-Christian thing.
No, I'm not talking about his political wrangling over the Lake Gaston water deal. (That was merely childish.) Neither am I referring to his refusal to accept the Goals 2000 money for education. (That was merely dumb.)
What I am talking about is Allen's recent remark made about certain prisoners needing to ``heal thyselves.'' In case you didn't see it, his remarks were recorded in Sunday's Virginian-Pilot front page story, ``Time's out for sex offenders.'' Reporter Laura LaFay told how the Virginia Department of Corrections was cutting a treatment program for sex offenders. In addition to her discussion of the politics surrounding the cut, LaFay chronicled the lives of four prisoners in the program, the Bland Sex Offender Treatment Community.
Allen showed little pity for the prisoners enrolled in the soon-to-be-defunct program.
``They'll have to heal thyself. Thyselves,'' said Allen. ``I'm not going to be wasting taxpayers' money on programs that sound good, may make people feel good, but don't do anything but waste taxpayers' money.''
His words rankled for many reasons. At the heart of my anger is the glaring inconsistency that Allen, the darling of the Christian Coalition and the Religious Right, is at odds with Jesus Christ's own teachings on the topic. In Jesus' last week on Earth, the Gospel of Matthew tells how he gathered his disciples on the Mount of Olives for one last teaching spree. At the end of his lesson, he spoke of the coming final judgment and how he would return to divide the righteous from the unrighteous.
``Then the King will say to those on His right hand, `Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.' ''
Jesus says the righteous will then question him about when they did these good deeds.
``Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.''
Are not prisoners - including sex offenders - ``the least of these?'' Is it a Christian thing to withhold any means of healing for these people? Is it a Christian thing to gloat on the act once that hope is withheld? While the merits of closing the Bland Treatment Community program can be debated, Allen's remarks were downright mean.
Getting tough on criminals is one thing. Humiliating them in the process is something else.
Another thing that ticked me off about Allen's comment was his obvious attempt at quoting Scripture to validate his position. Not only was it a lame attempt, it was a bungle and a misuse of the quoted phrase.
The phrase ``heal thyself'' is found only once in the Christian Testament, in the Gospel of Luke 4:23. Jesus Christ quotes the old proverb, ``Physician, heal thyself'' to illustrate a point about what some see as his need to perform miracles in his hometown. He knows he will be rejected regardless of his performance, and tells the folks of Nazareth that ``no prophet is accepted in his own country.'' In essence, Jesus is using irony to say - and his later healings prove the point - ``You can't heal yourself. It doesn't work.''
Allen doesn't get it.
Right about now, some of you are probably saying to yourself, ``Oh, there she goes again, that bleeding heart liberal, wanting us to love the slime of the Earth.'' Well, yea. While I believe what these prisoners have done is vile, they are still open to God's redemption and grace. As a Christian, I have to believe that when Jesus Christ said we should love our enemies and return good for evil, he meant it. We don't have to like them or what they do, but we do have to love them. We don't have to let them loose on society, but when they admit their mistakes and sincerely try to repent, we must support any means of helping them redeem themselves.
When it comes to such redemption-oriented programs as this one, where the heck are all the good Christians who voted for Allen and made him their political savior? Do we simply get these guys elected, then hide when they commit un-Christian acts? If Christians are going to grab some of the glory for electing these folks, then they better be prepared to catch flak when these elected officials step out of Christian boundaries.
Finally, Allen's stance is just one more proof to me that Christians should not count on affecting change in society by the ballot box. Christians helped elect Allen. Now prove to me that he and his policies are any more or less ``Christian'' than those of any other non-Christian politician.
When are the followers of Jesus Christ going to realize that true change for society will come from just one place: the individual human heart, turned to God, committed to serving all God's children.
And that even includes the prisoners of the Bland Treatment Community. MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send computer message via bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline
is Tuesday prior to publication. Must include name, city and phone
number. by CNB