April 28, 1998
Arkansas boy’s don’t deserve death:
Why two Arkansas boys 11 and 13 years old would shoot and kill four of their classmates and a teacher is still a mystery. How to punish children when they commit heinous crimes such as this is a question society is now wrestling with.
Should we try them as adults and seek the death penalty? I think not. I pray I never live in a country that will put children to death no matter what their crime.
If I had the opportunity to counsel these two youngsters, I would point to the life of the Apostle Paul and his activity as a persecutor of the Christian faith. How he would drag off whole families of Christians and put them to death. He later became a pillar of the Christian faith.
In the same vein I suspect these boys in Arkansas are two of the most spiritual-minded young men in our society today. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is no punishment that fits their crime. If society does not ostracize them upon their release from jail, but will instead nurture them on a spiritual path, they too may become great men of God.
If you have been fortunate as I and never killed anyone, congratulations, but before you break your arm patting yourself on the back, remember these words, “But for the grace of God their go I.” In another time, in another place, you or I could not only have done what these children did, but what Timothy McVeigh did, or even Adolph Hitler did.
That, friends and neighbors, is our sinful nature.