What do you think of the Pauline Epistles on non invasive justice against abusers?

[jennifer_bloom]

In the bible, Paul asks the believers why they embarrass God by taking enemies to court when they know God can give them justice without a cop or lawyer or jail cell to do it.

I think every seasoned believer can name a person who treated them badly and then something bad happened to them.

I know people who tried to sabotage my life, who end up with dead end careers years later.

I also know people who genuinely cared about me who have amazing careers years later.

And this is just surface level reward and punishment, cause you can be poor and happy and rich and sick or miserable.

[Dominionico]

I think context is extremely important, for instance, it's extremely important for victims of certain types of victimization (a. k. a.: crimes) that in order for them to heal AND consequently to feel that they have done their part in both protecting potential future victims from said victimizer as well as lastlyi would say, to have any hope of having the victimizer realise that they have done wrong both to the victim coming forward initially (it's here that other victims can find the strength to admit that they too have been victimized) and to have any hope of living any part of there life from thereon, in a way that can truly demonstrate that they have seen the errors of their ways and taken responsibility for what they've done and then In THIS life, made any reparations as are possible, without individuals simply taking matters into their own hands and doling out punishment where they are not truly of the capacity to do so with absolute impartiality, truly we are all living life with "vested interest"in any and all affairs around us and thus we are ALL, EACH and EVERY HUMAN BEING, constantly in a state of conflicting interest, that is to say as Jesus says, let he who has not sinned, cast the first stone... We all have this conflict of interest. None of us is fit to dole out punishment that results in the taking of a life, for that is what is most Holy in God's name and in all He has done... Even in the case of those very self same people who hath sinned by taking another's life, and we get all righteous in our anger and our pain, in our passion of the Christ... But did not Jesus beg his own Father "Forgive them, they know not what they do..." this was not to say that they were ignorant of the rightness or wrongness of taking a life, nor of even taking HIS life, He was begging A father, to not act in righteous anger at the loss, the pain inflicted, the suffering endured, the beautiful life cast aside and in such a manner! Where God himself is the ONE who *above* all else and all others, is the only one free of this conflict of interest, as he is supposed to be our Creator, and thus our destroyer but also our preserver... I'm of the opinion that there are legitimately some select few who legitimately know not of the rightness nor the wrongness of their actions... And they are so few it's barely worth mentioning, but still when we "embarrass God..." I do not believe we are doing as such... I believe we are proving to HIM that we are willing to keep our houses clean, but that we must emulate Him in his sanctions, and truly, to remember HIS compassion and HIS LOVE. I'm not saying that rapists should not be punished, I'm saying that yes they should be segregated, as they will be in Hell... Should they choose to commit to their respective pits anon... But that we should refrain from simply killing people for anything less than the taking of a life, and all others should be segregated from the general populations but not just abandoned, where they are willing to admit to their wrongs and to then commit to some constructive form of penance that benefits all society, while still allowing all to maintain dignity, to perform active duties that show they are in any way penitent would it not be a decent demonstration of remonstration, of having changed their very hearts, which as we all know us the pathway and the door and the very key itself to that said door, to the soul... Without condemning lesser crimes of lesser criminals, to be forced to live as an animal in order to simply survive because when you do that, when you force a man to deny his own humanity in order to stay alive it's only a very small number who choose to abnegate their very lives en lieu of simply choosing to do what any animal will do, to survive because at the end of the day that IS what we are, we are simply sophisticated, civilised animals, who have the benefit of words to be used first before tooth and nail... But when words fail, tooth and nail it shall be. To be in any way THE BETTER WO/MAN, to be able to honestly say this of ourselves without denigration or deprecation or outright hysteria, we first must Master the animal within each and every one of us, and context sadly, will make sinners of us all...