I was speaking to a diaspora Indian today, who expressed his outrage over the rape epidemic in India, before offering two solutions:
- Castrate them
- Lobotomize them!
I pointed out that castration would not inhibit murderous impulses, whilst lobotomies would merely burden the state, which would then have to provide care for these mindless zombies.
“What would you do with them then?” He demanded, deeply agitated.
I freely, and quite proudly admit to coming from a family whose members are all pro Death Penalty. So I would execute them and consider it a job very well done, However, I also believe that prevention is better than the cure; to that end, I advanced examining the root cause of the matter and timely interventions to break the cycle of violence – That is what rape is. It is not a sex act, it is a act of violence.
I directed our Indian friend to the epidemic of street children littering India’s capitals – Some as young as 6 years old, evicted from the family hovel to fend for themselves in a often hostile and cruel would.
“How do you think they eat?” I asked our fellow. He looked bewildered! “I believe American paedophiles refer to them as ‘street treats.’ Victims of sexual abuse often become abusers without a intervention to break the cycle. Do we truly expect these children to grow up with normal concepts of relationships? With a moral compass – How about values? They have had no parental guidance.
“I don’t care about any of that.” Our friend exploded. “That is no excuse. If they rape ad murder we should lobotomize them – I don’t want excuses.”
I wasn’t even playing devil’s advocate, and before I could respond, he continued:
“What about middle class rapist/murderers? What’s their excuse? No! No! No! I will not accept that poverty is a excuse for rape.”
I invited him to accept ignorance as a reason for some heinous crimes; for example 17th century ignorant Europeans got the notion, I cannot say how, that syphilis could be cured by raping new born babies. This resulted in a epidemic of infant rapes. Later, as science progressed from attempting to cure syphilis with mercury and medical treatments and cures advanced, infant rapes dramatically diminished.
“Excuses! Excuses! I will not accept that poverty is a justification for any crime.” He insisted.
“It is not a justification. It is a fact that poverty creates symptoms (crime) that society has to cure.” Sometimes you just got to administer the medicine with some sugar-coating.
“Okay. Hold on a minute, Let me get this straight. Are you saying poverty is responsible for crime?” He asked.
I said yes. The Indian parents kicking their minor children to the kerb, (that’s a crime) do not hate them. They simply cannot afford to feed them,. The eviction insulates and safeguards parents from physically watching their child die a slow painful death from starvation and enables them to retain some hope that their child may land on the compassion of some wealthy benefactor.
“Men are not nice.” He mused sadly. “And this is not civilization – You cannot call this civilization.”
I wanted to reply that men were okay, but had just lost their bearings. However, I know it is a lot more complicated and complex than that.. Instead I told him that every year poor Indian families go up to the Ganges to bathe, then abandon hundreds of children there and go home. We looked at each other silently a while. I wondered if he understood the significance of the drop off at the Ganges – The poor leaving their children with the Goddess Ganga, is simultaneously a prayer to be free of their vicious cycle o life and death. Perhaps a hope too; that India’s rich, allegedly ‘liberated from their sins’ after bathing in the Ganges, would find some compassion in themselves, to take a Orphan in…
So I return home and wonder about our convo from a legal and biblical perspective – Mosaic Law only of course!
Legally we cannot lobotomize criminals however heinous their crimes, because lobotomy is not part of the criminal justice system. Castration is open in some countries, where the criminal requests it in exchange for a reduced sentence: Or as in Estonia, Poland, Moldova, Russia, South Korea and others, these governments allow forcible castrations, but I’m not sure if they get the perk of a reduced sentence – Hopefully not.
The lives they destroy are over, so from a purely legal perspective, I can see no good reason why they should be allowed to acquire freedom simply because a offending member is removed; especially because we are speaking about their acts of violence:
They laid hands on their victims, made fists to beat them, used fingers to tear off clothing – Nope! I can see no reason why the penis should get all the blame.
The hands that offended – Chop em off.
The feet that hussled to crime – Chop em off.
The penis offended – Yep! Chop it off.
The mind that contrived the depravity – Dig it out. And we arrive full circle at Mosaic Law, which prohibits torture, feet lopping and cranial excavations. There is precedent for hand lopping, (Deut.25:11) and beheading, (. Samuel.1:17). Mosaic Law requires, that those who wilfully take life, must forfeit their own lives. Therefore I would execute the rapist/murderer, whose crimes cannot justify any perks.
Our Indian friend today, wanted these rapist under 18 years, given the Death Penalty. It was actually this demand, that caused me to wonder about the legality – Biblically.
Mosaic Law does not consider a child a adult until they are 20 years old, (Numbers.1:3), which is literally 19 years old, as Mosaic Law counts the day of birth as one year, (see also Genesis.37:2, ibid.30).
We have some compelling evidence of children under 20 years old, not being considered responsible for their crimes:
We are told that two of the sons of Jacob; Simeon and Levi, committed genocide, (Genesis.34:25). Thereafter Jacob takes no action against his sons.
FOR BIBLE DUMMIES
We know Simeon and Levi were under 20 years old, as their father spent only 20 years in Paddanaram with Laban, (Genesis.31:38); marrying his daughters only after 7 years of toil, (Genesis.29:20-21). Leah bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah in quick succession, (Genesis.29:32-35) – Meaning, not one of these four boys could have been older than 13 years old at the time of the alleged genocide. Later, upon his death bed, Jacob attempts to legislate punishment for his sons for their child murders and eradicate them from the 12 Tribes, (Genesis.49:5-7).
Jacob’s legislation is Set Aside by Elohim, (The God of the Hebrews); who choses Moses from the Tribe of Levi ‘to assemble’ the 12 Tribes, (Exodus.6:16, ibid.20). The Prophet Moses later enacts legislation with Divine Authority stipulating the age of maturity as 20 years old. Even so, we do find later Prophets extending existing Law to punish children with the Death Penalty for doing evil, (2 Kings.2:23-24), under Leviticus.20:9.
Therefore I have to consider, not only the age of maturity, but also the age of accountability: For Numbers.35:30 requires the most anxious scrutiny to satisfy execution by the Death Penalty. To my mind, this involves carefully examining all the historical antecedents. We must be concerned with creating effective deterrents for particularly heinous crimes, and not just with punishing these crimes.
According to Mosaic Law, victims of rape have committed no crime and are completely innocent. I will not pretend that secular laws respect rape victims, neither will I register this to a deficit of female Judges. Suffice to say, as the victim is the innocent, either dead or alive, I cannot in any good conscience provide the perpetrator with any forum, save to admit his guilt and accept whats coming. I do not entertain excuses – You can ask any High Court Judge. So to be wrongfully accused this afternoon of being full of excuses, was quite the novelty!!!
Unfortunates, no Law is exhaustive. We will not find a answer to all men do under the sun in any one book or tomes of books, consequently, we must always arrive with our humanity to Judgement.
I examine this case from the perspective of the abandoned street children,, forced to fend for themselves in a hostile and cruel world – Traumatized, repeatedly raped by adults, and neglected by their government for a number of years. The minds of these would become warped because they are malformed. With no intervention, the abused will become the abuser. We know this. Their normal, is the stuff of every parents most terrifying nightmares. Children left to raise themselves. We do in fact have a historical example of this , recorded and described by Tacitus thus:
“In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fenni, and in beastly poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones. Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men; for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with the branches of trees twisted together; this a reception for the old men, and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge more happy than the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of rearing houses, than the agitations of hope and fear attending the defence of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.” (Tacitus on the European Finns
Savages. That is the product when children are compelled to raise themselves. So why is Tacitus or India surprized when savages transform into a horde of angry barbarians?
When these children become young adults, are they even compos mentis? I would need to determine that, and if my findings suggested they are not of sound mind, I would take the Death Penalty off the table and restrain them under the Mental Health Act, (Daniel.4:33), where they would receive treatment.
India in my opinion must carefully consider the age of accountability and state of mind of the perpetrator when considering the Death Penalty. She must do more to identify the root cause of this epidemic, as she would if afflicted with a sudden outbreak of plague. There must be a action plan to find suitable safe homes for orphans; including offering homes to widows living on the street, on condition that they care for at least two Orphans. Widows who refused to jump on the funeral pyre at their husbands funerals, and as a result found themselves homeless, can have up to 5 Orphans each. Orphans can also be sent to military and other boarding schools. Turn Key homes must be built to provide accommodation for the poor and stable families offered cash incentives to foster Orphans. Many children are raped and murdered on their way to and from school; government must provide school buses and parents, relatives and teachers should collect children from bus stops. Girls should also be taught self-defence at school as part of their curriculum – Only girls…
Government can find the money by cutting back on its nuclear ambitions and military budget: To that end, she should do more to persuade Pakistan and China that Kashmir belongs to India.
I hope you all figure it out.
rbyehudah 