Originally published at: Rejecting forgiveness, Catholics demand more punishment | Boing Boing
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They called the defacement of the statue, depicting the 18th century canonized Catholic priest Junipero Serra, a hate crime.
Some do, and those people are our allies.
Silly Native Americans, it’s up to you to forgive Catholics, not the other way round.
(And good for Marin County for the use of restorative justice. Let’s hope the approach catches on.)
Who would Jesus imprison?
In the grand tradition of Father Serra, these practising Catholics completely miss the core message of The Prince of Peace.
If Father Serra were alive today, would he be prosecuted for a hate crime?
How about crimes against humanity…
Nonsense. As @anon61221983 points out above, it wasn’t a single hate crime. Multiply a hate crime by tens of thousands and you get genocide.
For reference, does anyone know what the expected outcome would be for an analogous vandalism case?
There’s no reason why the purported christian position on forgiveness should influence the law enforcement handling of the situation; but demands for exemplary punishment because it’s a religious icon sound an awful lot like someone slipping their way toward demands for punishment of those who injure religious sentiments; which is always only one notch away from the ones who want blasphemy laws.
We’d probably be getting thinkpieces about how he’s a ‘longtermist’ seeking to maximize good by securing infinite future value through a few teensy little present-day compromises.
But it was a different time then? How could they known that mass slaughter of human beings was wrong!?! /s
The defendants accepted a plea deal Thursday in Marin County Superior Court which reduced the charges from felonies to misdemeanors. The defendants were offered diversion, which will allow the case to be dismissed entirely if they meet certain conditions.
In my state, that would a bog-standard plea deal for felony vandalism, including the reduction to misdemeanor and the diversion. So yes, it’s ridiculous for them to demand more, especially with the “aggrieved oppressor” argument.
It never fails to amaze me how easy so-called Christians find it to play the victim card. For instance, what other religion in the US has their holidays also designated as federal holidays?
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