Head-dibs

As of this writing, there are nearly 600 distinct crime-related shows on television each week. We have a strange fascination with crime: as long as it happens to someone else, we are easily entertained; yet, each of us have a personal relationship with crime in some way. The problem of crime, the disservice received by victims of crime and recommended reforms from a biblical perspective are the subjects covered Daniel Van Ness in his informative 240 page book, “ Crime and Its Victims ” (Inter-Varsity: Downers Grove, 1986). Why offer a book review of a twenty-four year-old book? Van Ness has a great concern for the victims of crime. “[C]rime is a spiritual malaise, the result of individuals making wrong moral choices. It is a matter of the heart and can be solved only when we apply moral solutions” (p. 11). This book is divided into four major parts, then subdivided into smaller chapters. The first section, “What’s Happening Here?” explains the relationship between victim and criminal. ...

In the movie, “Papillon,” Steve McQueen played the part of a criminal who was imprisoned for life for crimes against the French state. The movie portrayed the dreams he dreamed while in prison. In one dream, he stood before a tribunal for a crime. He pleaded with the judge that he was not guilty of the crime for which he was being tried. The judge relied that he was not being tried for that crime, but for a crime which is the most heineous crime of the human race. Papillon asked what crime it was. He replied ‘The crime of a wasted life.” Papillon wept, “Guilty, guilty.” The judge pronounced the sentence of death.