The locus of evil

I am always faintly bemused by the polemic of SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson who this week declaimed that some members of the so called Gang of 49 were evil, beyond rehabilitation and better off behind bars. He has been more or less backed up by Premier Rann..(here)...ahhh "law and order" what better policy issue when the Opposition seem to be gaining a bit of ground.

My question to the Attorney is whether 'evil' is an appropriate legal descriptor. It seems to me it is not. It may be theological (and Atkinson is a sort-of Anglican) or it may be emotive but it is surely not useful when talking about what certain criminals are doing or what should be done about then.

It must also make prison reformers fume when a Labor Attorney declares that prison cannot at least attempt to rehabilitate the young offender. The offensive language, too, of other State Ministers who suggest that criminals should be racked, packed and stacked...or what ever...helps us to realise that the attitude to prison policy in this state is not exactly what you would call 'progressive'. Indeed it seems positively Victorian.

Will we ever get over the Holocaust?

Yet another person I know was deeply effected by the simple little film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. 

It is almost facile, though when I read the slender book a couple of months ago I did so in one sitting, and in the end was late for an appointment because I had to finish it.

The film, which youngest S and I went to see, is easy to get into. And is annoying in the way that 8 year old boys can be annoying. But seldom have I sat in a theatre at the end of a film and felt so much Angst, there was deathly silence, and the youngest S (who hadn't quite known what she was letting herself) in was quite upset. At 15 she should know what Auschwitz was all about.

Though you can see the end of this film coming a mile away it is nevertheless deeply shocking.

I keep wondering what the real theme of it is. It is more than just never forgetting the Holocaust. (though I am inclined to think we never should)...if we look at each character as echoing the same thing it is about how easily we lose control of our lives, and how evil can overwhelm even the best of us. That life is disorienting and we should be on our guard (1 Peter 5:8).

None of this should surprise us. But it still has the capacity to shock

Perspective

I watched 3 minutes of the awful Mel Gibson Passion yesterday.

I don't dispute that there is a point to be made about the violence, but there is somethingbizarre about watching the Lord having his skin ripped off with a cat of nine tails.

Though in the last few months I came across the Coptic (Egyptian) Christian forms of Daily prayers the Agpeya (here)One of the things that each hour contains is the repetition of the Kyria 41 times (Kyrie eleison=Lord have mercy). This is to remind us that Jesus (and many others) was whipped this 39 times...it was the limit that could be undertaken without having to get a judicial order.

So why 41 times....After he is whipped within an inch of his life he is then crowned with the thorns, and then speared in the side. Punishment on punishment.

As I practised this seemingly innocuous prayer trying to pray for victims of violence. I became aware over a number of weeks of how awful it is to just try and imagine the terrific violence of 39 skin ripping whips. And then the two final acts.....40 a head pierced with thorns....41 a side speared.

God what a world we live in still