Dakota Beacon

Today is a day to look at crime and punishment.  We’ll start with an examination of our Eighth Amendment.  We usually refer to this as the rejection of “cruel and unusual punishment”.  Here’s the Amendment in its own words:

Amendment VIII:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The part about “excessive bail” is fairly self-explanatory.  Bail is generally set in relation to the seriousness of a crime.  Bail might be negligible in the case of, say, shoplifting or driving under the influence but quite high in the case of a major crime.  Bail might not even be set if a prosecuting attorney convinces the judge that the accused is a “flight risk”. But the Eighth Amendment prohibits unfair or “excessive” bail.  If you are accused of cooking the books at the local hardware store or stealing an opal ring from a jewelry store you can’t be assessed bail of $3 million. That would look “excessive”.  Of course amounts vary over time and are by nature relative.

The part about “cruel and unusual punishment” is another matter.  Our culture views certain kinds of punishment as unacceptable for any crime.  We are governed by an enlightened attitude toward human dignity - even that of those who have committed crimes, even very serious crimes.  We don’t, for example, allow physical torture of a prisoner, we don’t allow maiming as punishment or treatment. On the other hand, some cultures use punishments that we view as cruel and unusual for all sorts of behaviors, some of which we do not call “crimes”. 

In Saudi Arabia and many other regions of the planet a woman accused of “adultery” can be stoned to death.  A pit is dug, the woman put in it and buried up to her neck. Then the public does the rest of the work - throwing rocks at her head until she finally dies, and then maybe a few more for good measure.  Or someone accused of stealing fruit from a market, if found “guilty” will have his right hand amputated. Some punishments involve amputation of the left foot and the right hand. If convicted of (or perhaps just alleged to be practicing homosexual behavior he can be thrown off of a tall building.  One punishment in one of these countries has been to build a brick wall, place the convicted “criminal(s)” below and knock it over on the convict. Putting out eyes is another punishment. Lengthy prison terms for such crimes as “blasphemy” would be considered by us “cruel and unusual”. Iran will convict a teenage girl who videos herself dancing in her own bedroom without her hijab of “immodesty” and sentence her to prison for years.  Presumably until long after she has lost interest in posing without her hijab.  

The reason for looking at these contrasts is that we should carefully consider how much we should promote the idea of “diversity”.  If we really decide we want diversity we need to understand that there is a lot of baggage that goes with it. If we want Islam in our country we must be ready to address the matter of Sharia - a system of laws which governs the Muslim person’s every act.  Sharia imposes many punishments we find in contravention of our Constitution. Our courts are already looking the other way in matters of domestic abuse. These are crimes which simply go unpunished. Domestic abuse is not even a “crime” under Sharia. It is, on the contrary, sanctioned by Sharia.  Here we have a subversion of our laws which are there to protect the innocent. At some point, if we continue to countenance a parallel system of laws within our borders we will have to contend with subversion of our Eighth Amendment as well. At this point it is still in a sort of “de facto” status, but at some point it will erode our Constitution.

Our legal system, as has been said ad nauseum, is not perfect.  It might be cruel and unusual to sentence someone to prison where instead of simply serving time without liberty he is subjected to maltreatment by other prisoners.  This, although it happens, is not sanctioned by our Constitution and is a crime in itself as well as administrative incompetence of a high order.  

So this whole topic needs to be examined in the light of massive immigration which is underway now.  When we import a whole foreign culture we must consider how we are to preserve our own and whether it is worth preserving.  All cultures are not alike and are not equal. Our Founding Fathers decided that certain values were worth preserving and canonizing in our founding documents and laws.  The Eighth Amendment is one of the hallmarks of a civilized society. Is it “civilized” to stone a woman who has been raped for “adultery”? Is it “civilized” to amputate the hand of a 15-year-old boy for taking a couple of figs from a market?  Or throwing a young girl into prison for not wearing an hijab? These sound like easy questions to a Westerner, but they are very, very real in the cultures which we are bringing into our hometowns and Main Street, USA.

And now for some news of the day.  If you live in Grand Forks or East Grand Forks you might have noticed a huge electronic billboard display calling for the return of one Father Kujawa, of Bemidji.  If you read my earlier post about the egregious violations of the Crookston Diocese you will figure this out pretty quickly.  

The parishioners of Bemidji joined others in complaints about the handling of cases where priests have been accused of sexual abuses.  The Knights of Columbus of Bemidji circulated a petition calling on Bishop Hoeppner to step down. Their leader, Father Kujawa, also signed the petition.  When this came to the notice of Hoeppner, Kujawa was summoned to account for himself.  He did so. He was sent for “mental evaluation” to a facility in Pennsylvania. It is open to speculation the nature of this facility.  Kujawa went willingly. The parishioners are now demanding his return. One of them used her savings toward the idea of the billboard. Overnight the support burgeoned for the project and the billboards are now seen in East Grand Forks, Bemidji, Crookston and a few other places as well.  If you go into East Grand Forks you will see it at the intersection of U.S. Highways 2 and 220.  

It is one way the people are trying to take back their church and see that these abuses stop.  The Catholic Church has been racked with these cases for far too long. The men and in some cases, women, who were abused as innocent little children are standing up now and demanding a correction, and accountability from those who have allowed this to continue, not only allowing it but spreading it throughout their diocese.  Of course we all know that this has been going on for quite some time and now we are hearing about the damage it has done to the individuals and families as well as the priests involved. Innocent priests as well as the guilty ones. But there is a larger theme here. The Catholic Church is a cornerstone of Western culture. It is the inspiration for our art and music, our architecture, our entire world view.  We see the world through the lens of the Catholic Church, even those who were not raised in it and who worship as Protestants or Jews. The fall of the Catholic Church would have reverberations far beyond its own parishioners, its own tabernacles, its own cathedrals. It will shake the foundations of our Western world.  

If you feel inclined to help stop this abuse and perhaps shore our civilization up against the collapse of the Catholic Church you might want to sign a petition or even contribute to the continuing message on these billboards.  Somehow we need to reach the public with the value of preserving not only the Church but Western civilization as well.

Comments:  (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)