TO THOSE BLESSED WITH THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON - I'VE GOT A QUESTION

[newview]

How would the law punish Siamese twins if one of the twins committed murder without the other being involved?
For instance, if the twins were walking down the street and one pulled out a knife and stabbed someone. It seems to me that you couldn't punish one without the other suffering the same punishment.

What would you do if you had to hand down judgment on this matter?

[Chaplain Pat Harris]

Because of their physical condition and if they cannot be surgically separated, it appears their fate as to life on earth is already established. Therefore, they have very little to no other choice but to share in the suffering of physical pain and/or punishment.

Fortunately, their souls and spirits are not co-joined. So, if the other twin is saved, God will bless him/her with His peace and sustain him/her in spite of any shared sufferings.

[Evangelist Altha Fugett]

Excellent Chaplain!!!!!!!! I agree,

[newview]

Sis,

So if your judgment is short of execution and if they both must suffer the pain of the sentence of one - what about alleviating the punishment of the innocent twin?
Is there something that could be done for the one?

[Evangelist Altha Fugett]

You know that I am not an advocate of the death penalty period, but in this time period, an eye for an eye was the law, and God as HE now does worked miracles then as well. If the execution was carried out the evil twin would perish and the good twin would survive as another example of God's power

[Zealot X]

Good question. I like questions dealing with judgment. It tends to give us more perspective.

I would not want to punish the innocent twin. To me that would be a secondary crime. Punishment of the evil twin imo does not justify punishing the innocent twin if you can help it.

So what I would do is take away the life of the evil twin as he knew it. He would be kept alive but he would be bound. His eyes would be bandaged. His hand/hands would be chained. His body would become his prison, unable to interact with the rest of the world beyond hearing and speaking. They would both have to live in a safe city, one of the places that people could go after killing someone to avoid being killed in revenge. The innocent brother would have to go to but for his own safety and would become his brother's jailer.

Having to become his brother's jailer may seem unfair but he also has to take responsibility for allowing his brother the freedom to venture so far into evil that he would commit murder. Although he may have felt there was no way to prevent it I would say that it was his lack of awareness that his brother had a knife on their person or lack of concern for what this brother might do in public.... there's something more that he could have done, either to warn people, stop his brother, or have any control over him. So his fate is basically making up for what he should have been before, "his brother's keeper". When Cain asked this question he was only speaking out of his anger and hatred towards his brother.

Keeping the evil twin alive would have the consequence of him hearing life going on around him without him having the ability to see it or take part. He can also hear the word of G-d and decide to use his voice to speak to others and prevent others who were going down his path from committing murder. And if the family of the murdered person believe that he has changed and desire that he should be restored then I would give him a second chance. But he would have to live both for himself and for that person whose life he destroyed.

Sin is sin. There's nothing he can do in order to pay for what he did. Not really. The best he can do is start living differently. Punishment should serve the purpose of preventing the person from committing more crimes. But if there is a way to rehabilitate that person then that should be the focus of their punishment. YHWH punished his people many times SO THAT THEY WOULD LEARN. He cursed them so that they could learn from the consequences they had to suffer to. Having 2 people die should not be the goal. The goal should be to save life, not destroy it. It is too difficult to play god as if we could know which person can be saved and which cannot. So I think it is best to give everyone a chance. There's a chance that those we release from prison can actually go back into the world and reduce crime. And ultimately, we are all guilty of something. But YHWH sees our potential and makes a way for us to become free of sin and free of the destruction that sin results in. But we have to change.

I would give the evil twin the same opportunity that I would want.

Shalom

[newview]

Thanks Zealot, that was really well thought out :-)

But early in your response you said you would bind his eyes.....that would be cruel and unusual punishment - if we were to go by our country's laws.

And personally - that would be so scarey. To have your eyes shut everyday all day - horrors of horrors !
But I see your point (no pun intended) something worse has to happen to the evil twin.

[Zealot X]

Our country tortures people. Blinding them during the process is simply part of it.

But I know what you mean. Personally, losing my sight is one of my worst fears even though I would certainly live with it. My wife an I got into a debate (as we often do) over these kinds of physical handicaps and even though I won the debate she made a good point about how people can learn from physical handicaps.

Since someone being burned alive in a lake of fire could be construed as unusual if not cruel I would have to say blindness as a punishment is fairly easy if you think about how many people go blind or are born that way. I've had a few family members who have lost their sight.

I can only imagine that having your sight cut off is only a fraction of what is cut off when you take someone's entire life. And I think people take each other's lives so easily because they have little regard to the cost and what's like to lose it. Losing your sight would prevent you from murdering (as least make it a lot harder) and at the same time show you what it means to lose something precious, therefore showing you how precious it really is.

Shalom

[Chaplain Pat Harris]

ZealotX,

Good question. I like questions dealing with judgment. It tends to give us more perspective.

It is easy to see that you like dealing with judgment by the way you express yourself in many of your comments. As for me, God is my judge in all areas of my life. And frankly, I would prefer not to place myself in that position. So, I can only speculate what judgment call could be made rather than what judgment call should be made.

[Zealot X]

indeed.

I love YAH. I love his commandments. I love justice. I love righteousness. And ultimately I want a perfect world in which love and peace can thrive. Such a world cannot be created without both law and order. And there cannot be order without judgment. I am my father's son and my Father's son. I want his will to be done upon this earth, both the mercy of his plan and its judgment. I believe judgment protects many more people than have to be punished and so I see it as a work of salvation, not just damnation. And I thank my Father and Creator for it.

Shalom