The DeCriminalization Delusion
This article is an opinion piece from Bill Lockwood. Catch Patriotic Pulpit with Bill Lockwood weekly at 11 a.m. Saturdays on NewsTalk 1290.
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute authored an important 2017 book addressing the concerted attacks on our criminal justice system beginning with various Democratic presidents, the media, as well as schools of academics. It is entitled "The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe." One of her chapters is entitled “The De-Criminalization Delusion.”
She statistically answers at length various empty arguments against incarceration. The various arguments include the much-touted nonsense that our prisons are filled with casual drug-users; or that the disproportionate number of minorities in these facilities highlight “racism” within law enforcement; or that social programs work better than incarceration.
Picking up the last mentioned argument offered by non-incarceration advocates, that “social programs work better than prison,” consider one of the premises it is based upon, the Marxist belief that crime is caused primarily by social factors.
A Breakdown Of Marxism
According to Karl Marx and all socialists, crime and misbehavior is caused by external factors alone. This is because only such factors exist. According to Marx particularly, the economic factor is the sole driver of crime. On the other hand, Neo-Marxism (woke ideology) tells us that injustice is inherent based on the structure of society itself, such as distributive justice. Based upon that, crime and misbehavior is structured in the DNA of whites against blacks, etc.
This unfounded mythology is touted in academia on a constant basis. According to this thesis, one’s belief in God is caused by external, matter-in-motion-type-factors. But if this is the case, why do university professorships continue to harangue against religion and the Bible — unless of course, they too are motivated solely by external physical factors themselves and are willing to give up all credentialed academic thought.
What are the actual causes of crime?
According to New Testament teaching, the causes of sin and crime are due to internal factors. Jesus explains: those things that “proceed from within a person” are “those that defile that person.”
For from within, out of the heart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, etc. (Mark 7:14-23)
This plainly states that sin and/or crime is not caused by external factors, but internal. That is to say, being “born into poverty,” or “being born into slavery,” are not the prime causal factors that lead to violence and other crimes. Instead, crime or sin springs from the heart of man. The harboring of evil thoughts frequently becomes acted out.
The true issues that American society face today are heart issues and a general failure to heed the warnings from God about becoming “slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto further iniquity” (Romans 6:19). Instead of looking to “de-criminalize” a slew of crimes Americans individually need a good dose of God-directed self-discipline.
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