Paul in drawing a sharp line between the old and oppressive Jewish insistence on “law” and the new Christian era of “grace.” (It goes without saying that the perception of a sharp dividing line is strongly reinforced by the very language of “Old Testament” and “New Testament”-but just try rooting those terms out of everyday discourse and replacing them with “Hebrew Scripture” and “Christian Scripture.”) Where does this routine division between “Old Testament” harshness and “New Testament” sweetness come from? In my view, it comes from the widespread but mistaken idea held by Christians (including cultural Christians), that it’s okay to follow St. “I don’t need religion to appreciate the idea of Old Testament revenge,” from TV’s Hannibal.“We’ve seen Mount Mike spew Old Testament anger that could blister paint,” from a newspaper profile of football coach Mike Holmgren.“…this austere allegory of failed Christian charity and Old Testament payback is von Trier’s strongest movie-a masterpiece, in fact,” from a film review in The Village Voice.Really.ĭisparagement of “OT” justice as a rough and revenge-fueled affair remains so endemic in popular culture that it’s not at all surprising to see it creep into high-end journalism as well.Ī quick Google search turns up a few random examples: Oops, we just threw the Jewish tradition under the bus again. The problem arises when the yin/yang are said to flow from the conflicting “Old Testament and New Testament” beliefs held by Christians, with the “Old Testament” view assumed to be focused on retribution in sharp contrast to a “New Testament” perspective centered on rehabilitation and redemption. Nor would many dispute the assertion that religious ideation has played an absolutely central role, both historically and now, in the way Americans think about criminal justice. So what’s the problem? Few would quarrel with the notion that American Christianity does indeed exhibit the “yin and the yang” the writer references, with retribution/punishment representing the yin and rehabilitation/redemption the yang. Both Old Testament and New Testament fundamentals-the former focused on retribution and punishment and the latter on rehabilitation and redemption-were present.
These two competing theories formed the yin and the yang of the American criminal justice system, and both were molded around Christian religious principles. The writer wanted to demonstrate how the Trump/Sessions “tough on crime” stance mirrors one major and recurrent pole of American religious thinking on crime and punishment. Written by a youthful think-tanker, the piece was no doubt developed with the best of intentions. Thus it was unsettling to see an article, republished from the Washington Post, appear in a recent newsletter that reflected unwitting disrespect for Judaism. The criminal justice reform project I work with in Los Angeles-a multi-faith project-has a big stake in showing the utmost respect for every faith tradition.
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