Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Ray Comfort on John Lennon's Murder-er, rather, on how Justice Means No Food, Sleep, or Sex

Wow. I visited Ray Comfort's blog for the first time ever, and this is what I was confronted with:

http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-lennons-murderer.html

He's in a tiff at the fact that Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's killer), who is coming up for parole this year, has been able to sleep, eat, and fuck in the 29 years that he has been in jail. I guess solitary confinement and sensory deprivation would be more fitting for Mr. Comfort?

Here's an excerpt:
We live in a society that has forgotten the meaning of justice. The word has been twisted by contemporary society from meaning administration of deserved punishment to "rehabilitation." A prison is no longer a place of punishment for guilty criminals, but a "correctional" facility
And one more...
So how is this self-confessed murderer whose hands drip with the blood of John Lennon, being punished? He is given regular free food, a warm bed, the security of a steady job in a bad economy, and regular sex . . . all for shooting John Lennon in the back.


Now, I don't know if my comment will be posted, as he/they (of course) moderate comments, but here's what I said in response:

. .....I'm literally flummoxed at this.


You profess to follow Jesus Christ, the supposed saviour of humanity, and my understanding of this person (real or not) is that he would never claim that the meeting of someone's basic needs precludes them from being punished.


What he did was horrible, and this is why he has spent 29 years in jail. You said the word justice in your post, and justice is supposed to mean fair treatment, not just punishment. If you fid the meeting of basic needs to be an affront to justice then I shudder to think of what you envision for a proper system of justice.


And given the fact that I am supposed to be an immoral person (seeing as how I am an atheist) and you profess this Christian morality....yes, flummoxed is certainly apt. And I don't mean a facetious confusion, I'm seriously shocked by this post.


I guess you must be an Old Testament fan?
 Now, am I wrong here, or is he being a tremendous hypocrite?

2 comments:

  1. I copied and pasted your comment (minus the "I guess you must be an Old Testament fan?") and attempted to post that too. A futile attempt I fear as almost no comments have been published most likely due to their dissent.

    This is the sort of topic I hate to concur with you. I believe that criminals should be punished but my rational side screams that placing a criminal in absolute confinement and denying him even the most basic carnal requirements would be cruel and be detrimental to the individual's rehabilitation. Unless you're keeping an individual in prison for life then you'll either want to rehabilitate them and make them socially acceptable, or go 1984 on them, get into their head and mould them into the figure you want them to be. I think the former is more appropriate and beneficial to the individual. As you said, justice also means fair treatment.

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  2. Well, in fairness it's been less than a day. He could be out trying to con people for mone-er, rather, spreading his religion.

    Sorry, but I hate the guy.

    Anyways, you bring up a good point: there's a divide between our basic animalistic nature and our reason. We just have to make sure the former doesn't win out over the latter.

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