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| A very bad day in Sodom and Gomorrah |
A cloud of ridicule follows in the wake of Obama’s first human pardons. The alleged gist of this hilarity is that Obama’s choices were so trivial as to be absurd.
Amongst the nine people who were pardoned was Edgar Leopold Kranz, Jr. of Minot, North Dakota. His offense? According to the Huffington Post, he was charged with “Wrongful use of cocaine, adultery, and writing three insufficient fund checks; Articles 112a and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Granted, Kranz is not the only one in the military (or most everywhere else) who has committed adultery. This does not necessarily make it any less of a legal, or possibly moral/social infraction. It simply means that Kranz is the one who got singled out (the disparity of which, in and of itself, could be construed as another moral/social infraction).
The Ten Commandments, from which much Western legal code is at least partially derived, does not come
prepackaged with “get out of jail free” cards. “Thou shalt not” seems to be a collective, rather than a singular, directive. For most to continue scot-free (not to single out the Scots or Scotts), and another to be court-martialed, seems capricious - at the very least.
What would God do?
Would He smote?
It’s been a long time since Sodom and Gommorah (which covered a lot more territory than sodomy, contrary to public prejudice). Perhaps He’s just biding His time - giving folks enough rope to get kinky with – before He once again lowers the boom. After all, 2012 is just around the bend…
The sad truth is that – even when society turns the other cheek, or outright condones adultery – it is often far from a “victimless crime.” As the headlines scream about Obama’s pardons, they are also shrieking about Miley Cyrus’s pain regarding her parents’ impending divorce. Then there’s Elin Woods, Jenny Sanford –
not to mention the whole Hamlet thing…
Resources
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/SolarPowerGuy/obama-issues-9-pennyante-_n_791813_69522979.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/45943.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Miley+Cyrus+upset+about+parents+divorce+portrayed/3921504/story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah
Copyright December 4, 2010 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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