Aug 12
10
Predictably, recent headlines declare that the Colorado shooter (Batman’s Dark Knight mass murderer) and BC’s woe begotten child abductor, Randall Hopley, are both going to be “assessed” regarding their mental state. In Hopley’s case, the request for an assessment came from the Crown as they want to put him out of commission “indefinitely” by having him assessed as a “dangerous offender.” In BC protocols, an assessment to determine whether an individual is a dangerous offender takes 60 days. This is something that would take the average Canadian, especially the father or mother of a three-year old child about 60 seconds. However, his defence attorneys are so confused by the complexities of this case that they don’t think he should be termed a dangerous offender. Their reasoning? Because, although he kidnapped the youngster from his bed and held him captive for four days, he did return him alive and relatively unharmed.
Let’s look at this with our eyes open. We were all praying for little Kienan Hebert while he was the hostage of Mr. Hopley. And we all cheered and breathed huge sighs of relief when he was returned unharmed to his parents. But that doesn’t erase the enormity of the crime committed by Hopley nor give any assurance that he would not do the same thing again nor that, in other circumstances, he might not act out his social dysfunction with much more serious results.
There are other bizarre elements of this case: CBC refers to the search-and-rescue efforts of policemen, trackers and volunteers as the “biggest manhunt in BC history.” For all that, Mr. Hopley managed to elude discovery for four days and to then return the child to his own home (the scene of the crime) without being apprehended. From this we may conclude that there are gaps in other systems beside the court system. Also, the fact that the abduction occurred last September and the need for an “assessment” was determined today (nearly a year later) proves once again that our legal system is wretchedly inefficient, that costly and frustrating delays are hindering justice for both victims and perpetrators and that current approaches are not designed to curb crime or protect victims but to satisfy an arbitrary set of rules and maintain a malignant status quo.
In the case of the Colorado shooter, the defence naturally wants a psychiatric assessment and to have their client declared not guilty by reason of insanity. As I wrote last year, regarding the Norwegian mass murderer, Anders Breivik, Of Course He’s Insane! We do no favours to the criminally insane by withholding from them the legal consequences of their violent misdeeds. Instead of restoring calm and helping victims and perpetrators to come to terms with a tragedy and to recognize the potential of evil in a confused and tormented heart, we add to the burden by policies that seem to reward good and evil behaviour equally.
There is a proper time for a psychiatric assessment and for efforts to help mentally ill people cope with their confusion. There is a time for reaching out in sincere compassion to those who do not seem able to accept the realities of life—the big world and their small part in it. The time for caring action, for sincere attempts to build relationship and to help troubled individuals adjust to reality is BEFORE they commit murder, mayhem and destruction. They need to know that a loving God has created them for a purpose and has great plans for their lives. Once a murder has been committed, once a child has been kidnapped (or worse), the criminally insane perpetrator may still receive love and forgiveness but he must do it from behind bars. His confusion (sometimes brought on or exacerbated by his own actions) may be a cause of his moral failure but it must never be an excuse. In a just society, the law must stand firm without showing favoritism for the mentally ill. Insane laws create serial killers and make a mockery of justice. Let’s set a standard for the Western world. Let’s give people—both victims and perpetrators—the dignity of being responsible for their actions and the just reward of reaping the harvest of their deeds, whether good or evil. Failure to do so will condemn a generation to more confusion, more crime and more despair. We can do better.
Serial killers are created by a society which removes God from the minds of citizens. When a person knows or suspects they will be judged for their actions at the end of their days, it is very unlikely they’d start killing in the first place. Society removes God from our schools and then laments “where was God during the mass shootings?”
We need people like Rod Taylor and others like him to govern this land so we can escape the horrors brought on to us by the anti-Christian/anti-God mindset of the majority of politicians, for it is they who are responsible for the mass killings. I am not saying we should force people to believe, but to bring back the respect for the Christian nation this once was and which made it great. Bring back the Lord’s prayer in schools, they always respected those who didn’t agree and allowed them to leave during such things.
People will believe what they chose, still Christianity is the answer for peace and prosperity.
I agree with Ian Tuck. They are having the same trouble south of the border. Eventually, if we don’t wake up, Islam will try to fill the spiritual void left by the “No god for me” philosophy of “It’s all about me”. Part of the problem is the wrong idea of separation of church and state. Separation of church and state doesn’t mean that we should be void of any Christian influence. We should celebrate our Christian heritage and bring it back. I fear we have gone too far and the Lord’s prayer and Bible reading may never return. Unless there is a clear change in people’s hearts and a coming of deep respect for the Bible as the Word of God there will be no change of direction but only further down hill trend. I was shocked to find out recently that in BC in 1996 the BC Schools Act was changed to declare that there shall be no religious dogma or creed taught in the public schools, Section 76, but there shall be the highest morality taught. How can we have highest morality without the absolute standard of the Word of God? It seems to me that this is dictated communism and atheism for our youth and future generations. Is this not against freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and therefore unconstitutional? How did the government pull this off? How can this be reversed? There is no happy medium here, either we have the Bible or we don’t and I believe that there is a correlation between decline in the knowledge and fear of God to increasing crime in our society. As a result of no religion and especially no Christian religion, the society as a whole is confused, there are no absolutes. “There is no fear of God before their eyes”. We will reap what we are sowing. May God have mercy on us as a nation and as individuals within it!