HU A
Christian View of the
by Don Hillis C aryl C hessman was only sixteen years old when he embarked on a lurid life of crime and sex, so sordid that the author hesitates to ask THE KING’S BUSINESS to print the details of the story. In the period stretching from 1937 through 1948 his list of known crimes included many robberies, several auto thefts, assault with intent to kill, six kidnappings, and two 'cases of sexual perver sion, not to mention a long list of minor felonies and petty thefts. The two victims of his sexual perversion were “a polio victim who used crutches and a seventeen-year old girl” ; the latter has spent much of her time since that attack in a mental institution. At long last in 1948 Chessman was convicted on seventeen counts and given the death penalty on two. Society had paid a high price for its co-existence with this morally depraved member. The Christian View In suggesting that there is a Christian view to the Chessman case, we are implying that there is also a non-Christian view. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that there are many non-Christian views. Frankly, one wonders how there could be more than one attitude toward the vicious crimes perpetrated on society by the now-famous, or rather infamous Chessman, but there certainly are. It should be noted that not every non- Christian view is essentially un-Christian. The Christian view of crime and sin is seen through the lens of Divine revelation. Behaviour, both good and bad, is brought into proper focus only when viewed in the light of the character of God. A thorough and personal appreciation of the righteousness of God forms the basis of Christian judgment.
In contrast to this, non-Christian views are based upon such transient and undependable things as sentiment, environment, time, race, age, sex, mass psychology, history, and experience. All of these are good as far as they go, but none is sufficient. To illustrate—if Chessman’s case had been brought to swift judgment eleven years ago, only a few of the citizens of California would have objected to his death. But time has a way of blunting the viciousness of a crime in the minds of those whose sense of right and wrong is not founded upon a principle that supersedes sentiment. Today, strangely enough, the heinous crimes of this man are forgotten, and a hysterical multitude of sentimental souls are lifting him up as a martyr for justice and making fools out of the lawmakers. To the Christian, murder is murder and rape is rape, whether it happened ten days ago or ten years ago, whether it involved man or woman, black or white, young or old. In the Christian view, Chessman’s two escapes from penal institutions during his early days of crime make a sad commentary on the effectiveness of our present day law enforcement. The repeated paroling of this obviously addicted criminal makes us view with suspicion the effi ciency of our expensive penal system. The eight reprieves or stays of execution granted to this convicted criminal during the past eleven years makes American jurispru dence compare favorably with a tug-of-war between grade-schoolers. The judgments of our courts become a mockery when their decisions can be bantered about from court to court for almost twelve years. Even so, the intelligent person views with alarm the (Concluded on next page)
MAY, 1960
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