Love Your Neighbor?

You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of scripture:

"Love others as you love yourself."

The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery,"

also said, "Don't murder."  If you don't commit adultery

but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery

will cancel out your murder?  No, you're a murderer, period.

Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the

Rule that sets us free.  For if you refuse to act kindly,

you can hardly expect to be treated kindly.

Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

James 2:8, 11-12

I have followed with interest, horror and sorrow the case of the 29-year-old yoga shop clerk who killed her 30-year-old co-worker because the former had stolen a pair of pants from the shop, and the latter found out about it.  Luring Jayna Murray back into the shop after it had been closed and locked by saying she "forgot" something, Brittany Norwood inflicted 330 wounds on Murray, who was alive for most of the attack.  She then lay down by her dead co-worker, inflicted a few surface wounds on herself, and when found the next morning, claimed to the police that they had been raped and bludgeoned by two masked men the previous evening.  Ms. Norwood's story fell apart within hours of the killing, and a week later she was arrested, charged with murder in the first degree, and two months ago was convicted of the crime.

At the sentencing hearing yesterday in a hushed courtroom, Norwood tearfully apologized to Murray's family, an apology that rang distinctly hollow considering the amount of time it would have required for her to stab and strike Jayna over 330 times with five different weapons.  That Jayna was alive and pleading for her life during much of the brutality only added to the abject insincerity of Norwood's tears and words.  The judge was unmoved, telling the 29-year-old that her crime "exemplified the worst of human nature" and that she was "one hell of a liar." He rejected defense pleas that she was capable of rehabilitation and deserved an eventual shot at freedom.  "You mutilated this woman. And with every blow, you had a chance to think about what you were doing," said Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg in imposing a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

 I would like to think that my life is worth more than a pair of yoga pants, but the truth is that lives are lost every day for the change in one's pocket, the sneakers on one's feet, or the contents of one's purse.  Society needs a constant reminder of the sanctity and value of human life.  Our daily attitude toward our fellow human beings must be one of care and compassion rather than superiority and indifference.  The Bible says that the measure you mete out will be measured back to you again.  I hope what you give is love.