Sunday, February 14, 1999
Thou shalt not pray
BY PETER BRONSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Them thar Bible-totin'-scripture-quotin' rightwing Christian extremists are terrorizing godless heathens with the Ten Commandments again.
Out in Adams County, the holy rollers put up stone tablets at schoolhouse doors, spelling out horrifying religious messages such as “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother,” and “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”
Some of the lightning bolts carved in stone are too explicit to be displayed at the White House: “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” and “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness” would give the president hives.
The nerve, to inflict that on kids who don't even know a “covet” from a culvert.
And just as that was setting off a five-alarm sensitivity panic at the ACLU, another outrage was discovered: Hamilton County Judge Melba Marsh inflicted a cruel and unusual punishment on a man who raped an 8-year-old girl 10 times.
Last May, James Arnett, 33, was sentenced to 51 years — half the maximum — for forcing the daughter of his divorced fiancee to do things that the president does not even consider to be sex. (What will they say about Cincinnati in France!?)
Then, to make things much worse, Judge Marsh threw the Good Book at him.
After agonizing over testimony and evidence that would make a White House intern blush, Judge Marsh spoke of the “severe trauma” that the “wounded” child would endure for her entire life. “Mr. Arnett, you robbed that child of that whole sense of growing up and who she is,” she said.
“I don't have a magic wand. I can't put everybody back in place. I can't put them back together again. ... I can only offer remedies,” she said. “And in looking at the final part of my struggle with you, I finally answered my question late at night when I turned to one additional source to help me.”
That's when she quoted the Bible. Matthew 18:5-6: “And whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Mr. Arnett, who was in the habit of downloading “raw filth” from Internet child-porn peddlers to instruct his victim, was apparently offended. His lawyer appealed, claiming the sentence was “improperly based on the trial judge's own religious beliefs.”
I must be one ignorant yokel. I thought his sentence was based on the evil he did to that little girl. Seems to me he should have thanked the Lord that Judge Marsh didn't turn to “Torquemada's Encyclopedia of Torture” or “1001 Painful Punishments for Dummies.” He should have knelt and prayed in gratitude that she used the Bible — and chose the New Testament.
But the Appeals Court corrected that notion in a hurry, by overturning the sentence and sending it back to Judge Marsh for resentencing without guidance from the Bible. The rapist's lawyer is now demanding a new judge. (He deserves one who prefers the eye-for-an-eye Old Testament.)
Appeals Court Judge Mark Painter said he had to follow the law. Using the Bible to decide the sentence violated Mr. Arnett's rights, he said. “It's not like the guy goes free ... I knew we would catch hell, but it goes with the job.”
Prosecutor Mike Allen disagreed: “Judges and lawyers have been citing scripture in courtrooms for more than 200 years. It is completely appropriate.” Appeals Judge Lee Hildebrandt dissented with Judge Painter, saying Judge Marsh did not make the Bible her sole determining factor.
A third judge, Rupert Doan, voted with Mr. Painter without a word of comment.
Judge Painter is no ACLU lunatic liberal. He followed the law, as he saw it. But sometimes the law is an ass. Judges should not be punished for consulting the Bible when they play God with someone's fate.
Such idiocy makes me wonder what the hell — wait, strike that biblical reference — what the heck makes some people so godawful — oops — goshawful terrified of religion.
The same folks who would defend a “Hustler Web Page for Kids” seem to think prayer should be done behind closed doors, by consenting adults only.
Maybe I missed it, but I have heard no reports of marauding Methodists baptizing agnostics in boiling holy water.
Most Christians are tolerant, even of people such as Berry Baker. He protested the Moses tablets at Adams County schools by demanding equal space for six-foot statues from his “Center for Phallic Worship.”
Mr. Baker wants students to be exposed to the distinguishing characteristic of his “religion.” (Sounds like just the church for Mr. Arnett.)
I guess I will never understand why anti-Christian bigots make heroes out of people like James Arnett, Berry Baker and Larry Flynt. Or Bill Clinton.
But they can keep 'em.
I'll take Judge Melba Marsh and the Source she quoted.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
BRONSON ARCHIVE