PDF Format – 1999 Voters Guide

Side Bars – Who We Are – The Name – Christian, not Conservative – A 19th Century Christian Theologian’s Comments on Secular Conservatism – Crime and Restitution – Juries: Past and Present – The Notorious Ox and Safety – Self-Incrimination and the Bible – Judges versus Computers – Open Pits and Paying Your Own Way

Ballot Recommendations Summary Measure 68 Measure 69 Measure 70 Measure 71 Measure 72 Measure 73 Measure 74 Measure 75 Measure 76

Judges versus Computers

There is much frustration today with liberal judges. Because of this, Oregon voters have approved a series of “get tough on crime” measures. We can certainly sympathize with a public that is increasingly threatened and frustrated by the criminal element. But the answer lies not in conservative or liberal philosophies. The answer lies in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.

Man is God’s image-bearer and man, through the divinely sanctioned institution of the civil magistrate, is to administer God’s temporal justice. This is made abundantly clear in Romans 12:19-13:5. In Exodus 21:22, a man who, in the course of a fistfight, accidentally injures an innocent pregnant bystander is to pay “as the judges determine.” While the woman’s husband is involved, the judges make the final determination of the just recompense for the crime. Indeed, most of the Old Testament criminal penalties seem to be the maximum penalties a judge could impose, as he attempted in his decisions to correctly apply God’s sanctions as set forth in the Bible.

Numbers 35:31 indicates that the only exception to this judicial prerogative is the death penalty for murder. No “satisfaction,” that is no monetary payment, could be substituted at the discretion of the judge. The implication is clear that in non-capital cases, the judges were to have a degree of discretion.

Judges are a visible and active representation of God and His justice in our world. They are to be highly esteemed. To try to replace them with computer mandated sentences or bureaucratic early releases is to move away form God’s legal system, and to move towards humanism, whether conservative or liberal.

The answer to our dilemma is a more informed and involved voter when it’s time to elect judges, and a legislature that uses its constitutional and legal means to sanction and remove sinning judges. The wrong answer is to undermine judicial authority. This has been the movement of the recent "get tough on crime" measures. Ballot Measure 74 is a step toward the re-empowerment of judicial authority, which is why we support it.

This voters' guide produced by Parents Education Association, PAC.