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Do criminals have less fear of God than they used to?

A priest in New Jersey was found slain in the rectory of the church where he served, and it seems like every week or so someone is shooting up a church or killing a minister. It seems that criminals used to have more respect for a "man of the cloth", they used to have a fear of God that kept them from brutalizing and killing ministers. What do you think, are criminals more bold to strike out against churches and ministers than the used to be?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33453721/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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cmajaski
cmajaski
Marked as Best! October 24, 2009 01:49 AM
People in general fear God less than previous generations, not just criminals. There used to be things that were untouchable, one being "men of the cloth", some others would be women and children, and the elderly. It seems that there was a time when people wouldn't dare do anything disrespectful to an elderly person, but now, old people are beat up, abused, neglected and raped.

So it isn't just criminals. As a whole, people do not fear God. I suppose a result of the decline in the actual belief in God. You can't be afraid of punishment by something you don't believe in in the first place.
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cherise
cherise
October 24, 2009 04:50 AM
cmajaski said just what I was going to say!
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kty2777
kty2777
October 24, 2009 02:03 AM
For most religions, the number of members has been declining so in general there will be more 'criminals' who are non-religious and would not hold the church sacrosanct and thus may do violence against the church or priests.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm

However, the church as always been a prime target for criminals - robbers, killers, terrorists. At times its been a very rich source of wealth for criminals - grave robbers, con artists etc.

A quick Google News search, a time line view going back a hundred years and wow! violence against the church is nothing new or recent...a few quotes from the results, just a small sample :)

"Dec 2, 1895 - After they had thus deceived and robbed and entrapped the' Arnlenians, they began to kill them most savagely. ... "Hasten to our rescue: Bloodshed in a Church, '
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B03EEDA113AE533A25751C0A9649D94649ED7CF

Dec 26, 1930 - CHICAGO, Dec. 2B ( P>.-Pretending to be Christmas callers, two youths invaded the rectory of St. Adalbert's Catholic Church tonight, bound three priests and forced a fourth to give them $2000 taken in offerings at services today and Sunday
( NYTimes pay article )

I think the church makes a good target for people who are stressed and desperate, unfortunately.
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petermusan...
petermusan...
October 24, 2009 04:02 AM
I think the difference from say 20 or 30 years ago is that the tradition of claiming religious affiliation is disappearing. People have no actual relation to a church and have no respect for priests or any other religious leaders. When you look at criminal organizations like the Mexican mafia and the Italian mob they both are very respectful of religious leaders, even though they are criminals they are imbued with Catholicism. Criminal activities are certainly not reconcilable with Christianity but they like to keep up appearances because of tradition.
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enriquezre...
enriquezre...
October 24, 2009 07:29 AM
A criminal would have to HIT rock bottom(alone) to believe in GOD when he realizes no one will help him/her but GOD. I became a thief thru classical conditioning. I remember the first thing my brother told me to steal when i was 3/4 years of age. After that...it became an addiction all my life. I was never jailed or caught. I would mock my catholic parents about their religion growing up. All I'm going to say is I fell rock bottom and did a 360 to the religion I was born in...and I expect my children to scream and cry in church when I drag them to it on Sunday mornings just like I did. Hope fully they'll embrace a faith if they ever fall down. GOD does exist...and it sees everthing.
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honeyxhone...
honeyxhone...
October 24, 2009 05:05 PM
I think that they are still the same as before. They never really feared God is they wanted to do these crimes. I think maybe because of all the sexual offenses that some minister and priests did, they think that they are actually not wrong to kill those people who are sinning against God also. Or maybe, their targests are starting to become religious people. Since the Church claims that if you just repent and turn to God, they will go to heaven. All they have to do is kill, repent, kill, repent, kill, repent before they die and they can go to heaven. It even may be that these criminals may have another religious bakcground or has been taught a certain way to do the things they do.
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marisaupa
marisaupa
October 25, 2009 01:27 AM
Since it requires a sociopathic mentality to be a career criminal, or to commit acts premeditatedly with harmful savagery, it would seem that criminals have never feared God, as that sort of psyche places the individual above all things, God included.

Even in instances when they turn to God it is often not out of an attempt to seek redemption, but rather to have some insurance before moving on from this world, after all, they're too good to burn in hell in their eyes.

So it's not that modern criminals fear God lees, I think it's that modern society is more secular and therefore views the acts of the guilty more as a social ill and not as an individual acting in transgression to God's Law.
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