MSNBC host Joy Reid in a recent interview of Nancy Pelosi asked “if future COVID-19 relief legislation will include release of prisoners?” Pelosi, who claims to be Catholic, replied, “In our caucus, we are very devoted to the Gospel of Matthew: ‘When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was homeless, you sheltered me, when I was imprisoned, you visited me,’ And so this for us is a part of our value system.”
Pelosi also said, “We will have language [in the next coronavirus relief bill] … to have some order and clarity so that some people can leave who really don’t need to be there.” Pelosi has been suggesting release of federal prisoners to possibly prevent the spread of COVID-19 within federal prisons.
I do not know any believer who thinks our country should be governed by a theocracy, but invoking biblical principles and applying them to real life situations is to be commended as being for our own good as long as one properly reads, understands and applies those principles.
According to Pelosi’s quote Matthew 25:36 reads, “When I was imprisoned, you visited me.” There is a glaring grammatical difference in meaning and application between “visiting” someone in prison, and “releasing” someone from prison.
According to Pelosi’s quote Matthew 25:36 reads, “When I was imprisoned, you visited me.” There is a glaring grammatical difference in meaning and application between “visiting” someone in prison, and “releasing” someone from prison. She doesn’t seem to understand what she is reading. The Scriptures should not be twisted to mean what you want them to mean.
I do not understand the kind of logic that advocates arresting lockdown protesters on one hand, and releasing convicted felons on the other. That kind of ‘catch and release’ mentality baffles me. Pelosi wants to release those “who don’t need to be there,” if they do not need to be there, what are they doing there in the first place?
Granted inmates live in close proximity to one another in a correctional setting making the practice of social distancing difficult. But here in Florida our prisons have temporarily suspended visitation and volunteer access, and screen essential staff prior to entering our correctional institutions, and have instituted measures to reduce the possibility of contracting and spreading the virus. There are common sense alternatives to releasing inmates.
The Scriptures do not exist to promote one’s political agenda or pet project; God gave them to us to reveal His holy nature and divine will, and commands us to practice them for His glory and our own good. We court disaster when we ignore them.
One cannot say the Scriptures are “a part of our value system,” and ignore them when they speak to the value of the unborn. “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them,” Psalm 139:16.
The Scriptures are not a smorgasbord of divine inspiration from which you can choose which verses you want to obey and which ones you ignore.
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