From The Desk Of Pastor Paul Viggiano

Can anyone be held responsible?

The admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui escaped the death penalty in part because of his rough upbringing. How has that become an excuse for evil behavior?
By Paul Viggiano

Zacarias Moussaoui, who played a role in the terrorist attacks of 9-11, was not given the death penalty. The jurors decided life in prison was the appropriate punishment. I didn't follow the case, so I am not sure what his role in 9-11 was.

Perhaps he deserved no more or less than this sentence. But the reports behind the jurors' reasoning for their decision are disconcerting. It was based upon mitigating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances occur when some attendant factor of the crime decreases the penalty.

It's common knowledge that America's legal process has its roots in biblical law; this process includes the notion of mitigating circumstances. For example, spontaneity versus premeditation in the taking of someone's life may mitigate or lessen the sentence since the passions of the moment are taken into consideration.

The Bible also addresses the mitigating circumstances surrounding things like the stealing of food in times of duress or lying when the lives of innocent are threatened.

But the mitigating circumstances cited in the recent verdict of Zacarias Moussaoui do not flow from biblical law. They flow from another world view -- a materialist world view. Materialism, simply put, rejects the notion of immaterial concepts, including God.

Materialists believe all things are proceeding from an initial explosion (a big bang). According to consistent materialists, we are all just matter in motion -- molecules flying through space. This being the case, we can no more be held responsible for our actions than a piece of shrapnel can be held responsible for where it lands when the hand grenade explodes.

We see more and more cases utilizing this world view to mitigate, and sometimes completely exonerate, those who commit crimes.

Moussaoui's mitigating circumstances were not the thoughtless passions of the moment. Nor were they based upon coercion or desperation. They were not based upon ignorance of what he was doing or who he was doing it to.

The mitigating circumstances cited in the jurors' verdict form included things like a dysfunctional family, a hostile relationship with his mother, a physically and emotionally abusive father, and being subjected to racism in France.

I have little doubt that Moussaoui's life was miserable. But there must be at least 40 million dysfunctional families in our country alone; I'm pretty sure mine was. Just how dysfunctional must your family be before the laws no longer apply to you?

I'd like to say it's wrong to be abusive, but if mom and dad are just matter in motion, how can you blame them? And when Erik Menendez aimed and pulled the trigger, putting an end to that matter which had previously been his mother, his lawyer was arguing that he shouldn't be blamed either.

Do we not all know at least 20 people (I know a lot more than 20) who fall into the categories listed in the jury's explanation of why Moussaoui punishment was lessened? Are we truly prepared to say that these things reduce culpability in the murdering of thousands of innocent civilians? If this is the case, I am not sure who can be found guilty of anything.

As a pastor, I am not insensitive to the way the sins of the parents can affect their children. I sit across from wounded souls in regular counseling sessions. At the same time, as an apologist and counselor, I have as strong a conviction that a person's past, including my own, never justifies evil behavior.

There is a big difference between recognizing a genetic or environmental tendency that gives one a propensity toward evil and using heredity or surroundings to somehow rationalize sinful or criminal behavior. Wives may fail a hundred different ways when it comes to pleasing their husbands, but it never justifies his committing adultery.

There is little doubt in my mind that most pedophiles can make an argument that their perverted desires were implanted in them through some event in their history -- it may even be genetic. Are we prepared to alleviate culpability of child molesters because we have an awareness of those elements that lead to their evil behavior? What if we found out that Jeffrey Dahmer had a gene that gave him an intense desire to kill and eat people -- do we rescind his sentence?

When Moussaoui shouted, "America you lost," I'm not sure what he had in mind. But if he meant we lost because we're abandoning biblical law for materialistic, methodological naturalism, he has a good point.