[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] This Will End Well...

Personally, I'm thinking this is simply giving religion far more credit than it deserves.

With a lengthy and violent criminal record to his name, Pachino Hill is going to church.

Hill, 29, of Davenport was sentenced Wednesday by Scott County Associate Judge Christine Dalton to a counseling program offered by Third Missionary Baptist Church. She also ordered him to attend church there eight consecutive Sundays, to pay a fine and be on probation for one year.

If he doesn’t comply, he faces up to two years in prison for eluding and driving while barred. The charges are the result of a police chase from Rock Island to Davenport in October.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Dalton said of the counseling program plan presented to her by Hill’s attorney, Brenda Drew-Peeples, and supported by Rogers Kirk, pastor at Third Missionary. “I’m all about one more chance.”

The counseling program, Drew-Peeples said, is a chance for Hill to gain role models who are responsible men and are contributing to society.

“I believe God has a plan for Pachino Hill’s life, and I believe it’s coming to fruition,” she said. (Full Story)

It bothers me that people see religion as some sort of bastion of morality. Wife beaters go to church, come home, and promptly continue to beat their wives.

Murderers go to church. Rapists go to church. Car thieves go to church. God's, in fact, quite popular in prison as well.

Why does this witless wonder of a judge believe that a habitual criminal, charged with the attempted murder of a police officer, is somehow, magically, going to change his destructive ways by attending eight Sunday services in a Baptist church?

If anything, it will just give this criminal further justification for his actions.

The troubling thing is that I have friends in the Quad Cities, and now, unless someone more sensible steps in, I have to worry about them as a direct result of this judge's dangerous level of incompetence.

And, before any of you who are champing at the bit to defend this inept judge, put yourselves in the shoes of those who have to live in the Quad Cities knowing full well that this dangerous criminal was allowed to run absolutely free as a direct result of this judge's religious beliefs --beliefs which you may or may not share.

Another thing: I wonder if an atheist would have received this same level of leniency in sentencing from this judge?

Yep. Religion sure is all about morality and community, isn't it? At least, it seems that it is so long as everyone in that community worships the same god as those who enforce the laws. If not, well... You're going to jail.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 3/20/2008 01:58:00 PM