The Gospel Cures What the Law Cannot

"The number of crimes does not diminish but is continually on the increase. You must admit that consequently the security of society is not preserved, for, although the dangerous member is mechanically cut off and set far away out of sight, another criminal always comes to take his place at once, and often two of them. If anything does preserve society, even in our time, and does regenerate and transform the criminal, it is the law of Christ speaking in his conscience. . . . It is only by recognizing his wrong-doing as a son of a Christian society -- that is, of the Church -- that he recognizes his sin against society -- that is, against the Church. So that it is only against the Church, and not against the State, that the criminal of today can recognize that he has sinned."

-- Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

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