When people supplant God in their lives with some sixth rate substitute, it inevitably affects their world view and perspective on life.
One such problem is that the concept of evil becomes blurred in their minds. Moreover, the horror which is encompassed in true evil becomes somewhat diminished.
They are prepared to criticise it but do not see the value in fighting against it with every tool at their disposal.
God has instructed us that society must deal with crime. He makes it abundantly clear that penalties for criminals must be commensurate to the crime committed.
This is called the Lex Talionis principle; an alien concept in the UK today.
At the same time, God requires that the individual who has been offended against must be prepared to forgive the perpetrator.
Society has its duty defined; the individual has his/her duty defined within a clear differentiation between God's will and the social order.
When the two overlap, the victim must remain forgiving but would still be required to report and give evidence against any evildoer for the general good of society.
Those in the Church who seem to believe that the 'turn the other cheek' principle applies in any way beyond the individual have zero evidence for their beliefs and should not carry on pretending that the NT simply wiped out all teachings of the OT.
By and large, this is a modernist take on crime and punishment which should be completely ignored by evangelical believers. It is certainly not the business of courts to offer mercy to criminals - the vast majority of whom will either show no remorse or will only pretend to do so.
'Remorse' effectively means showing some regret for a crime committed - and which JP or Judge can ever know that this is is genuine? - God however, can clearly recognise 'repentance' when genuine.
Naturally, this is not to say that courts should not show mercy when there are truly extenuating circumstances.
'Remorse' is still a distant and very poor relation to 'repentance'.
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