c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

UNDATED _ In the wake of the twinned bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, many Americans _ quite rightly, I believe _ are calling for our government to respond in kind.

While some may view these cries for vengeance as a gut response to what National Security Advisor Sandy Berger correctly described as”an act of unadulterated evil,”I submit there are principled, even biblical, reasons for state-sponsored retaliation.

However, before such an argument can be engaged, a proper biblical foundation must be laid: The concept of retributive justice (commonly characterized as”an eye for an eye”) must be defined in personal vs. government contexts, as well as in the contexts of the Old Testament and New Testament.

As set forth in the Hebrew Bible’s books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the principle of”an eye for an eye”established sentencing parameters to be used during the penalty phase of a trial.

Only recently liberated from Egyptian bondage, the Israelite nation that promulgated these rules was a loosely formed tribal confederation lacking a central government. God himself reigned as king, executing his justice largely through religious leaders who were guided in their deliberations by a statutory code known as the Mosaic Law.

According to that law, the sentence for a person found guilty of a violent offense was a punishment equal to the offense, i.e.,”Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured”(Leviticus 24:20). The principle behind this approach was to ensure that the priests, as divine proxies, meted out a sentence that was just and appropriate to the offense. As such, the priests’ judgment was deemed synonymous with God’s will.

In matters of foreign affairs, the entire Israelite nation was deemed to have God’s imprimatur, executing through military conquest God’s judgment against nations that refused to serve him. To be sure, this imprimatur could be (and was) used against Israel during periods of her own national disobedience.

The point, however, is that in a nation whose laws are understood to be an extension of God’s law, justice _ whether personal or governmental _ is likewise viewed as an extension of God’s will.

But the New Testament takes a somewhat different approach. In his Sermon on the Mount _ set within a pluralistic, Roman world _ Jesus argued that, regarding personal offenses, the principle of”an eye for an eye”must be set aside in favor of”turning the other cheek”(Matthew 5:38-42). In this context,”turning the other cheek”means granting personal forgiveness for an offense committed against one’s person.

Thus, for example, if I am assaulted (as indeed I have been in the past) I have a responsibility to forgive my assailant, entrusting his ultimate judgment to God,”who judges justly”(I Peter 2:23).

Yet, notwithstanding my personal forgiveness, the government nevertheless retains responsibility for acting as God’s proxy on my behalf in bringing the criminal to justice and punishing him for his crime.

As the Apostle Paul suggests in his epistle to the Romans, governing authorities (even pagan, corrupt ones, as existed in Paul’s day) have a responsibility to God to serve the public good and act in the best interests of the people they serve (Romans 13:1-7).

This axiom underlies a fundamental principle of diplomatic relations: A sovereign government has the right to protect its citizens and defend them against acts of aggression. To be sure, as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said,”We have to be absolutely sure we have the facts straight”before engaging in retaliatory measures.

Nevertheless, the Clinton administration can and should pursue a course of action designed to bring retributive justice against those who so mercilessly attacked our citizens. To do less is to abdicate our responsibility to the American people.

MJP END ATCHISON