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	Gonsalves: Torn between Justice, Mercy By Sean Gonsalves Cape Cod Times April 10, 2011 http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110410/NEWS/104100327/-1/NEWSMAP How many angels can dance on a pinhead? In my case, two — one on each shoulder, whispering conflicting thoughts in both ears. I can only imagine what voices are in the hearts and minds of Camp Good News' God-fearing administrators. For me, the more secular-prosecuting angel perched on my right shoulder is a zero-tolerance kind of being who thinks retribution and justice are the same thing. He tells me: committing suicide a week after you're accused of a heinous crime doesn't exactly scream "I'm innocent." But, we shouldn't make a rush to judgement about Camp Good News employee Charles Devita, I respond. Yes, the prosecuting angel retorts, but you do know that Devita was the subject of a porn investigation in 2002 that never led to charges but cost him his job at the Sandwich Community School. We've also heard from his mother who told Times reporter George Brennan she informed the religious camp of her suspicions that her son was a possible pedophile but her warning fell on deaf ears — something camp administrators deny. On my other shoulder is an angel of hope and redemption. She reminds me that the world's first murderer, Cain, was condemned and banished from his native community, but he was also marked with a divine sign protecting him from retributive justice. Moses, the Great Lawgiver, before he delivered the Ten Commandments, beat another man to death with a rock. King David, a hero of both the Jewish and Christian faith-traditions, was not only an adulterer. He got rid of the husband of his mistress by ordering him to the battlefront where he was predictably killed in action — a grievous sin that prompted his famous and moving articulation of repentance in the 51st chapter of the book of Psalms. Going back to the beginning, people who believe in a just but forgiving God believe it's possible for a person to change; that good can be wrested from evil. For true believers, the idea that redemption trumps retribution is practically hard-wired into their spiritual DNA; no small reason why church-folk are inclined to take in society's castaways. They don't sing "Amazing Grace ... that saved a wretch like me" for nothing. That's correct, I tell my better angel. But nothing makes me wanna open a can of Cain more than an instance of child molestation. In my book, the only thing more heinous than the sexual violation of a child is when a child is molested and then murdered. I know I'm not the only one whose blood boils at the mere thought of such crimes. Put it this way: when I read about Frank Hebert, a 57-year-old wheelchair-bound Martha's Vineyard computer salesman facing assault charges for taking a Louisville Slugger to his 3-year-old granddaughter's alleged molester, I wanted to buy him a beer and thank-you card. Clearly, you've been listening to that other angel, the better one says. But you do see the folly of vigilante justice and the wisdom of due process, don't you? You also realize, the better angel continues, that it's not an either/or choice; to say nothing of the fact that you don't know the whole story. You may never know the whole story. Why am I even having this conversation, I wonder. But then I tell myself that while jurors are obligated to have a presumption of innocence, it's hard to resist the temptation to try and make sense of this Camp Good News tragedy. First, Sen. Scott Brown alleges he was a victim of an attempted sexual assault at a "religious camp on Cape Cod," later identified as Camp Good News. Then, other alleged victims come forward, naming the camp as the place where they were also abused. Now, camp administrators, who by all accounts are simply wonderful people, will be accused by some of being blinded by their faith and hope in redemption. There's also the prospect of them being charged with obstruction of justice. Any way you slice it, it's all bad. No matter how this case is resolved, it's hard to see this having a good ending. What's needed here is the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job. But considering that neither Solomon or Job are around, I turned to the Rev. Doug Scalise, pastor of Brewster Baptist Church, a man who believes, like I do, in the power of redemption. He reminded me "we really have to keep in mind what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount about not judging. There is a rush in our culture to say we know things that we don't know. We have to be careful about thinking we know. We know allegations have been made and we know a person against whom those allegations were made took his own life. And that's it really." However, he acknowledged the tension between redemption and the desire for justice, which is usually a matter of perspective. "It's like when you're at the grocery store and they open a new checkout line. If you're next in line and you've been waiting, you want fairness and justice. If you're at the end of the line, you want mercy, generosity and grace," Scalise said. He also noted that authentic redemption must be preceded by repentance, which literally means to turn around and go in another direction. "Of course, when it comes to the abuse of children, especially in your own family, I want justice first and the redemption can come later," he said with refreshing candor. It's a struggle from which none of us are immune. "God is love but that doesn't mean there isn't accountability," he said. The Camp Good News ordeal reminded him of the movie "Shakespeare in Love." At the end of the movie, Lord Wessex asks Queen Elizabeth: "How is this to end?" The Queen says: "as stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey." Contact: sgonsalves@capecodonline.com
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