{"id":722,"date":"2011-03-07T15:38:50","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T15:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html"},"modified":"2011-03-07T15:38:50","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T15:38:50","slug":"gods-bad-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html","title":{"rendered":"God’s Bad Reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I‘m currently working on a new writing project.  Here’s an excerpt:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A judge doesn’t want the label, “soft on crime.” Judges are supposed to be tough.  <\/span>They are to make sure that criminals and wrong doers pay their debts to society.  <\/span>Rarely is a judge heralded for giving minimal jail time to a drug dealer or probation to a habitual offender.  <\/span>In a land with Three Strikes Laws and voters who don’t take kindly to plea bargains being known as a judge who lets offenders off with a slap on the wrist is not a good thing.  <\/span>Judges are expected to lay down the law to lawbreakers and be tough on crime.  <\/span>When they don’t they gain a bad reputation.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Many people are angry with Judge Reichbach in New York City for being too easy on criminals.  <\/span>When Dominic Bunch stood before him in court because he was caught selling a semi-automatic firearm, prosecutors asked for a five year prison sentence.  <\/span>Even though the defendant admitted to the crime and plead guilty the judge reduced his sentence to six months in jail plus six months probation.  <\/span>“It’s an absolute outrage, he should be ashamed of himself,” said the District Attorney.  <\/span>The judge said, “This young man is deserving of a break.”  <\/span>On another occasion Judge Reichbach granted bail to an accused cop killer.[i]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

            <\/span>As a judge if you’re lenient on crime you gain a bad reputation.  <\/span>Outrage ensues if you relent in your punishment of murderers, drug dealers and drunk drivers.  <\/span>Prosecutors will try to avoid your courtroom and request that you remove yourself from their case.  <\/span>When it’s election time, your adversaries will run ads against you stirring up the ire of voters.  <\/span>Someone might even start a petition to recall you. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>When it comes to being a judge, God has gained a reputation for being soft on crime too.  Murderers, adulterers and habitual offenders have entered his court and walked away scot-free.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

(to be continued)<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[i]<\/span><\/span><\/a> http:\/\/articles.nydailynews.com\/2011-02-02\/news\/27738722_1_chief-prosecutor-undercover-cop-illegal-guns<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I‘m currently working on a new writing project.  Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-music-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nGod's Bad Reputation - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God's Bad Reputation - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I‘m currently working on a new writing project.  Here’s an excerpt:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-07T15:38:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God's Bad Reputation - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God's Bad Reputation - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"I‘m currently working on a new writing project.  Here’s an excerpt:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2011-03-07T15:38:50+00:00","author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html","name":"God's Bad Reputation - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-07T15:38:50+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-07T15:38:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/03\/gods-bad-reputation.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God’s Bad Reputation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}