Maxine Carr - Documents stolen from prison official's car.

Sometimes you just get one of those feelings...
When something's wrong, or just doesn't seem to add up, a little man eats away inside your gut...
Just like the insurance boss, played by Edward G. Robinson in the film 'Double Indemnity', most of us get a gut feeling when something feels rotten...
That little man niggles away, deep down inside you.

When, in the latest news regarding Maxine Carr, my ears heard the phrase "The documents were stolen from a prison official's car," the little man inside my stomach heard, "A prison official's homework was eaten by the dog."

In psalm 139, which crops up in my morning prayer devotions quite regularly, the psalmist wrote:
O that you would slay the wicked, O God!
You that thirst for blood, depart from me.
They speak despitefully against you; your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those, O Lord, who hate you? and do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with a perfect hatred; they have become my own enemies.

Maxine Carr was a hapless fool who had nothing to do with anyone's murder. Her crime, however, was serious enough for imprisonment and quite rightly so. Her mistake was being in love. In love with the wrong person. But some people, caught up with the natural and justified disgust of the evil crimes of her boyfriend, are misdirecting their feelings of hatred to the wrong person.

Jesus taught us that love must replace hatred.

Remembering to ignore all those who call themselves fundamentalists, but are not - they are misinterpreters, all religions teach love and reconciliation (an almost impossible task).

So, I call upon anyone who feels hatred toward Maxine Carr to stop and think. Think about their natural hatred, where they are directing it and how to try what may seem impossible, by turning that hatred into love.
You see, that is the one thing that all true Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindi and all the major religions of the world have in common - the importance of love - love of God and love of each other.

If anything should happen to Maxine Carr, everyone who knew the whereabouts of the documents when they were stolen may find themselves party to yet another wicked crime and someone may commit that crime. A crime which, like all crimes will be justly punished, hopefully in this world and certainly in the next.

Pax et Bonum,
Reuben Condie Reader - Diocese of Newcastle