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Catholic Priest Bruce Ritter Founded Covenant House Youth ‘Safe House’ In New York Where The Young Boys He Housed Were Anything But Safe

Covenant House founder Father Bruce Ritter was a pedophile Catholic priest who created a safe house in order to give him a steady supply of homosexual boys.

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The Post’s front page on Dec. 12, 1989 shouted, “TIMES SQUARE PRIEST PROBED Former male prostitute cites ‘gifts.’” Based not on Kite’s word, but entirely on the facts of Morgenthau’s investigation, the story made no mention of sex with Ritter, except for one detail: Morgenthau had assigned the case to his Sex Crimes Unit.
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The fall of Covenant House founder Father Bruce Ritter was an omen of the sexual-abuse cases involving hundreds of Roman Catholic priests and tens of thousands of victims all over the world.

This story for me is personal. Multiple times during my Catholic high school days in the years between 1975-1979, Pedophile priest Bruce Ritter came to my school and recruited high school students for volunteer work at his Covenant House in nearby New York City. I was going to go, but something held me back from doing it, and now years later I can see exactly why. Bruce Ritter was using his Covenant House to supply himself with an endless stream of young boys that he dazzled with gifts and money in order to engage in sodomite activity.

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:1-3 (KJV)

When pedophile Catholic priest Bruce Ritter was operating back in the 70’s and 80’s, America and the rest of the world were nearly completely unaware and unprepared for the scandal that was getting ready to break.  But the Vatican was not unprepared, in fact, they used their global resources and endless mountains of money to cover it up so that no one would ever know what was going on. And for a time they were quite successful.

“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” Revelation 18:1-6 (KJV)

The real scandal is not that the Roman Catholic Church is populated by a majority of homosexual priests, and the real scandal is not that they like to abuse young boys and occasionally some young girls. No, the real scandal is that the Vatican has always known about it, has always protected it, and has always lied about it in order that it could continue. That’s why you see current Pope Francis moving so slowly, reluctant to take any real action at all other than giving speeches about it. Francis doesn’t want to do anything about it because having homosexual priests who abuse young boys is official policy of the Roman Catholic Church, and has been for centuries. That’s the real scandal here, and there will be no justice until Revelation 18.

Since Ritter’s fall, predatory priests have since been found to have abused thousands of children and young men in New York, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Australia, Chile and Ireland.

FROM NY POST: For 18 years, Bruce Ritter was considered a hero for how he ran the charity he founded for wayward, homeless youths. Then, several young men claimed he had sexual relationships with them and illegally used nonprofit Covenant House funds to lavish them with money and gifts. He was given a slap on the wrist: Manhattan prosecutors made him quit, but did not charge him. Yet when Ritter was forced out in the winter of 1990, following a courageous exposé in The Post, few in the city could guess how widespread the problem was.

Pedophile Priests and the Coverup of Sexual Abuse by the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church

VISIT THE NTEB ARCHIVE ON PEDOPHILE PRIESTS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

When the Bruce Ritter scandal was first broken by The Post in 1989, priest sex-abuse stories were rare in the United States and unheard of in New York.

His story differed from today’s church cases in that “the secular powers more than the archdiocese or the Franciscans protected him,” says Charles M. Sennott, the former Post reporter who at age 26 broke the story of the district attorney’s probe in December 1989.

Sennott, who founded and runs the Boston-based journalism advocacy and educational GroundTruth Project, said, “The story didn’t get at the deeper truth of coverups going on in one diocese after another” — because Covenant House belonged not to a diocese, but to the Franciscan order, a worldwide community of Roman Catholic priests founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century.

The Post’s front page on Dec. 12, 1989 shouted, “TIMES SQUARE PRIEST PROBED Former male prostitute cites ‘gifts.’” Based not on Kite’s word, but entirely on the facts of Morgenthau’s investigation, the story made no mention of sex with Ritter, except for one detail: Morgenthau had assigned the case to his Sex Crimes Unit.

But Ritter enjoyed a similar coverup for the same reasons that other charismatic clerics with cult-like followings do: unwillingness to blow the whistle on deviant priests who reel in money and garner political prestige under a veil of saintliness.

It took a young journalist to bring Ritter to heel, if not to justice. As Sennott related in his gripping 1992 book, “Broken Covenant,” it all started with an order from his boss to “pick up on six.”

Bruce Ritter founded Covenant House in 1972 as a small facility for homeless teens in the crime- and drug-ravaged East Village. But the strong-willed, intellectually brilliant and domineering priest eventually grew Covenant House into a charitable giant with 178 locations in the US, Canada, Mexico and Central America.

By 1979, its flagship shelter near Times Square was “emblazoned with a three-story symbol [of a dove in hand] painted in blue” flying above rooftops. Ritter’s belief in raising funds from private enterprise rather than from government made him seem the “perfect mix of free enterprise and compassion,” Sennott recalls.

President Ronald Reagan named Ritter one of America’s “unsung heroes” in his 1984 State of the Union Address. Covenant House subsequently more than tripled its annual budget from $27 million in 1985 to $90 million in 1989.

“He was a corporate St. Francis of Assisi,” Sennott said.

Ritter wielded the levers of power with an air of papal infallibility. In 1987, he outfoxed then-Mayor Ed Koch to take control of an old Greenwich Village union building that Koch wanted to use as a prison but where Ritter planned to house 800 homeless kids.

TV cameras focused on Bruce Ritter, then 62, standing next to First Lady Barbara Bush at President George H. W. Bush’s 1989 State of the Union Address. By that year, Covenant House’s board was a who’s who of financial and media clout.

It included captain of industry Peter Grace, financiers Teddy Forstmann and William Simon, Woman’s Day magazine editor-in-chief Ellen Levine and high executives of IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank and Bear Stearns.

But Ritter ran Covenant House virtually unchecked. Church officials and the organization’s insiders ignored years of buzz about his relationships with boys and a mysterious, secret “safe-house” program for certain youths who were Ritter’s favorites.

In October 1989, Post metropolitan editor John Cotter told Sennott to pick up a call. A former male prostitute named Kevin Lee Kite told Sennott about his long-term sexual relationship with Ritter. It wasn’t a crime — Kite was 25, although he claimed to be 19 — but Kite had much more to tell. In exchange for sex, Ritter had paid him off with a nice apartment, a computer, a college scholarship and money to buy good clothes and restaurant dinners — an illegal use of nonprofit Covenant House’s funds.

Sennott was raised in a traditional Catholic home in Boston and didn’t want to believe the worst about a saintly idol like Ritter. “It wasn’t easy for me,” Sennott recalled this week. “Cotter said to me, ‘What made you think it would be easy, pal? Welcome to journalism.’”

Days later, Kite showed Sennott paperwork to substantiate his claims, including receipts for the funds Covenant House lavished on him.

Kite told counselors at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Crime Victims that his liaisons with Ritter started when the priest met him years earlier in New Orleans and brought him to New York with the promise of leading him to a new life. But it turned out to be another form of prostitution, Kite learned: sex in exchange for money and goods. Ritter’s hypocrisy also infuriated him. While on a panel set up by US Attorney General Edwin Meese to “study” pornography, Ritter publicly warned that the genitalia on Michelangelo’s David sculpture could provoke dangerous sexual desires.

Kite’s next stop was the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Morgenthau’s famed sex-case prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, gave him a tape recorder to catch Ritter discussing sex and money with him.

Prodded by Cotter, who warned the reporter, “I’ll kick your ass” if he got beat on the story, Sennott pursued the scoop. He learned from sources that the DA had put Kite into a “witness-aid program” for his protection.

On Dec. 6, a nervous but determined Sennott reached Ritter by phone. The priest denied all the allegations to Sennott and suggested he, Ritter, was being “set up” by “organized crime.”

Father Bruce Ritter died in obscurity at his farmhouse in Otsego County on Oct. 7, 1999. Covenant House survived under new leadership, and continues to serve homeless and runaway youth. Since Ritter’s fall, predatory priests have since been found to have abused thousands of children and young men in New York, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Australia, Chile and Ireland. The church has paid out billions of dollars in settlements — including $60 million by the New York Archdiocese in the past two years, The Post reported this month.

Now Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò charges that Pope Francis has known since June 2013 that former Washington, DC, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was a “serial predator” but covered for him until an investigation forced McCarrick out in June. The pope unsatisfyingly responded, “I will not say a single word on this.”

It’s a pity that the church didn’t learn from the lesson of Father Bruce Ritter — that the truth will come out eventually, even if it’s too late to erase the suffering. READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Survivors Sue Archdiocese of New York, Covenant House And Franciscans For Sexual Abuse

Announce the filing of 2 lawsuits against the Archdiocese of New York, the Conventual Franciscan religious order, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York and Covenant House for sexual abuse as minors of 2 survivors by notorious perpetrator Fr. Bruce Ritter. The lawsuits were filed as a result of New York’s new Child Victims Act (CVA)

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Donald Trump

Eisenhower Warned Us About The Military-Industrial Complex, Now ‘President Of War’ Donald Trump Is Building One Beneath The White House Ballroom

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August 21, 2026

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From People’s House To Presidential Fortress As Trump Builds A Nuclear-Hardened Military Complex Beneath His Golden Ballroom

Donald Trump has spent years promoting himself as the great peacemaker, the man who would end wars and prevent World War III. Yet his most permanent architectural contribution to the American presidency is not a peace garden, a diplomatic center or a hall dedicated to reconciliation—it is a five-story military fortress buried beneath the White House. What began as a lavish ballroom with chandeliers, gold columns and thousand-seat state dinners is now being defended before the Supreme Court as an “integrated military complex” essential to surviving bombs, missiles, drones and even nuclear attack. The symbolism could not be more devastating: Trump talks like the president of peace, but he is rebuilding the People’s House for war. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Supreme Court has temporarily allowed construction to continue while considering the administration’s emergency appeal.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17 (KJB)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five-star general who understood war better than almost any president before or since, warned America in 1961 about the dangerous rise of the military-industrial complex. He cautioned that the combination of government power, military machinery and private industry could acquire “unwarranted influence” and endanger both liberty and democratic government. Sixty-five years later, Trump is constructing a literal military complex beside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Private corporations and wealthy elite donors finance the glittering ballroom above, while the government and military build the hardened command fortress below. Eisenhower’s warning is no longer merely hanging over Washington—it is being poured into the ground in nuclear-grade concrete.

The administration’s own Supreme Court filing removes all doubt about the true character of this structure. It describes five underground stories containing bomb shelters, military command-and-control capabilities, secure communications, emergency hospital facilities, missile-resistant columns, blast-proof glass, military-grade ventilation, sniper positions and a rooftop drone port. Above ground, visiting dignitaries will dine beneath crystal chandeliers; below their feet, military personnel will monitor tactical screens behind blast doors. The ballroom is the façade, but the bunker is the beating heart of his project.

This is the presidency Trump is physically preparing for: permanent threats, expanding militarization and catastrophic warfare. A true president of peace would be measured by the wars he ended and the bloodshed he prevented—not by the magnificence of the bunker he constructed for himself and future rulers. Trump may continue to speak the language of peace, but concrete tells the truth. Missiles, drones, bomb shelters, sniper nests and nuclear protection are not the architecture of a coming golden age. They are the architecture of a government expecting the world to burn. Donald Trump calls himself the president of peace, but his Military-Industrial Complex Ballroom reveals a president preparing for war.

Trump Is Fulfilling Eisenhower’s Warning Of The Military Industrial Complex

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

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THE PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: As Ben-Gvir Builds His Gallows, We Ask Are Israel’s Own Rulers Helping Make Jerusalem The ‘Burdensome Stone’ To The World?

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August 21, 2026

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THE WHOLE WORLD AGAINST JERUSALEM: Could The Actions Of Israel’s Own Leaders Be Helping Fulfill The End Times Conditions Foretold By The Prophets?

Isaiah’s warning is not merely some distant prophetic curiosity — we are watching the pattern unfold right now. The prophet Isaiah speaks of  “scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem”, and today Israel is being led by men whose rhetoric, policies and public displays are helping turn the nations against the Jewish state. Ben-Gvir standing before newly constructed gallows, boasting about executions and viewing booths, is not simply another controversial political moment; it is exactly the kind of spectacle that hardens global opinion, isolates Jerusalem and gives Israel’s enemies fresh ammunition. The world is already increasingly hostile toward Israel, and instead of slowing that momentum, some of Israel’s own rulers are actively pouring gasoline on the fire. The “scornful men” are ruling Jerusalem, and they are helping create the very conditions the prophets said would exist in the last days.

“Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 28:14 (KJB)

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” Zechariah 12:3 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast,  Zechariah said Jerusalem would become “a burdensome stone for all people” and that eventually “all the people of the earth” would be gathered against it (Zechariah 12:3 KJB). That prophecy does not require Israel to be innocent of every wrong action; in fact, Scripture repeatedly shows Israel in rebellion and under corrupt leadership immediately before divine intervention. What we are witnessing now is the process taking shape: outrage, condemnation, diplomatic isolation, growing hostility, and leaders in Jerusalem whose own actions are accelerating the collapse of international sympathy. Ben-Gvir’s gallows are not happening in a vacuum — they are part of a larger prophetic trajectory in which Jerusalem becomes increasingly unbearable to the nations. The road to Zechariah 12 is being built in real time, and astonishingly, some of the men ruling Jerusalem are helping pave it themselves. Today we do a Bible Study ripped from the headlines to show you just how close the Jews and Israel are to the time of Jacob’s trouble!

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

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Israel Is Building A Gallows Execution Complex For Convicted Palestinian Terrorists, And Security Minister Ben-Gvir Wants To Add Viewing Booths For Spectators

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August 20, 2026

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Israel Has Every Right To Punish Terrorists, But Ben-Gvir’s Gallows Execution Complex With Viewing Booths Turns Justice Into A Macabre Spectacle Of Death

Now The End Begins has stood unapologetically with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel for nearly two decades, and that will not change. But biblical support for Israel does not require giving Israeli politicians a blank check, and Itamar Ben-Gvir’s plans for an execution complex containing gallows with viewing booths cross a disturbing line between the solemn administration of justice and the creation of a spectacle surrounding death. This will undoubtedly turn the entire world against the Jews and Israel.

Something very dark and deeply unsettling is taking shape in Israel, and those of us who genuinely love the Jewish people should be willing to say so without hesitation. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been publicly promoting the construction of an execution facility for terrorists sentenced to death under Israel’s new death-penalty legislation. The proposed complex is not merely being discussed as a secure place where lawful executions would occur behind prison walls; reports surrounding the project describe gallows for hanging condemned prisoners along with designated viewing areas where surviving victims of terrorist attacks and members of bereaved families could witness those executions.

“Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 28:14 (KJB)

That distinction is what makes this story so disturbing. There is an enormous difference between a government deciding, after due process and conviction for murder, that a criminal deserves the death penalty, and a government intentionally designing facilities so grieving relatives can sit and watch the condemned man drop through a gallows. The first is the administration of judgment by civil authority. The second begins to transform judgment into something theatrical, emotional and dangerously close to ritualized vengeance. You will also note that this same application of justice is not applied to Israelis convicted of them same type of crimes. It is only for the Palestinians.

Now let me make something perfectly clear at the outset, because the Bible is perfectly clear about it: capital punishment is not inherently immoral. Long before the Law of Moses was given to Israel, God established the principle of human government after the Flood and connected the shedding of a murderer’s blood directly to the fact that human beings are created in the image of God.

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Genesis 9:6 (KJB)

Under Paul’s doctrine for the Church Age, the God-given authority of civil government to punish evildoers remains equally plain. Paul did not describe government as carrying an ornamental sword or an empty symbol of authority. He said the ruler “beareth not the sword in vain,” and identified the magistrate as a minister of God authorized to execute wrath upon the person who does evil.

“For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” Romans 13:4 (KJB)

There is therefore nothing unbiblical about saying that a murderer deserves death, and there is nothing unbiblical about Israel severely punishing terrorists who intentionally slaughter innocent people. After the barbarity of October 7, 2023, no reasonable person should have difficulty understanding the fury felt by Israelis who buried husbands, wives, children, parents and friends because terrorists deliberately invaded their communities to murder, rape, kidnap and terrorize. Israel has every right to protect its citizens, pursue terrorists and administer punishment against men convicted of intentionally murdering innocent people. Justice matters because human life matters. Punishment matters because God has ordained civil authority to restrain evil in a fallen world. But biblical justice and the enjoyment of vengeance are not the same thing, and that is precisely where the proposed viewing booths raise a very serious moral question.

Justice Should Be Solemn, Not Theatrical

A government execution should be one of the most sober, and somber, things a state ever does. Even when the condemned person has committed atrocities beyond description, the execution represents the government exercising the ultimate earthly penalty against a human being whose life is about to end. It should therefore be approached with gravity, restraint and solemnity rather than with celebration, political showmanship or anything resembling entertainment.

That is why the idea of specially designed viewing booths is so troubling. Supporters can argue that allowing victims and bereaved relatives to witness an execution may provide some sense of closure, and similar arrangements exist in certain jurisdictions elsewhere in the world. But the deliberate incorporation and public promotion of victim viewing areas alongside gallows gives the entire project a character that goes beyond simply carrying out a lawful sentence. It begins to create an environment in which the death of the condemned becomes part of an emotional experience being offered to those who have suffered because of him.

The Bible warns directly about what happens in the human heart when an enemy falls.

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” Proverbs 24:17,18 (KJB)

There is the biblical balance that modern politics so often loses. God judges wickedness, God authorizes government to punish evildoers, and God has never commanded His people to pretend that evil deserves no consequences. At the same time, God warns against allowing the heart to delight in the downfall of an enemy. Justice may demand that a murderer die, but righteousness does not require anyone to enjoy watching him die. That is where this entire project begins to feel macabre. The gallows themselves are severe but understandable within the framework of capital punishment. It is the decision to include viewing booths, and especially to highlight them publicly as part of the political presentation of the facility, that gives the impression that something more than justice is being cultivated.

Supporting Israel Does Not Mean Worshipping The Israeli Government

Christians desperately need to understand that biblical support for Israel does not mean unquestioning support for every decision made by the modern Israeli government. At Now The End Begins, we are unapologetically pro-Israel because the King James Bible is unapologetically pro-Israel. God gave the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jewish people remain the earthly people God chose for His purposes. The Church has not replaced Israel, Jerusalem has not lost its prophetic significance, and the promises God made to the Jewish people have not somehow been transferred to Rome, London, Washington or the professing Christian Church.

But none of those biblical truths mean every Israeli politician is righteous, every Israeli policy is biblical, or every action of the Israeli government deserves Christian applause. Benjamin Netanyahu is not King David, Itamar Ben-Gvir is not Moses, and the modern Knesset is not governing the nation under the direct Old Testament theocracy of Jehovah God. Modern Israel is a secular Jewish state prophetically regathered in unbelief, standing precisely where Bible prophecy said the Jewish people would once again stand as we move deeper into the closing moments of the Church Age.

That means Bible believers should be capable of holding two truths at the same time. We can defend Israel against antisemitism, stand against the satanic hatred of the Jewish people, reject the lie of Replacement Theology, recognize Israel’s right to defend itself against Islamic terrorism and still condemn something done by the Israeli government when it crosses a moral line. In fact, genuine friendship sometimes requires precisely that kind of honesty. When Israel does right, we should support her. When Israel is falsely accused, we should defend her. When the world once again begins resurrecting its ancient hatred of the Jews, we should expose and oppose it. But when an Israeli politician proudly points to an execution complex containing gallows and talks about places where grieving people can watch their enemies hang, Bible believers should retain enough spiritual discernment to call that image what it is.

Terrorism Is Evil, But So Is Learning To Enjoy Death

This is one of the most dangerous ways evil spreads. Terrorists commit atrocities so horrifying that they provoke entirely understandable rage among their victims. That rage creates a demand for justice, but if the heart is not guarded, the desire for justice can slowly become the desire for vengeance, and the desire for vengeance can eventually become satisfaction in watching another person suffer. Hamas committed unspeakable atrocities against the Jewish people. Nothing said here diminishes that reality by even one degree. October 7 was evil, Hamas terrorism is evil, kidnapping civilians is evil, murdering children is evil, and intentionally slaughtering innocent people deserves severe punishment. Calling a viewing gallery at a gallows disturbing does not magically transform terrorists into victims or erase the crimes for which they have been convicted.

The question is not whether terrorists deserve punishment. The question is what happens to a society when punishment itself becomes something people are encouraged to watch as entertainment.

There is a deep moral difference between executing a murderer because justice demands it and designing the execution environment so those harmed by him can watch his body fall from a rope. One is an action undertaken by the state because law has pronounced judgment. The other risks turning vengeance into an experience. The Bible draws the distinction with remarkable clarity. Romans 12 commands the individual not to avenge himself, while Romans 13 immediately establishes the authority of government to punish wrongdoing. Those two chapters are not contradictory; together they establish the proper boundary between personal vengeance and civil justice.

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Romans 12:19 (KJB)

The individual is told to leave vengeance with God, while the government is authorized to punish the evildoer. Government administers justice; individuals surrender vengeance to God. When a government begins constructing special viewing areas so victims can personally watch the execution of their enemies, those two categories begin moving dangerously close together. Perhaps some families believe witnessing an execution will give them closure. Perhaps some genuinely feel that watching the murderer die will finally provide peace after years of grief. I would never minimize the horror endured by families whose loved ones were butchered by terrorists. But closure does not ultimately come from a rope, and peace does not ultimately come from watching another human being stop breathing.

Israel Needs Justice, Not A Gallows Spectacle

Israel lives in a brutal neighborhood and faces enemies who openly desire her destruction. Terrorist organizations surrounding the Jewish state have repeatedly demonstrated that they are willing to murder Jewish men, women and children without mercy, and Israel therefore possesses both the right and the responsibility to defend its citizens. If duly constituted courts determine that terrorists convicted of intentional murder deserve death, there is nothing in the King James Bible requiring Christians to pretend that capital punishment itself is some great moral outrage.

But death should never become entertainment, execution should never become political theater, and the final punishment of a criminal should never be packaged as a spectacle from which people are invited to derive emotional satisfaction. The moment government begins promoting the opportunity to watch an enemy die, something has changed in the moral atmosphere surrounding justice. The imagery itself ought to trouble anyone capable of stepping outside the passions of the moment: a gallows, a hanging rope, viewing booths, spectators and politicians celebrating the construction of the facility. Whatever legal arguments may be advanced for each individual component, when assembled together they create an unmistakably grim picture.

Israel deserves justice against those who murder her people. Israel deserves security from terrorists who dream of wiping the Jewish state from the map. Israel deserves Christian friends who will stand beside the Jewish people when this lost and increasingly antisemitic world turns against them. But Israel does not need Christians who confuse biblical Zionism with unconditional approval of every politician in Jerusalem. Sometimes friendship means saying that something has gone too far. That is the line Israel must be exceedingly careful not to cross, and those of us who love Israel enough to defend her when the world lies about her should also love Israel enough to tell the truth when something is wrong. This is wrong, and we are saying something about it.

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