The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-03-05
CRIMINAL|TY IS
NOT HERED|T AIRY
Biblical Quotations and Historical Cases
Of Crimes and Criminals are Used to
Sustain This Inmates Contention.
Environments Responsible.
TRUE CAUSEIS SHOWN
By The Sparro,c.

By "The Spayro,c.
Any one interested in what the
world at large terms the criminal is
also interested in what makes or
causes the criminal. =
In writing this article / fully un-
derstand that l am treading on dan
gerous ground, so to speak, for there
are lots of people who have their
own ideas on the subject. But our
convictions of the authenticity Of a
statement are not all the same, and
if a man came aud told you that the
United States had gone to war with
England, you would want better
proof of it than his mere word be-
fore you would believe it; SO it is
with criminality being hereditary,
we want something more substantial
than the word of few men that
are looking for notoriety, to con-
vince us that the tendency to COM
NIT crime is handed down from one
generation to another.
Some men who claim to have
made study of criminology from
every view point claim that the
criminal instinct is inherited from
the fathers of the criminal.-On
what do these great men base their
Observation-Disclosures do they get their
facts from?
OF course. you will understand
by the foregoing that [ am taking
the negative side of the question,
and | am going to use references for
my authority from the book of all
books, the Bible" to try show you
that criminality is not hereditary.
Old Testament References.
In First Book of Kings the 21st
chapter and 29th verse are these
words:-
"Seest thou how Ahab humbleth
himself before me? Because he
humbleth himself before me l will
not bring the evil in his days: but in
his soD's days will bring the evil
upon his house,
This is our reference of where
God put curse on the descend
ents Of one that disobeyed his laws,
and there are others, but 1 just
want to show that in the old Mo-
sale law the sins of the father was
descended on the son.
Now, after Christ come on earth,
He taught that every man had the
making of his own destiny in his
own hands, and through his suffer-
ing for the sins of the world did
away with the old Mosaic law.
New Testament References
Matthew 18th chapter and 18th
verse, For the son of man has come
to save that which was lost.''
Here the savior makes the broad
statement that His mission was to
redeem the people who were lost
through the sins of their forefath-
ers. He came to save that which
was lost.
In the old Testament God says:
The curse shall descend to the
third and fourth generation of thy
seed," but through the savior's sac
ifce He lifts that curse and man
starts anew from His coming.
All through the new Testament
you will find that sin or crime is not
natural. but that birth is natural.
Then, if sin or crime is an unnat-
ural state, how can you harmonic
the unnatural state with the natural?
1t does not stand to reason that
if you plant corn in the ground you
will expect to get apples from the
stocks.
Again, Christ taught the purity
of birth when He said to His dis
ciples when they asked, who is the
greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven n?
And Jesus called a little child
unto Him, and set him in the midst
of them, and said, Verify 1 say un-
to you, except We be converted. and
become as little children, ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heav-
en-" Matthew 18th chapter to 3rd
verses. Again: There were brought
unto him little children, that he
should put His hands on them, and
pray: And the disciples rebuked
them"
But Jesus said Suffer little child
ren to come unto me and forbid
them not; for of such is the king
dom Of heaven," Matthew 10Th chap
ter, 13 and IA verses.
Does it stand to reason that if
criminals are born that Christ
would teach thus? For He did not