Film director Roman Polanski was recently arrested on a 32-year-old charge of statutory rape, which he pled guilty to in 1977 before fleeing the country. Now, while Polanski fights extradition, Hollywood rallies for his freedom, and news sources turn it into a story about a celebrity instead of about our justice system, others are asking, "What if Polanski were a Catholic priest who had abused children?"

Meanwhile, many Americans are scratching their heads. Unfortunately, it seems many of the people quick to give their opinion on this issue got their facts from Wikipedia and assume it wasn't as appalling as it sounds. Well, they are wrong. (Warning: Reading the facts may make you sick.)

Hollywood hasn't forgotten, however, because apparently Hollywood never blamed Polanski for raping a 13-year-old girl in the first place. (To be fair, there are exceptions.) People protesting the "Polanski persecution" include Harvey Weinstein, Peter Fonda, and Whoopi Goldberg, among others, who are all old enough to know better. No, it's probably not fair that the only reason the L.A. Police Department knew Polanski would be in Switzerland was because he's famous. It's not fair that Polanski has been celebrated—and publicly awarded, including an Oscar in 2003—for the 32 years since he fled the country, either. His arrest in Switzerland, in fact, came about because he had a Lifetime Achievement Award to accept.

But as Jeri Thompson, wife of Law & Order mainstay Fred Thompson, and no stranger to celebrity culture, wrote, it's "one more piece of compelling evidence of just how out of touch the 'artistic' community is with the rest of America." Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that such an explanation is a little too easy, just as it would be to say that Catholics are out of touch with the rest of the denominations.

As usual, it comes back to fundamentals. In this case, I think it is a matter of understanding human nature. People come to Christ as they acknowledge their need for him. Usually that means the two-step recognition of our own capacity for depravity, and God's wonderful capacity for redeeming grace. That is the basis for our Christian understanding of forgiveness, as well as our belief in the possibility of change.

That is why a church in Kentucky recently ordained a sex offender as a minister. I hope that in that case, the church believes this man has changed, not because of their belief in the man's fundamental goodness, but a belief in God's power. It is possible for a man to have committed evil and still be capable of good. Still, the man in this example served a prison sentence for his crime. Both steps—the punishment and the forgiveness—are important.

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The Christian principle of forgiveness is not a replacement for the justice system. That is why it doesn't matter (except to her, of course) that his victim has forgiven Polanksi. No punishment can turn back time on a crime. The basis of the U.S. justice system is the deterrence of crime. Biblically speaking, restoration is very different from punishment and one that denotes repair or return to perfection and wholeness. God is the only path to restoration.

It is so important to bring God into the prisons, into rehab programs and other aspects of the justice system. Because while the justice system is a societal good, it cannot offer healing to the person. Only God can do that. Navigating conflicting reasons why this person or that person "deserves" forgiveness should be easy, because restoration is not something any of us can offer. Not even, in the case of Polanski, his victim.

As a woman, I am horrified when I read any part of that little girl's testimony. As a woman, I wince when I see someone dismiss Polanski's crime as unimportant compared with everything else going on in the world. As a woman who is a Christian, however, I am delighted that someone finally took action (for whatever reasons) to put Polanski in jail where he belongs. The sooner they get him there, the sooner he might be ready to listen when a prison minister tries to tell him that Christ offers a far better alternative to running away from that crushing burden of guilt.

Alicia Cohn previously interned at Christianity Today magazine. She has written previous blog posts for Her.meneutics on Anne Graham Lotz, parental rights, journalists in North Korea, Juanita Bynum, Margot Starbuck, summer reading, marriage in Florida, the Breast Cancer Bible, and The Stoning of Soraya M.

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