A man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in front of her children is on the loose in Pennsylvania, and it is no less than we deserve for our shedding of innocent blood and our failure to enforce biblical justice.
The manhunt for Danelo Cavalcante has captured the attention of Americans for the past two weeks. The story, thus far, includes a prison escape, a stolen van, a stolen rifle, school closures, and a massive search operation to find the escaped miscreant.
Sadly, most Americans will not stop and think about how this problem is our own fault.
Murderers and reprobates might pop up from time to time in a righteous society, but they would be dealt with. Swiftly.
Cavalcante, 34, was recently convicted of murder for stabbing his former girlfriend to death in front of her children outside of her home in Schuylkill Township in April 2021. (Cavalcante was also wanted for an alleged 2017 murder in Brazil.)
On August 31, Cavalcante escaped from a county prison while awaiting transfer to a state facility.
The current ordeal of searching for Cavalcante, however, could have been easily avoided had biblical law been followed.
Biblical law requires a convicted murderer to be executed: “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24:17).
If justice had been served, Cavalcante would have had a speedy trial and been executed years ago. But justice was not served. Instead, 27 months after he stabbed a woman to death, he is back on the loose.
I once spoke with Heather Adams, Lancaster County District Attorney, and told her that the reason we have so much crime is because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily. She thought that was too broad of a statement, but I still think it is true. I have God’s Word on it: “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
The first reason we deserve to have Cavalcante stalking our neighborhoods is because, as a society, we have spurned God’s mandate to execute murderers.
The sentence against Cavalcante’s evil deed was not executed speedily – in fact, it has not been executed at all. Instead, the murderer was slated to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Some people mistakenly think that is “justice.” It is not.
And that’s the second reason we deserve the Brazilian thug. We have adopted the prison system as the means of dealing with evil. In my latest book, Seven Statist Sins, I address the prison system and write that the “American prison system is at war with the biblical concepts of retribution and restitution.” Instead of executing capital offenders and requiring restitution in other cases, we have created a massive slave caste of criminals. If Cavalcante survives, and is caught, you and I will be paying for his room and board for the rest of his life. Vern Poythress was correct when he wrote that imprisonment is an “extreme form of slavery in which the wardens of the prison have much more detailed control in comparison with most historical instances of slavery.”
The third reason we deserve murderers roaming the backwoods of our counties is because we have shed innocent blood and have forfeited the blessing and protection of God upon our land.
The most poignant example of our shedding innocent blood is the execution of babies via abortion.
In 2020, there were over 32,000 abortions performed in Pennsylvania. That bloodshed, disproportionately affecting black babies, has stained our land and invited the removal of God’s restraining hand from among us.
The same thing happened to ancient Israel. The Psalmist recounts that the people “sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons” and “poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters…and the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 106:37-38). The result of that evil? The anger of the Lord “was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage” and “he gave them into the hand of the nations” (Psalm 106:40-41).
Jean-Marc Berthoud warned nearly 30 years ago that a society’s unwillingness to punish abortionists will result in collective judgment on the society: “It is not with impunity that a society thus violates divine law. If the magistrates do not individually apply the divine penalties upon such public crimes [e.g., abortion], it is inevitable that God Himself will attend to it by judgments which, after all is said and done, will be collective.”
We have slain the innocent, and we are worthy of collective judgment.
Ra’s al Ghul told Bruce Wayne that “when a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.” He is correct. The only thing al Ghul got wrong was that he took credit for what only God can dispense: judgment on societies who have “reached the pinnacle of [their] decadence.”
Perhaps it is not too late for America to turn from her sin, but without repentance we should expect only judgment. Let’s be honest, a 5-foot, 120-pound murderer on the loose is far less than we deserve for our rebellion.
Cavalcante will probably soon be caught (or shot), and all will return to “normal.” Except things will still be terribly wrong in America. Babies will still be murdered at Planned Parenthood, killers (like Cavalcante and abortionist butchers) will not face true justice, and the government will keep forcing Americans to pay for modern-day slaves to rot away in prisons.
We definitely deserve Cavalcante, but if we do not turn to God’s Law-Word, we can expect far worse.
Chris Hume is the managing editor of The Lancaster Patriot and host of The Lancaster Patriot Podcast. He can be reached at chris@thelancasterpatriot.com.
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