I’m a fan of Jack Dunphy. But I can’t agree with the opening of his latest article:

In the immediate aftermath of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a collection of crosses was erected on a site near the school, one to honor each victim of the massacre. It would have been a fitting memorial but for one glaring defect: There were 15 crosses, which is to say that two of them were intended to honor Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who had killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide. Some well-meaning but morally confused person considered it appropriate that the murderers be honored along with the murdered. I also recall seeing a hand-lettered sign posted somewhere near the campus that read, incredibly, “We forgive you Eric and Dylan.” How long will it be before we see this kind of moral confusion at Virginia Tech? I’m afraid it’s already started.

I assume that the crosses were there to commemorate and mourn, not to honor in the sense of applauding. The notion that we are called upon to forgive others, even those guilty of heinous acts, even the unrepentant, is well within the mainstream of Christian thought. You can think this view is morally mistaken, or even confused, but if so you should probably object to crosses in the first place.

Dunphy’s main point in the article is that it’s a mistake to fault the Virginia Tech administration and police for their decisions yesterday. Maybe he is right. But even if the people he is arguing against are confused, I don’t think it’s fair to say that they’re morally confused. They’re not trying to let the killer off the hook.