By No Means Pardon the Guilty

Lindsay Clancy, King Solomon, and the Final Verdict

In 1954, a woman named Constance Fischer drowned her three children. She was able to avoid prison by being found to have postpartum psychosis.

Once she was released from a mental institute, she had three more children.

And she murdered them, too.

I have nine children. At one point in time, I had seven children under seven years old. At another point, I spent a total of three years on bedrest.

I write every word of what I am about to say based on two deeply held truths:

The first is that I have seen the darkness of the hard trials of motherhood. I have seen the underbelly of it and I have been in the deepest of trenches.

The second is more important than the first: Every word of God is true.

We are facing the sixth day of a deadlocked jury deliberation that may result in an acquittal for a woman who strangled her three babies to death with her own hands.

As someone who has spent the last fourteen years counseling women who are considering abortion, I am not surprised. Not by the murders, and not by our society’s confusion regarding what justice looks like.

While I was sidewalk counseling, a mother once explained to me why she could not accept her unborn baby’s medical diagnosis. She felt she had no choice but to murder her baby by abortion. After a longer conversation, I offered to adopt her baby. My husband and I have adopted four children, and I was dead serious.

In response, the woman placed her hand protectively over her visible pregnancy bump, right over her baby, and locked eyes with me.

She said, “I would rather deliver my baby girl alive and strangle her with my own hands than allow a Christian to adopt and raise her.”

Then she turned on her heel and walked into the abortion clinic, leaving me outside. I watched her leave a few hours later, laughing with her companion. She walked lighter, and her shirt hung looser in the front.

Another woman told me that abortion was empowering, and that she knew it was a baby, and that she had the right to “fry it like an egg and eat it” if she wanted to. She then walked inside for her fifth abortion.

When I repeat these stories, people who don’t do abortion counseling are visibly overwhelmed by the shock of it and inevitably say something like, “they didn’t mean that”.

I tell you today, they absolutely do.

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45

To put it more plainly, out of the heart the mouth speaks.

The wickedness of the age is speaking today. And it is speaking in this trial.

As I have pondered on what God’s word would have for us in such uncharted territories, it dawned on me that there is truly nothing new under the sun. Before Lyndsay Clancy, there was Constance Fisher, and before her, there were two prostitutes who stood before King Solomon, expecting him to judge between them as they fought over a baby that they both claimed was theirs:

And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. - 1 Kings 3:23-28

As I read Solomon’s true crime story, I pray for Lyndsay. Because in Solomon’s case, there are two women in question, and in Lyndsay’s, she is both of them.

I pray for the jurors. I pray that the wisdom of God will be in them to do justice.

I also have questions.

I wonder if Lindsay would still be seen as the victim by so many if she had killed someone else’s children that evening instead of her own. If she had quietly let herself into her neighbor’s basement, where three other children were snuggled down for a movie night while their parents were occupied upstairs, and she had strangled those children instead.

If she had killed your children instead of her own, because the voice told her to, and because the system failed her, would she still be the victim? Would a verdict be so elusive?

I also wonder if the addiction to the conspiracy-laced theories of influencers like Candace Owens, which trains people to slander the innocent, has caused many to accuse Lindsay’s husband (who is a victim of this crime) of being the murderer? Is this level of conspiracy-based slander really “just asking questions”?

Have we reached this point because children are now seen as disposable if their own parents no longer want them? Are children now expendable based on their perceived value? Has that opened the door to what we are seeing outside of the courtroom, where women are holding up signs saying, “Free Lindsay”?

If we are willing to legalize abortion up until the point of birth, I assure you, we have been desensitized to the value of life and are unable to discern evil from good. We are not walking in Truth.

To this, God says:

“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!”

Isaiah 5:20

The truth is that in this life, true justice will not come.

Even if Lyndsay were to receive the death penalty, the taking of Lindsay’s life could never bring enough justice for the panicked, breathless, terrified, painful death of her three precious children.

From a spiritual perspective, there is no way for any man or woman to atone for murder before God, or to atone for any other sin, for that matter. There is no way to clear guilt on our own, and we are all guilty before God of breaking His laws.

God will be the final judge, and eternity is at stake, so we need to know what kind of judge God is. What will His standard of innocence and justice be?

Providentially, when God passed before Moses, God told Moses about Himself. He described His own character, saying:

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

God had just given Moses the Ten Commandments, and was now defining Himself as the truest form of faithfulness, love, forgiveness, and justice by saying that He will not clear the guilty.

So, how do we know if we are “the guilty”?

James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”

If we break even one of those ten commandments, we are guilty of sin, and we cannot stand before a holy God. Take a moment and read through them, found here. It should knock the wind out of the proudest of chests to realize that this is His standard, and to break even one of these laws is to break them all.

Once we understand that everyone is guilty of sin, what is the verdict?

“The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).

In the end, left in our sin, we will be hell-bound. We may not be murderers, but we are haters. We have all lied, stolen, dishonored our parents. Some more than others, but all of us some.

We all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

We all need an acquittal. Better yet, we need a mediator.

Someone has to die for all of this death. Deep inside, we know this. Blood demands blood, and an eye for an eye.

And Someone has. Jesus Christ is this mediator between God and man. While we were dead in our sins, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He was crucified as the perfect, sinless sacrifice. He never sinned, making Him able to atone for us. He was truly God, truly man, and truly perfect.

“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” -Hebrews 9:15

In the Old Testament, the blood of countless slaughtered lambs was always pointing towards this mediator as people sacrificed their animals to the Lord. Spotless lambs, the best of the flock, bloodied for the worst of what lies within our hearts.

Jesus is this Lamb. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

And Jesus did not just live a perfect life and die a painful death on our behalf, He also rose from the dead and conquered death and sin, and is ruling from Heaven at the right hand of God even now (Ephesians 1:21).

He is calling out today, bidding you come. Murderers, abortionists, thieves, liars, all of you, come. Believe in the one who can make your sins “as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18) and cast them “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

Romans 6:23 doesn’t end in death (where I left it, above) it ends in Jesus. Here’s the rest of the verse:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

The way to eternal life in Heaven and the freedom of true forgiveness is found only in Christ, in calling out to Him in repentance and faith. His righteousness becomes your righteousness, and your death His death. His life for yours, His spotless record for yours. His forgiveness, forever. Your sins of past and future, nailed to the cross. Your life resurrected, your eternity secure.

The outcome of the Clancy trial matters, and I want to see justice done. But we are all in the midst of a greater trial, and the outcome of that one matters infinitely and eternally more.

I want to see Lindsay free, but not in the same way as the women outside of the courtroom do. If a woman can walk free after admitting to murdering her three children, justice isn’t even on the table. The freedom I want to see is from the spiritual burden of sin, which does not always mean the freedom from earthly consequences.

Jesus can atone for the murders of Cora, Dawson, and Callan, and for the sins of all who come to Him in faith. He atoned for mine, which were filthy and many in number, and He is ready for yours.

Run to Jesus today. He is coming back as both a judge and a mediator. Be ready! Get right with God through Jesus Christ, and tell others how they can be free.

Because in the end, earthly verdicts will not matter, and He will by no means pardon the guilty.