Certainly not by reason alone

A "right-wing Christian" offers the following meditation this morning:

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. — 2 Timothy 1:9

Only hours ago, the same penitent described a Memphis man whose works include allegedly shooting and stabbing six people to death as a "piece of trash" and "garbage" who deserves to be put to his own expedited death by the government.

Among the stranger interpretations of Christian doctrine is the one whereby the adepts are "saved by faith alone" as opposed to by works, which Jesus tends to downplay, since they lead a man to boast (as if an omniscient being wouldn't be hip to the motivation).

The potential conclusion to all this, of course, is that the Memphis man, by means of the appropriate expressions of faith, winds up frolicking gaily on the Elysian Fields while those of us not accepting Christ as our personal Saviour — for whatever reason — find ourselves writhing in perpetual agony on the eternal rotisserie no matter our positive attributes (such as a commendable facility in resisting urges to shoot and stab other people to death).

Apparently this is justice from an inspired perspective.