By Rev. Christian Iosso

Pardoning Hunter Biden would be a stain on the Biden administration, while encouraging a coming fest of Trump favoritism. It is exaggerated.

The real stain on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is their role as accomplices in the genocide in Gaza and the strengthening of apartheid in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – while the settlers do not commit outright murder.

Biden/Harris’ disregard for international law and just war principles has damaged our standing in the world for years to come. Should we even count the billions they squandered to help Israel’s right-wing government get ahead of itself? Late night comedians joked that Hunter’s pardon was a great Christmas present, but even the original Christmas had the dark side of slaughtering the innocent (Matthew 2:16-18).

Then, as Human Rights Day came and went, Biden made a gesture toward moral consistency last week: The president commuted 1,500 sentences people serving a sentence of home confinement. We hope that more real prisoners can receive a justifiable second chance, because pardons can correct the flaws in our money-driven criminal justice system.

But how about freeing drug addicts convicted of federal crimes caused by their addiction, as in the case of Hunter Biden? Many are serving sentences that are too long.

What about the release of women excessively punished for resisting abuse, or of those of both sexes brutalized in prison? What about whistleblowers in national security cases that revealed violations of the rights of U.S. citizens or human rights violations abroad? Why not forgive the wilderness defenders who blocked development of federal lands?

Mercy must be saved from favoritism, but public acts of forgiveness and even repentance can also open the way to reconciliation and reveal the limits of soul-shrinking vengeance.

When it comes to tainting the United States itself, the extraterritorial and unconstitutional prison of Guantanamo Bay has long been the scene of cruel and unusual punishments – simulated drowning, force-feeding, etc. – and massive violations of due process, no matter how heinous the alleged (and mostly unproven) crimes.

If foreign nationals cannot be pardoned for non-conviction, can’t Biden drop the charges or transfer these captives to more legal and less expensive locations? Yes, I remember 9/11, but after the serious overreactions in Afghanistan and Iraq, it’s much harder to view these wounded men as threats to national security.

In a world of widespread dictatorship, wars are generally not the result of irrational terrorism but of resistance efforts designed to be crushed and driven to despair. Ukraine is a clear case, and, less clearly, that of Sudan.

But the same is true in the Holy Land, where Palestinians have been denied their human rights since 1948.

Not to defend the killing of innocents on October 7, 2023, but the widespread famine and indiscriminate leveling of Gaza – fueled by American weapons – makes a mockery of any claim to justice, self-defense or lasting peace.

Even the leader of Saudi Arabia denounced the genocide. Most people in the world, including 1.9 billion Muslims – nearly a quarter of the world’s population – have some idea that the American Jews and Christians who support this massacre have a strange way of showing their values.

Or do we just humor our friends – no matter what they do and no matter the long-term cost?

If Biden and the Democrats have any concern for peace and justice, now is the time to stop pardoning Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for land-stealing settlers. They have derided the two-state option and seek to destroy humanitarian aid efforts – right down to the repeated bombings of Global Central Cuisinen and United Nations aid workers.

Will Trump be worse? That’s possible, but it doesn’t justify Biden adding another stain to America’s record in the Middle East.

The big question is whether there can be a moral order in international affairs. Beyond not pardoning Bibi, Biden and Harris should allow U.S. participation in as many international justice organizations as possible. Yes, it may be easy to undo these efforts, but Biden must demonstrate more concern for justice and mercy.

Exempting oneself from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, for example, suggests that international law is a problem rather than a reflection of the image of God in each person.

As a pastor whose Christmas celebrations include praying “for peace in Jerusalem,” I cannot take my eyes off the oppression there and in other parts of the world.

I will pray for those in power as well as the weak, who need to be lifted up. No Christian or congregation is an island, and our moral vision must embrace legitimate differences of opinion.

But the Gospel’s response to the slaughter of the innocent is not that “the Romans will be worse.” We and our leaders should be better.

The Rev. Christian Iosso, PhD, serves as interim minister at Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church in Union. A native of New Providence, he served as ethicist for the Presbyterian Church (USA).

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