The case of the Turangi child rapist has ended. The details are disclosed. Most will be left in despair wondering what on earth can be done to stop this kind of thing happening again.
The family life of the rapist, Raurangi Marino has consequently come to light. It is pretty much as we expected. Broken home, alcohol and drugs, beatings, (rival) gang affiliations, parental desertion, family violence, and sexual assaults (2) upon the young Marino.
Canterbury University sociology professor and criminologist Greg Newbold said children who got into this sort of trouble come from the worst families."You don't get many happy, stable families who produce kids who do things like this."Stuff provides the litany:
Ms Wall, a former Black Power associate, said her son endured regular beatings at home. "I wanted it to stop but I couldn't because I was a hard-out alcoholic and it was the family versus me." She described Marino as a "good boy, a little naughty. He was just brought up too quick, too young, he got into drugs and alcohol too early. I take a lot of responsibility of what happened, and for his upbringing."The question that is in our face is, Can this family, and particularly Mr Marino jr, be saved? The short answer is, no. There is nothing, no power upon earth that can change or reform these lives. They are lost, and lost forever.
The family was angry at her, she said. "They call me a bad mother and [say] I have brought up horrible children. I'm deeply sorry for the little girl's family, she will go through trauma for the rest of her life." Marino's father, Mark Marino – a Taupo Mongrel Mob member – said he feared for his son's safety in prison.
Doubtless the Marinos will get a lot of false counsel. There will be those who will call them disgusting animals, sub-human, utterly worthy of degradation and the torments of Hell forever. They will be right. But unless they add the rider, "And so are we all" they will be deceiving themselves and the Marinos. When David lamented, "I am evil, born in sin" in Psalm 51 he was both telling the truth about himself, and yet confessing what is also true for every living human being upon the planet.
There will be those who will seek to encourage Raurangi Marino by telling him that the fault was not his. Rather, it was his dysfunctional family, his evil parents, his circumstances of life as a child, and the debilitating effects of alcohol and drugs. They will be right. But unless they add what the sentencing judge added--that Marino and Marino alone was responsible for his actions--they will be deceiving themselves and Marino. The Bible gives this burning indictment to all such: nothing--neither circumstances nor people--make us do evil. It comes from within, from the lusts of our own heart (James 1: 13,14).
There will be those who would try to ameliorate Marino's guilt, and his conscience, by deflecting blame to society at large. If society had provided "decent" jobs for Marino's parents, more benefits, less institutional racism; if society had not stripped Maori of their mana by stealing their lands and victimising the tangata whenua, then his mother and father would not have resorted to criminal gangs for their mana, and Marino would not have committed his crime. Such false counsellors who say such things are beneath contempt: they demean and degrade the Marinos most of all, making them less than human, easy tools, benighted slaves. Their indictment of society instead of the Marinos is self-serving and false and they also deserve the Outer Darkness.
No, there is no power upon earth that can save Raurangi Marino: he is Hell bound. Only God Himself can save the Marinos--if it were to please Him. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He hardens whom He desires. (Romans 9:18) But let none be in doubt: the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient and hard enough to atone for all His people amongst whom are numbered some of the worst moral degenerates ever seen by, or known to mankind. It would be sufficient for the Marinos.
But such mercy will not come cheap. Did not our Lord say, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23)? If Marino and his family are going to be delivered from Hell it will cost them everything, let none be in any doubt--least of all, them.
We hope that one day they come to the point where they would count that cost as nothing in comparison to being delivered from Hell and knowing Christ Jesus, their Lord. In the meantime, our confession is, "There, but for the grace of God, go we."
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