The Scarlet Letter

The Puritans in the Scarlet Letter claimed to be great Christians. Well the way they handled some things weren't exactly the way God would have handled it. The punishments back then for some sins were very harsh. In Christ's eyes all sin is viewed equally. No sin is worse than any other. I will show the differences in the way the Puritans handle Hester Prynnes sin of adultery and the way God would handle it.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne committed adultery while her husband was gone. They found out she had once she became pregnant, and she was immediately shunned, and they wanted to kill her. In John:1-11, a woman was caught in the act of adultery and brought to Jesus by the teacher's of the law and the Pharisees to be stoned. In both instances, they want to immediately punish them with death. In The Scarlet Letter, a matron in the crowd said, "This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die" and another said, "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead." In there eyes, adultery is a terrible sin, and she she should die or have a very harsh punishment for her wrongdoings. In the bible, the teacher's of the law and the Pharisees thought the same thing and thought that she should have been stoned and put to death because her sin was so bad.
Instead of killing Hester Prynne, they decided to brand her with a scarlet letter "A" on her breast that stood for adultery. So that everyone who saw her would know the sin she had committed and that she would immediately be judged for it. The book says, "It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself." In the bible, when they brought the woman to Jesus and told him what she had done he just bent down and began to write in the ground with his finger. He was not interested at all in what they were saying. They kept on questioning Jesus, so he then stood up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Instead of isolating the woman from everyone and making her feel little because of her sin, he made the other's that wanted to stone her feel little too about themselves. This sin that this woman had committed was no greater or worse than any other sin.
In Jesus's eyes, sin is sin. No sin is greater than another. Jesus handled the exact same situation as the book by making the teachers of the law and the Pharisees guilty of their own sin and letting her free of her sin she had committed. Hester suffered years of isolation and loneliness before earning her trust and respect back of the people. She had to wear the scarlet letter "A" that reminded her and everyone else of her sin every day. They put her on the scaffold and announced to everyone in the town of her sin and what her punishment for it was. They said, "Open a passage; and, I promise ye, Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child may have a fair sight of her brave apparel, from this time till an hour past meridian. A blessing on the righteous Colony of the Massachusetts, where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!" I chose this quote because it shows the bravery she will have to be in front of all the people every day showing her sin by wearing her letter "A" for adultery. The Puritans claimed that they were these great Christians but they were really hypocritical. God wouldn't have handled this situation this way, he would have forgiven her of her sin and she was free of that burden for life. You see, just because someone did something very bad doesn't mean you should kill them or punish them very severely for it. We all make mistakes and sin is sin. You have to forgive people for things and not hold things against them for long periods of time.