Is America reverting to 1,000 years ago?

[Igel]

11. Local governments were weak and the Church was strong.

And often justice was implemented without much of a trial by locals.

You would have trouble taking on the Church. It had authority. (Which may have adopted some of the sanctuary 'business' from Greeks and Romans, but still looked to the Torah for some of its implementation.)

It also blossomed in the "Dark Ages" and largely vanished during the Renaissance. It applied more to murder than other crimes, but I think few would want somebody who killed a "vulnerable" person to claim sanctuary and watch the police stay outside these days. Imagine a passionate defense of the idea for Dylann Roof.

You would be safe in the church--it was Church ground and authorities had no control over it. You would not be safe outside. And safe only for a limited time. The church required repentance (and perhaps conversion). And it might have its own penalty--it wasn't a permanent "stay out of jail free" card. This is "Church as secular power" building on classical examples but to some extent justifying it by taking over the Torah's restrictions and Jesus' preaching on forgiveness--after all, Jesus was our "go'el" or "redeemer". In the Torah if you were guilty of murder a go'el or "avenger of blood" if you're into KJV-speak was in charge of tracking you down and killing you--justice, sure, but also revenge. If it was accidental or claimed to be accidental, you could claim sanctuary, claim would be evaluated, and if it was an accident you'd be given leave to live in a sanctuary city. If you leave, the dead person's go'el could come after you and you'd have no protection. So the Church, if you repented, forgave you--but you'd be exiled. Exile in a time when survival depended often on family and family connections would be hard. (These days there are lots of support groups so self-exile, migration, is seen as better than staying put ... Something to remember about pre-modern utterances about "the stranger".)

I, for one, would have no trouble with police raiding a church to arrest a murderer--which is what the tradition mostly applied to. I would be okay with a pastor or priest stopping a lynch mob entering the church in order for civil authorities to arrest and investigate/try the person.