AN EYE FOR AN EYE, Pt. 2…5/13/08
by SteveThe United Methodist Church is on record as being adamantly and irrevocably opposed to the death penalty. We believe that all people are created in the image and likeness of God, that all life is God’s precious gift to be celebrated from conception to natural death. Our church Discipline says it like this: (page 117)
We oppose capital punishment and urge its elimination from a
all criminal codes.
“But what about the Bible?” some folks ask. Doesn’t the Bible say, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”? Yes. It’s true that the Old Testament permits and legislates executions. In the Bible, death is prescribed for murder, treason, kidnapping, idolatry, cursing, striking a parent, and bearing false witness in a death penalty trial. But not many of us would like to see that carried out today, would we? And even in the O.T., as soon as the capital crimes were defined, the Hebrew sense of the sacredness of life began to take over, making the death penalty harder and harder to carry out.
Look what happened: if the accused confessed, execution was forbidden. Two witnesses had to agree that the murder was deliberate, that it was pre-meditated, and that the killer was warned but would not listen. And finally, the witnesses had to be willing to act as the state’s executioners. Do you see what happened here? The spirit overcame the letter of the law, and that same spirit leads me to believe that the death penalty should be banned everywhere it is practiced.
Only the United States, of all western democracies, allows the death penalty. In fact, the death penalty is being abolished by countries all over the world, the exceptions being Iran, Iraq, China, South Africa, and a few former members of the Soviet Union. And we claim to be the Christian one.
RSS
This is a very challenging subject for me. Very bluntly, I have had the misfortune to meet people who ‘just needed killing’. As the son of a soldier, I shared some of the scorn heaped upon my father for the crime of serving his country during the Vietnam war, and still hear the voices screaming epithets such as “baby killer”, words thrown no less violently than bullets. As the son of a law enforcement officer, I know what our society’s ‘hired guns’ face daily. The most passive, pacifist woman will respond explosively if pushed to defend her children. Look around, with even a casually objective mind, and you’ll see a world which is remarkably violent – more the rule than the exception. Natures predators – cats, dogs, raptors, sharks, etc. – do not place a moral judgment on their violence, it’s merely how they survive, another meal. Yet, throughout human existence, people have always hunted and killed – executed – any animal that preyed on man, including the human animal/predator. Even as we developed the rules to live with one another, through culture and law, this remained prevalent – you take another’s life at the risk of your own. It almost seems a natural law in itself.
Next, there’s the whole issue of torture, or ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. It seems far more tortuous to imprison someone permanently, than execute them. Imagine: shackled, caged, bound to someone else’ will as surely as our African brethren were sold into slavery, in that dark period of our own history. Almost identical stories, if told by an innocent person, wrongly convicted. The single most deadly animal kept in the zoo, for those most deserving.
Overall, I find no answers though. All of the above observations can be added to, and countered. I could – would – defend myself, my family, friends, and country if need be, with violent deadly force, if I feel the threat of the same upon them. I have no trouble seeing myself as executioner under certain circumstances. But I can never get around this – “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Jesus gave us a better example, and was executed for it. In the end, any government that codifies execution has taken on the role of God in deciding life and death, and introduced all human failings into the decision. Death by committee is as frightening as life in a cage. We are allegedly Christian, and nothing in Christ’s teachings justify condoning executions. If to err is human, perhaps we should err on the side of caution, and not take that which we cannot give.
Bj
An excellent and thoughtful reply, as usual. I was especially gratified to see where you came down in the end. The fact is that, as Christians, we cannot go to gut feelings, society, or even our sense of fair play to see where we should stand on this issue. We go to Jesus…the highest authority. More to come tomorrow. sk