Thoughts on Political Subjects
Capital Punishment
War on Terrorism
Capital punishment is a violation of the Baptismal Covenant. When a person is baptized, we the Christian people present answer a question. "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?" "We will" is our response. This is symbolic. We speak not only for ourselves but the entire Church of Christ. Likewise, the person baptized is symbolic of all the other baptized. We are not so much making a promise to a particular baby that we may actually never meet again, but to the whole People of God. We promise as Christians to support other Christians in their life in Christ. "To do all in our power to support them." That doesn't mean killing them. No if's, and's, or but's about it. Murder is murder. Killing is killing. So killing another Christian is a direct violation of our Baptismal Covenant with God that unites us to the Universal Church.
And the Great Commission of Jesus -- "Go into all the world and baptize" -- precludes us from killing a non-Christian. We are called to evangelize, not kill.
Thus regardless of whether the convict is a Christian or not, we are violating our central covenant with God if we kill. The method of killing makes no difference. Whether I shoot a gun at someone or vote to support the death penalty through my government, I am guilty.
Capital punishment is also the ultimate hypocrisy. "You killed someone, so we're going to kill you." It is evil repaying evil. There is no other way around it. Like a deadly bacterium splitting itself in two, capital punishment is evil reproducing itself. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Most of the present discussions and arguments for or against capital punishment are actually irrelevant. It costs more to kill a criminal than to keep him locked up for life, but that doesn't matter. Capital punishment may well be inequitably applied across the races or the economic spectrum, but it is intrinsically wrong, regardless of how "equitably" it is applied to various racial groups. It is wrong because it destroys life; whether it is used in a racist or classist manner is a trivial concern compared with the overall evil and hypocrisy of resolving murder with murder. Likewise whether or not it is a deterrent (which evidence and logic both say it is not) is not the issue. Murder is always at least a deterrent against whatever the victim would have done in the future, but that surely does not justify it. And the argument that the Bible condones, or even proscribes, it is simply irrelevant. Humanity continues to evolve in love as God reveals more and more to us.
Remember, in all of history there are only two capital cases in which God directly spoke. In the first, as a woman was about to be stoned, Jesus said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," and she was released. In the second capital case God Himself was the Convict-Victim, hanging on the Tree of the Cross for our salvation, begging pardon for His executioners.
There is no place for supporting capital punishment among the Christian people. It represents the most hideous of crimes -- the willful, deliberate taking of a life. To the extent that our society uses it as retribution, it is all the more heinous. The attitude of the populace often demonstrates this. The more the public cries for a particular execution, the more wrapped in evil vengeance the execution becomes, and the more guilty the whole nation is.
Unlike most of the modern civilized world, my state (California) and my nation (the United States of America) both execute criminals. There is no single thing about my country of which I am more ashamed. I suppose if we were under a cruel dictator it would be easier to pass along the blame and circumscribe our personal responsibility, but since we are a democracy, we all share the guilt and responsibility. It is high time we all vote this barbaric system right out of existence. Seldom do I agree with the Pope on moral issues; in this case, however, I am proud to stand firmly with him. Life is life, and deliberately taking the life of a captured and subdued creature when there are other available means to protect society simply has no moral validity and denies God His sovereign right to use and bless all of the living. Hope springs eternal, and it is simply not our place to short-circuit its possibility. Return to Index.
Having said this about capital punishment, you might think that I was opposed to any and all wars. I cannot say that I am. There is a difference between wars aimed toward eliminating violence and evil from the world and murdering a caged human being. Life imprisonment without parole is a viable way of preventing further murder by a single evil person. And one cannot rationally argue that life without parole is significantly less of a deterrent than death, both because neither one would be a rational trade for whatever crime is committed and because most criminals don't contemplate rational decisions before committing their crimes anyway.
The difference with the "war on terrorism" is that we have not yet caught the terrorists and they are still out there openly planning terror in the world. If they could be apprehended and placed in prison for life, that would be the ideal situation. If we do catch one alive, that is what should happen. But if killing is the only way that they can be stopped, then it appears to be the only answer. The war on terrorism could (in theory) be a deterrent to terrorism in the indirect sense -- that others will think twice before joining or starting terrorist groups -- and in the direct sense that the particular terrorist organization will be rendered incapable of future acts of violence.
Killing is wrong, but at some point it is necessary to police the world to control violence. The war is not too different morally from the policeman who shoots and kills a criminal on the street in self defense or the defense of others because there is no other viable option. Though not necessarily a good thing, this is morally a far different than killing someone who is already behind bars. The war on terrorism is effectively the policing of the world, and in any police activity there will always be some criminals (and unfortunately some cops) who are killed.
Killing John Lindh, the "American Taliban," now that we have caught him would be just as immoral as any other act of capital punishment. He is in jail awaiting trial. Perhaps he deserves and will get life in prison. (I don't know and am not making judgment one way or the other here.) Just because he joined this hateful group, and even if he participated in active killing of Americans or others, killing him will still simply be repaying violence with violence and we will prove ourselves the moral equivalent of the Taliban by doing so. The same would be true if we actually caught Osama bin Laden alive.
But if the only way we can rid the world of Osama bin Laden and his evil is by bombing his bunker and killing him and his supporters, then perhaps that is what we must do. Not in vengeance for the World Trade Center. Not to placate the families of those killed in New York and the Pentagon. (Those events are history and nothing we can do will undo them or bring those people back.) But to prevent a future attack by Osama and to give a strong signal to anyone who might sympathize with him. (The thought of Osama being locked up in federal prison for the rest of his life would probably give just as strong a signal, but it might not be a realistic possibility.) Return to Index.