25 February 2003 01:13
well, it has been kindly requested that i speak forth on the issue of the death penalty.the requester wanted to know my opinion out of curiousity. so out of curiousity i asked my roomate what he thought about all the prisoners sitting on death row. he said,
"kill them all and let God sort it out."
ahh, such a good influence my roomate is on me. however, his statement (spoken in jest) mirrors closely the rather sarcastic replys i first gave to the person who wanted my opinion (i replied we should kill them even if they be innocent because it maintains order in society. the needs of many outweight the needs of one). so why do two Christian guys who desire to be peacemakers have first responses of sarcasm? well, we could just be two rather sarcastic guys.
however, my hypothesis is that we feel that something is inherently wrong with the system. in my suite we have three guys. i'm agains the death penalty, my roomate is more for than against, and our suitemate is for. all three of us think our justice system has major problems and needs to be revamped. i think this is the reason for our initial responses.. we don't have any faith in the system. being of course insignificant little voters who mean nothing, we revert to sarcasm to maintain our egos. if you can't beat 'em make fun of 'em
anywayze, to my personal opinion: i am opposed to the death penalty. God has of course given a sword of punishment to the government for them to uphold order in society. however, if someone is executed, they are now beyond the reach of redemption (unless they be saved before they die). i also consider a painless death by injection or some such to be useless. people inclined to crime are supposed to not commit crime based on a fear of punishment, no? a non-christian will indeed usually fear death, but a painful death (particuarly one similar to a death they inflicted on their victim) will be much more feared than a painless death by injection. i fully realize that we do not want a country run by fear, the result would probably be the salem witch trials on a massive scale, or a bloody revolution within a short period of time. however, treating criminals like they are victims of their enviornment and not responsible for their actions is imbecilic. (believe me, for removing God, killing the family, and coddling the criminal, this country deserves every thing it's got coming to it).
i would offer a word of suggestion to the gov't. ignoring the afterlife (which we christians know to be coming, but non-Christians often do not accept), there are things much worse than death (to borrow a quote from Eago in Aladin). there is a massive grey area between right and wrong in this issue. i'm inclined to disagree with the accepted interpretation of "cruel and unusual punishment". physical punishment (some say torture) is a powerful tool in discouraging crime, but again, if the governmetn goes to far they face a country ruled by fear instead of freedom. not good. some say that this choice is not for us to make. they're right, it's for the government to make. it's a tough choice, but that's why we elected them, to make the choices that govern the people.
ps, i do not mean punishment by way of pulling out finger nails and such. but i am a strong proponent of chain gangs and the like. put them to good use. it's energy efficient.
however, i do not wish it upon the heads of the government officials to be the ones pushing the big red "push to kill" button in the execution chamber. or upon the jury. i could never be a jury member in a deathpenalty case because i'm biased from the start, and i would never want a person's death upon my head. it's like pulling a trigger on the battle field. i pull that trigger on a non-Christian, and i know with certainty that i will never claim them as a brother in heaven. if i don't, who konws what the Spirit may work? and if i pull the trigger on a Christian, what good have i accomplished? it makes me feel defeated just to think of it.
01:13 email me permalink / commentary (0)
