534 The Death Penalty
“Clothman,” Laurie asked me some years ago, “are you in favor of the death penalty?”
“Yes, Laurie, I support the death penalty.”
“Why?” Laurie followed up.
Dang it, why couldn’t she just leave it? Unbeknownst to her, Laurie just exposed a glaring character flaw I had been seeing in myself. As with many controversial topics such as war, evolution, gay marriage, immigration, hell, rap music and incandescent light bulbs, I tended to answer the way I had been taught, not the way I thought. That’s because I hadn’t taken the time to think these through. Instead, I just parroted a set of memorized talking points which defended my “company line.”
Surely, I’m not the only one guilty of this? Who has time to research all those dreaded “why” questions? I have a job to do, kids to raise, a home to maintain… And when I do have free time do I want to spend it researching the death penalty?
I mumbled to Laurie, “Well, ah, because the punishment should fit the crime …and ah, the victims need closure …and well we shouldn’t have to pay for violent offenders to live out their lives behind bars…” My voice trailed off.
I was completely dissatisfied with myself. Apparently I had reached a point in my life that busy or not I needed to start thinking for myself. I could no longer pretend that I had thought something through when I hadn’t. “Honestly Laurie,” I finally admitted, “I don’t know what I think.”
Since then I have taken time to research the death penalty and guess what? I no longer believe in it. Very early into my research I found my old taking points were not only weak but inconsistent with Jesus and the New Testament. Let me give several quick examples.
1) It costs tax payers substantially more to defend dead penalty appeals than for life imprisonment. 2) The endless appeals process forces victims’ loved ones to constantly relive their pain, delays their healing process and doesn’t offer closure. 3) The so-called closure for loved ones satisfies something dark within human nature that ultimately does more harm than good. 4) The death penalty is not a deterrent. Most violent offenses are crimes of passion and irrationality. Not only are these criminals not thinking about the death penalty, they are not thinking period. 5) 23 of the 25 states with the highest murder rates have the death penalty. More than half of the states with the lowest murder rates don’t. 6) What about the innocent men and women who are wrongfully charged and put to death? 7) Someone has to administer the death penalty – could you? Then why ask others to? 8) In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus clearly did away with this “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” type of justice (Matthew 5:38-48). 9) God doesn’t impose the death penalty. “It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three – sin, guilt, death – are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).
You may or may not agree with me, but it feels so good to actually know what I think.
|
|
