I wanted to reply to this, but I think I have to try and take a break from this place for a while. I don't think it's good for my health; and as physically ill as I've made myself over the last couple days over this place (I guess anger really can affect your health), you just have to know when to quit for a while.
nbcrusader said:
Well, the verse clearly leave vengence to the Lord. I take that on a personal level, that I should not resort to retaliation.
I would say that's a valid interpretation of that passage. As such, isn't the death penalty a human form of retaliation?
Taking a verse as your own is applying it in your daily life. Making Scripture personal.
There's several that I try to apply to my life, and none of them are particularly easy. Where I struggle, much of the time, is extending compassion and respect to those who do not extend it to me. This often does not refer to specific individuals, but more to groups whom I do not have a particular affinity for these days.
My particularly high standards for integrity has made me particularly disgruntled with religion, as most people here know. Seeing what seems like a faceless ignorant mob trying to ruin any of my potential for love or happiness angers me intensely. But I also know that these groups thrive on my intense hatred of them. They WANT me to despise them. But what course do I take beyond that, if my conscience cannot remotely support them? Well, that's why life is a continuing challenge. I don't claim to have all the answers.
The New Testament brought a new convenant for salvation. It did not correct the Old Testament as Paul clearly notes in Romans 5 -7. The command of an eye for an eye (established as a limitation on punishment - the human tendancy was to want more) still stands. The is forgiveness and there are consequences. Both still exist.
Let's look at this from another angle. Back to Jesus' crucifixion, tradition has blamed the Jews for Jesus' death. However, as I've said, the Jews did not physically kill Jesus. Jesus' actual nailing to the cross and piercing of His side was done solely by the Romans--or should I say, the state. But I find it curious that the state is not blamed for Jesus' death. Pontius Pilate could have told the Jews to fuck off, and he could have sent an army of Roman soldiers to mow all of them down. It wouldn't have been the first or last time the Romans did just that.
Regardless, the blame, traditionally, was put on the Jews--or should I say, the people. I cannot ever think of a morally permissable reason ever to execute someone in this modern era. And if we do execute someone, are we ready to take responsibility for their deaths? Can we merely absolve our moral culpability for state-sponsored murder when 3/4 of America supports and actively encourages it? When you stand before God, could you look God in the eyes and justify your support for the execution of one of your fellow man, no matter how guilty this person probably was?
At the end of the day, I have to live with myself, and I can, at least, say that I never did anything to encourage the death penalty. And there was one time I was confronted with advice over an abortion. It was a friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing, so my opinion meant absolutely nothing. However, I never once gave my blessing and advised against it. Needless to say, however, I am fortunate enough to never have to deal with this issue personally.
As to the prior post, do you agree with Hiphop's assessment that a death penalty is permissible for "tyrants"?
Why grant martyrdom to these tyrants by killing them? I often prefer the fate granted to Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy. He was given a life sentence, and spent the last 21 years of his life sentence completely alone, left to degenerate into madness until the ripe old age of 93. Execution would have been the easy way out for him. The fact that most Nazis either mostly committed suicide or were imprisoned is why, I believe, why groups sympathetic to the Nazi cause are fringe groups. This is in stark contrast to the 1930s when much of America was in open and blatant admiration for Hitler.
Knowing that Saddam Hussein is going to be imminently found guilty and executed (no one honestly believes this trial is going to come to any other conclusion), there should be concern that Saddam will be revered as a "martyr."
And with "Tookie" here, how many would even know his name if he had been sentenced to life in prison without parole? He would have been just another nameless prisoner left to rot. And now, even in death, he joins an illustrious list of famous executed prisoners that will never be forgotten. There will be that inevitable postmodern film that somehow inserts him into the plot, and then "Tookie" will become legendary. Again, if he had been left to rot in prison, no one would even know his name.
Melon
