Whoever sheds man's blood,
By man his blood shall be shed,
For in the image of God
He made man.
—Genesis 9:6
For those who will protest that this is an Old Testament passage, you have not read Romans 13.
1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;
4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
Notice that in Romans we see that government is an avenger sent by God to bring wrath. Whose wrath? God's. Notice also that the government is supposed to cause fear. This is not a weak and permissive government that overlooks crime.
Do criminals fear punishment in America? I believe they do not and one of the reasons is that the government is both slow and weak in punishing crime. There is a disconnect between the crime and the punishment because of an extremely slow and broken legal system. When people who are already convicted sit on death row for years awaiting their execution, hoping for another appeal, isn't there something terribly wrong here?
My solution:
For capital murder cases, the death penalty should be required for anyone who is convicted. They are allowed one appeal, with a time limit for that appeal (just long enough to schedule and prepare the case). If the time limit passes, they forfeit their right to appeal and are executed immediately. If they have their one appeal and it fails to overturn their conviction, they are to be executed within one week of the appeal.
For those who claim that the death penalty does not deter crime, I would say that we really don't know because it has never been done right (swiftly) in modern American society. But even if it did in no way deter crime, it would still be just and necessary. See the Genesis passage above. The focus of the verse is not on deterring crime, but on honoring life created in God's image. It therefore has a greater purpose. It has to do with who God is and what He has created, why He created it and how He desires to be known and understood. Therefore the debate is deeper and more precious to those who call themselves Christians. It is not a political issue, but a theological one. As Christians we have to not only support the death penalty personally, we must fight for it in the public arena and the courts. Other passages of Scripture indicate that God holds an entire society responsible when the blood of innocents is shed with no justice. Therefore America has much to fear from this Holy God.
No comments:
Post a Comment