Big B
06-04-2002, 02:24 AM
The Death Penalty (A Christian Defense)
By Tom Flannery
As Paul wrote, governments have the moral authority and obligation to execute capital criminals.
The death penalty has fallen on hard times recently thanks to a Columbia University study purporting a 68% error rate in capital cases and to the intense media scrutiny revolving around the presidential campaign of Texas Governor George W. Bush, whose state leads the nations in executions.
Responding to the Columbia University study in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece on June 16, University of Utah law professor Paul G. Cassell demonstrated the disingenuousness of the widely-publicized 68% error rate. He wrote: "For starters, [the 68% figure] has nothing to do with 'wrong man' mistakes—that is, cases in which an innocent person is convicted for a murder he did not commit. Indeed, missing from the media coverage was the most critical statistic: After reviewing 23 years of capital sentences, the study's authors (like other researchers) were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed. Thus, the most important error rate—the rate of mistaken executions—is zero."
Still, error rates are only one argument used by opponents of capital punishment. They also claim that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder, and they reject the notion that swiftly executing convicted murderers would reduce the nation's homicide rates. But this argument ignores an abundance of clear and compelling evidence to the contrary.
A recent piece by William Tucker in The New York Post traced the direct relationship between the use of capital punishment and low national homicide rates from the 1930s until the Supreme Court effectively abolished the death penalty in 1963, when murder rates almost immediately began to soar. The rates of executions and homicides have moved in tandem from 1963 to today. He concluded: "If murders and executions had followed the same pattern established before the effective abolition of the death penalty, more than half a million American lives could have been saved." No wonder Solomon wrote thousands of years ago under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccles. 8:11).
More often than not, though, arguments against the death penalty are based on religious grounds by professing Christians who believe it violates the will of God. The only problem with this reasoning is that the strongest pronouncements in favor of the death penalty are found in the Bible, which tells us that God instituted the death penalty through His covenant with Noah (Gen. 9) and made it the centerpiece of His judicial system in Israel under the Mosaic law (Ex. 21). While the sixth commandment is literally translated as "thou shalt not murder," killing was justified under the law in specific circumstances (such as capital crime and just war).
Many Christians who oppose capital punishment cite the passage of Scripture in which Jesus refused to condemn a woman caught in adultery and then confronted the religious leaders of that time about their own darkened hearts (John 8). Yet Jesus gave no indication that He intended to overturn all of the many Old Testament commands to execute capital criminals. He merely exercised a divine right as God in human flesh to pardon one woman (as God had pardoned adulterers King David and Gomer in the Old Testament without overturning His capital punishment laws).
Indeed, Jesus Himself declared that He came into the world to fulfill the law, not to destroy or overrule it (Matt. 5:17-19). He also endorsed the capital punishment laws instituted by Moses and criticized Israel's leaders for subverting them (Matt. 15:3-9, Mk. 7:8-13).
The apostle Paul, wrongly accused of committing a crime punishable by death, agreed that he should be executed if he had indeed committed a capital crime (Acts 25). He was ultimately exonerated and allowed to live, but only because he was innocent of the charge—and all of this occurred after Jesus' ascension, so the biblical death penalty was obviously still in effect.
As Paul wrote, governments have the moral authority and obligation to execute capital criminals (Rom. 13:1-4). The sooner we recognize this as a society, the better off we'll all be.
© 2000 Tom Flannery "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate.
Christianity.com © 2002 | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement
By Tom Flannery
As Paul wrote, governments have the moral authority and obligation to execute capital criminals.
The death penalty has fallen on hard times recently thanks to a Columbia University study purporting a 68% error rate in capital cases and to the intense media scrutiny revolving around the presidential campaign of Texas Governor George W. Bush, whose state leads the nations in executions.
Responding to the Columbia University study in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece on June 16, University of Utah law professor Paul G. Cassell demonstrated the disingenuousness of the widely-publicized 68% error rate. He wrote: "For starters, [the 68% figure] has nothing to do with 'wrong man' mistakes—that is, cases in which an innocent person is convicted for a murder he did not commit. Indeed, missing from the media coverage was the most critical statistic: After reviewing 23 years of capital sentences, the study's authors (like other researchers) were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed. Thus, the most important error rate—the rate of mistaken executions—is zero."
Still, error rates are only one argument used by opponents of capital punishment. They also claim that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder, and they reject the notion that swiftly executing convicted murderers would reduce the nation's homicide rates. But this argument ignores an abundance of clear and compelling evidence to the contrary.
A recent piece by William Tucker in The New York Post traced the direct relationship between the use of capital punishment and low national homicide rates from the 1930s until the Supreme Court effectively abolished the death penalty in 1963, when murder rates almost immediately began to soar. The rates of executions and homicides have moved in tandem from 1963 to today. He concluded: "If murders and executions had followed the same pattern established before the effective abolition of the death penalty, more than half a million American lives could have been saved." No wonder Solomon wrote thousands of years ago under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccles. 8:11).
More often than not, though, arguments against the death penalty are based on religious grounds by professing Christians who believe it violates the will of God. The only problem with this reasoning is that the strongest pronouncements in favor of the death penalty are found in the Bible, which tells us that God instituted the death penalty through His covenant with Noah (Gen. 9) and made it the centerpiece of His judicial system in Israel under the Mosaic law (Ex. 21). While the sixth commandment is literally translated as "thou shalt not murder," killing was justified under the law in specific circumstances (such as capital crime and just war).
Many Christians who oppose capital punishment cite the passage of Scripture in which Jesus refused to condemn a woman caught in adultery and then confronted the religious leaders of that time about their own darkened hearts (John 8). Yet Jesus gave no indication that He intended to overturn all of the many Old Testament commands to execute capital criminals. He merely exercised a divine right as God in human flesh to pardon one woman (as God had pardoned adulterers King David and Gomer in the Old Testament without overturning His capital punishment laws).
Indeed, Jesus Himself declared that He came into the world to fulfill the law, not to destroy or overrule it (Matt. 5:17-19). He also endorsed the capital punishment laws instituted by Moses and criticized Israel's leaders for subverting them (Matt. 15:3-9, Mk. 7:8-13).
The apostle Paul, wrongly accused of committing a crime punishable by death, agreed that he should be executed if he had indeed committed a capital crime (Acts 25). He was ultimately exonerated and allowed to live, but only because he was innocent of the charge—and all of this occurred after Jesus' ascension, so the biblical death penalty was obviously still in effect.
As Paul wrote, governments have the moral authority and obligation to execute capital criminals (Rom. 13:1-4). The sooner we recognize this as a society, the better off we'll all be.
© 2000 Tom Flannery "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate.
Christianity.com © 2002 | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement