"We are worth more than the worst act we commit," says Sister Helen Prejean, an active supporter in the fight against capital punishment. This quote seems relevant in light of recent developments in the Virginia death penalty case involving Teresa Lewis. Lewis, along with two other conspirators, planned and carried out a gruesome murder against her husband and stepson in 2002. While Lewis plead guilty and received a death sentence in the case, the two men who carried out the crime only received a sentence of life in prison. According to CNN, court officials say that Lewis was sentenced to death because she was the, “head of this serpent.” According to The Washington Post, after multiple rounds of appeals, Lewis’ case finally reached the federal Supreme Court. The justices of the Court handed down their decision on Tuesday denying a stay of execution. TIME states that the Governor of Virginia, Bob McConnell also denied Lewis clemency and said, “Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency, the judicial opinions in this case, and other relevant materials, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court and affirmed by all reviewing courts.” CNN also reported other officials have stated Teresa Lewis “does not deserve mercy.”
As humans, are we equipped to make the decision of whether someone deserves life or death? Are we also equipped to take another humans life in such an intentional and calculated fashion as the death penalty? This issue is of the utmost importance to those in the Christian faith community. The debate surrounding capital punishment in the Church is not a new one. Ancient biblical scripture has seemingly supported the idea of capital punishment. Among these verses is Genesis 9:5-6 which states, “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” While this verse is used now to support a positive Christian view of the death penalty, the ancient Jewish people viewed verses such as these much differently. Dennis Sasso in his article entitled, “Capital Punishment Re-Examined,” says that while they recognized this verse as justification of capital punishment, they still considered “execution by the State at the least undesirable, at the most, barbarous.” He also says “the rabbis of two thousand years ago did not slavishly labor under the conception that the Bible categorically favors capital punishment…they went beyond the Biblical tradition. They took the Bible seriously, but not literally.” The context and interpretation of such scripture has changed over time. While some modern day Christian denominations support capital punishment, many have issued strong statements against the practice. The United Methodist Church, along with other religious organizations such as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States, and many other Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim communities have joined together to denounce the use of capital punishment.
We must also consider the effects capital punishment has on our society as a whole. When a person is put to death by capital punishment, it continues the victimization of human beings instead of correcting a wrong in society. While some people in support of the death penalty believe those against it are siding with the criminal, disagreeing with the death penalty is not supporting the actions of the guilty individual. By disagreeing with the intentional killing of another human being I am trying to forgive the sin and treat the sinner with compassion and love that he did not show his victim. Having an attitude of hate towards the criminal does not harm him, but continues to victimize the victim.
After presenting facts around the historical Christian debate of capital punishment, I ask again, are we equipped as humans to make the decision of whether someone deserves life or death? I do not believe we are. We are created in the image of God. In his article “Who Deserves to Live- Who Deserves to Die: Reflections on Capital Punishment,” Norman Dake states “No matter how dimmed or tainted that image may have become because of sin, it remains an essential part of us.” Capital punishment destroys a human being bearing the image of God. Instead of forgiveness, we offer death.
Christianity must decide whether it will stand for or against a state that allows the use of capital punishment. Can followers of Christ legitimately support this practice without calling into question their core beliefs? While the United States is not a Christian nation, there is a Christian community within it. As a Christian community, we are called to a qualitatively different moral standard of beliefs and practices then those necessary to maintain civil order. How will we let those beliefs and practices shape our political lives? Where will we stand in the public spectrum when the question of capital punishment’s merit is raised?
On Thursday, September 23, Teresa Lewis was escorted to the death chamber in a Virginia state prison. She was put to death by lethal injection. Her death, along with countless others, is a sign of a broken system within this country. As her impending death approached, Lewis told the NY Daily News, “I hope that something is going to turn around," she said, but "if I have to go home with Jesus... I know that's going to be the best thing. I don't think there is enough words to even begin to tell her how sorry I am... I want people to know that you can be a good person and make the wrong choice, I want people to know that.”
This is good stuff. I've been meaning to comment earlier, but I think this has some real umph behind it if you will and I think it makes a serious case not only about the American judicial system, but the American ethos and its understanding of Justice.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't see is how a supposedly "Christian" nation gets judgement and mercy wrong. Christians understand death to be the enemy and that justice cannot be served when death is happening. Well let me take that back, we do think that (sort of) justice was served in death (depending on soteriological ideas) on the cross. Justice in a weird sense. In any case, justice in the world has to be radically altered because of this. When Christians speak of justice they have to point to the cross. Not in the sense of execution, but in the sense that God's justice has been had.
I heard an interview last year sometime about another execution in Indiana I believe and the guys was a former heroin addict and they had a hard time finding veins to inject. Apparently they spent over an hour trying to get something to stick while the guy laid there and weeped. I was pissed. That's not justice, that's not reform, that's vengeance.
I think Augustine may have been right (along with Pope Jean Paul II) capital punishment might be ok IF we do not have the resources to prevent a murderer from doing it again. But looking at the prison infrastructures in America--that doesn't appear to be the case. Nor was it even necessarily the case for Augustine when Rome was being sacked. Point being: it's hard to find a time when it makes sense to kill someone because they've killed.