OF GOOD AND EVIL

Meditations on Death Penalty Issues and Evangelical Faith

In confronting the evil of capital punishment, we should never downplay the evil of the crime, that in some way lessening the impact of the crime will lessen the punishment.

Nor should we defend the guilty because we too are guilty (sinners), and that by absolving the sin and punishment of another we deserve our sin to be absolved.

Only by being condemned, can the murderer be saved. Mercy is a choice predicated by a transgression. Mercy and transgression are inseparably intertwined. So also condemnation and salvation.

Do we seek to spare the murderer by demonstrating that he is likable, had some good traits, has done positive things? Not if it is an attempt to merit or deserve mercy and life. Grace is never a scale of justice. Nor is salvation ever earned.

But it is right to demonstrate to an unbelieving person (who has seen the horror of the evil act), that the murderer is nevertheless a human being, created in the image of God, loved and sought out by that God.

Finally, the Christian must confront the fact of evil in this way: Is the love of God manifested in the act of the shedding of His Blood in the Son Jesus Christ sufficient to overcome evil? Is the Blood of Christ greater than any sin? Is the Cross more powerful than the sword? Is Love greater than evil?

Is there hope?

For several years our children, during evening prayers, have prayed for Ron. Even long before he committed his crime. Indeed, ever since he attempted to confess Christ in our home.

The prayer often becomes almost routine: "Bless Kenny and Ron, Tony and Frank." Four people named, some of whom the children have scarcely known. Prayer said sing-song, memorized, as children sometimes do (and adults, too). Prayer stated perhaps while their minds are somewhere else.

But they know why we are praying for them: That God would bring salvation to them, and that they would receive Him.

One more thing, for each of them, and for Ron, this: Daily he is remembered. He exists for another, us. He is somebody.

One cannot pray for salvation just for oneself. One prays for all, or none. For Christ has come for all.

I cannot absolve my sin by absolving another. But in praying for another's salvation, I pray for my own. I cannot bestow grace upon myself. But I can pray that grace is bestowed.

Suicide is more than biological despair. People kill themselves spiritually and mentally, too, often in quite acceptable forms. Not just drug and alcohol abuse. We can think of soap operas and sports fantasy worlds. Or the hedonistic retirement lifestyles of many elderly.

Sometimes at the nursing home where I work a resident for some reason is in the way. Perhaps an aggravating personality.

Of course, at my nursing home many people die every year.

Sometimes my heart says to my mind, "It would sure be convenient if this one or that one would die."

But of course I would never admit to anyone, myself, or God, that such a murderous feeling could come from my heart.

How many of us murderers are around daily, respectable within our communities, free to come and go as we please? We have never killed the flesh, but we have killed the spirit, in others, with our tongues.

It's not that I'm a good person; but I'm a good fake.

The scriptures witness that Christ comes not for the righteous but for sinners.

Christ comes for Ron the murderer, not for me the good person.

But Jesus is the fullness of the Kingdom of God. That is why Jesus says that the traitors and prostitutes will enter into the Kingdom of God before the religious people.

For Jesus comes for sinners.

I once wrote a state legislator urging him to reconsider his advocacy for capital punishment legislation, in light of his outspoken claim to be a Christian. He replied politely but firmly quoting The Old Testament Law concerning execution.

As Christians, is our hope in The Old Testament Law? For the wages of sin is death!

On Non-violence

To love ones enemy is to ask the impossible. To ensure ones own survival or ones lineage in the face of unwarranted attack is just.

Therefore it is unfair to expect the natural man or woman of the world to love the enemy. Why?

But the Christian is dead, or rather, has died and is arisen. The enemy, that is, death, is defeated. Death has no more ultimate power to conquer.

To witness love in the face of the power of death is the call of the Christian in this present world. Such is the light that overcomes darkness. For darkness cannot cast out darkness. Only light can.

So, for one to defend oneself is not to be condemned, even if it is not the way of Christ, for it is an "impossible task", enabled only by the Spirit of Christ. Thus He spoke to His disciples on the night He was betrayed, when He allowed them their knives and swords.

However, the idolatry of the order of death is another matter. To put ones faith, trust, hope in the power of violence is idolatry. All are guilty of this. For violence is not only physical, but mental, psychological, and spiritual. It is to trust in a power that controls and coerces. It is to take matters into ones own hands. It is idolatry.

Augustine of Hippo indeed does have some insight, but not in fullness.

One cannot justify killing another to save ones own life (whether physically, a reputation, etc.). Yet Augustine allows that one might not be condemned if violence is used to save another person from evil.

But what of idolatry?

To save or protect an innocent from evil, and not be idolatrous, one must rely on God. David did this when he faced the giant Goliath. David did not calculate, manipulate, or trust in superior military tools or skill. The victory was surely to be God's. One can never trust in horses and chariots. To do so is idolatrous.

Nevertheless the Christian must still face up to the high calling of Christ, which ultimately is to suffer for love, to take the low road of humility and non-power.

How scandalous that following the birth of Jesus, innocent babies were slaughtered. Yet Jesus was delivered to safety. Why did God allow Jesus to safe refuge yet allow other children to be slaughtered? Why is it that God did not first smite Herod dead?

Evil was the great power that ruled the world. But in that stable manger was born a greater power, agape love. And the evil would strike its heel, but the love would crush its head! (Gen.3:15)