22 October 2010
Dear Editor:
It is not just wishful thinking that states can do without the death penalty. Generally, states that do not have capital punishment have lower homicide rates than states that have capital punishment.
People of New Testament times need to consider what Jesus did when asked about the legality of divorce. Jesus was aware of His present time and of what the law stated, but He referenced a time before the law was ever given to reveal what God’s intentions were/are for humanity (Mt. 19:3-8).
For the sake of our Protestant brethren in Arizona, I promise not to bring up the whole Henry VIII affair, but the example of what Jesus did regarding divorce is also valid for capital punishment. We only need to go back and to examine what God did about the very first homicide.
After Cain killed Abel, God put a seal on Cain so that no human being would presume to execute him (Gen. 4:15). Execution is God’s domain – not man’s.
This is the ideal of what God intended/intends for humanity even for today. Cain became a wanderer, but society today can not have killers on the loose. This is why we have jails. Incarceration is enough. The law of love leads one to choose life instead of death.
Until the saints come marching in, and I am not just referring to the ones in New Orleans, we all have work to do. Arizona, please pray the little prayer at www.de-vrouwe.net every day, and please call a moratorium for all capital cases.
“Society will never learn to respect human life when the state hypocritically kills those who have killed.” “The violence of capital punishment only begets more violence.”
Let the Arizonan without sin be the first to put the lethal needle in!
Sincerely,
Matthew R. Dunnigan
Fermo Posta:U.P. 47
Via Di Porta Angelica
00193 Roma
Italia
Tel. + 39 389 2762 150
Sorry to inform you there really isn’t such a thing anymore as the death penalty.
When a person sits in prison for 20 to 50 years on death row how can you call it a death penalty. Many die of disease or old age way before their time. In the 50s they were executed within a year and that was a death penalty. Cain just killed Able but some of the things these criminals do today think even God would have second thoughts. Tell the people of relatives that got murdered from escaped criminals that it was good their lives were spared.
Matthew,
In your comment you mentioned :”It is not just wishful thinking that states can do without the death penalty. Generally, states that do not have capital punishment have lower homicide rates than states that have capital punishment.” Can you document the states that do NOT have capital punishment, but have lower homicide rate? I seem to recall that the State of Texas has a lower homicide rate because of their adherence to the death penalty.
Unfortunately the criminal elements do not follow the accepted Judeo/Crhristian beliefs and do not seem to respect the human life they take. On the other hand, they fear the consequences that may come about if they were to take it.
Even though I agree with your concept, I fear that the lack of the death penalty might not be enough of a deterrent to prevent further cases of homicide.
Tanti auguri alla citta di Roma, dove sono cresciuto.
Sinceramente,
Andrea