You Can’t Murder, Murder
Capital punishment denies the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit. The death penalty has been a strategy of terror by the Empire since before Ceaser. Historically Jesus of Nazareth was an innocent person of color, falsely arrested, tortured and put to death for a crime he did not commit. Jesus was a victim of the death penalty carried out by a corrupt government who simultaneously let a guilty violent criminal, in Jesus of Barabas, go free. The Biblical law ‘an eye for an eye’ has been used to defend the use of the death penalty, yet at the time that consequence was put in place to limit retributive justice. In other words, ‘an eye for an eye’ was enforced so that the punishment would match the trespass. It was meant to actual prevent violence from escalating.
The only sin that the Gospel says is punishable by death is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Life, the creative essence of all Creation, the breathe of God in us. Is not then the antithesis of the will of the Spirit of Life to put someone to death? Jesus holds the keys to hell and death, is capital punishment not our grubby hands trying to steal the keys away from our Lord? God alone can judge, and we have the commandment ‘thou shall not kill/murder.’ So how is the death penalty not committing blasphemy?
I’m glad our government made the right decision to cancel the livestream of the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan. When will we make the right decision and cancel killing people? Afterall, even taking theology out of the argument, ‘killing people to show that killing people is wrong’ doesn’t make any logical sense. Putting someone to death actually cost the tax payer more money than paying for someone to live the rest of their natural life in prison!
And it is obviously not a deterrent since people still murder, as the prophet Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed- “you can not murder, murder.” Violence begets violence, death begets death, killing begets more killing and eventually even the tamed ‘an eye for an eye’ “leaves the whole world blind” as the prophet Ghandi said.
The official stance of the UMC is that the death penalty “denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings…All human life is sacred…When governments implement the death penalty, then the life of the convicted person is devalued and all possibility of change in that person’s life ends. We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness.”