Capital Punishment (March 20, 2005)

Crime and capital punishment have been in the news lately. Scott Peterson has been sentenced to death for killing his wife and pre-born son. Brian Nichols should be sentenced to death for killing four in Atlanta. Robert Blake escaped the death penalty because a criminally stupid jury let him go. John Couey, who raped and killed nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, has been caught, and, in a just world, would be put to death immediately yet very slowly.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes capital punishment. According to the Chicago Tribune, American bishops recently announced "one of the most aggressive campaigns against the death penalty in recent years." In his Palm Sunday message Cardinal Francis George said, "As we contemplate the way in which Christ died...this is a moment to ask how is it that we administer death as a society and try to come to a better understanding that we don't need to kill people in order to protect ourselves."

I'll grant that we don't need to kill people in order to protect ourselves. We need to kill people in order to obey God. That is the only thing that should matter to a man or woman of faith - not "Does this help?" but "Is this right?" The Bible teaches that it is right to execute murderers and wrong not to. Genesis 9:6 reads: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." This commandment, unlike Jewish ceremonial law, was never overturned or rendered obsolete in the ministry of Christ. It was a law given before Israel existed, and long before Moses ever dictated to the Israelites rules and regulations unique to them. It is a commandment for all people for all times.

It ought not be necessary to explain that the commandment, "You shall not murder" (regrettably sometimes translated "You shall not kill") is an order to refrain from killing without just cause, rather than to refrain from killing in general. If it were the latter, it would make Jehovah an odd God indeed, since he ordered the Israelites to kill tons of people - both foreign enemies and domestic offenders. Just read the Bible. I wonder sometimes if Christians who in principle oppose capital punishment endure a terrible burden on their faith: the disquieting knowledge that the God they worship is a death penalty fanatic. In the Bible, God's anger burns not only against murderers but against those who fail to kill those who need to die. (See for example 1 Samuel 15:18-19).

So the Pope is wrong on this but so also are my evangelical colleagues who, before a victim's body has grown cold, start lecturing us on how we need to forgive the murderer. Even the pastor who conducted Jessica Lunsford's funeral told churchgoers to forgive Couey. Oh please. First of all, we cannot forgive him. Only God can do that. The only sins we're allowed to forgive are the ones committed against us. To claim to forgive other sins as well is to claim to be God - see Mark 2:7. If Couey did not rape and kill you (or your daughter), then saying you forgive him is blasphemy pure and simple.

But let's grant the blasphemy for argument's sake and ask, "Even if we could forgive Couey, should we?" Couey did not turn himself in, and was caught only because he is a repeat offender who failed a lie detector test. I haven't heard any remorse, sorrow, grief, acknowledgment of evil or "rending of the garments" from him. But that does not seem to matter to preachers who feel that our forgiveness should be "just like God's - universal and unconditional."

Except that God's forgiveness has never been universal or unconditional. God did not forgive the homosexual rapists of Sodom - he firebombed them. Jesus did not forgive the temple moneychangers - he expelled them. The Holy Spirit did not forgive Annanias and Sapphira for lying - he shut down their beating hearts. Our God judges sin and insists that we do the same. Mercy is available, of course, but under conditions of faith and repentance - and it does not always rule out consequences (like death) for serious crimes.

The biblical thing to do to John Couey is to kill the creep. Before we do, we may feel free to preach to him and say something like, "May God have mercy on your soul." Who knows? Maybe God will have mercy on his soul. Maybe we and Jessica and Couey will all make it to heaven and rejoice together in God’s presence with spirits remade and free from sin. But till then, kill Couey. It is a blasphemy to forgive him, and a defiance of God's law to let him live.