As a Christian, I have the responsibility to filter everything in life through my worldview. This includes cultural issues which can be quite difficult to navigate. An often debated and controversial practice in the US is capital punishment. I have personally encountered many individuals who point back to the Christian Bible as defense of the death penalty. They reference passages like Exodus 21:23-45 which reads,"But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." While religious fervor and a desire to "please God" is admirable, I do not believe this small portion of biblical text fully expresses the intent of what is being communicated.
First, we must remember that the Bible is to be viewed in it's entirety and not simply verse by verse or even book by book. When we examine extreme passages in light of their culture context and in light of the human ideal projected in scripture, particularly in the New Testament, they begin to take on meaning beyond what the words and phrases mean alone.
Second, the Bible is a book of progress, a story of culture moving forward. When we encounter passages such as Exodus 21, it is important to understand the purpose. In a time when a single violent act quickly escalated into clan warfare and the death of entire families and villages, a law that limited the violence is a great step forward.
Third, we do not find a New Testament reference to capital punishment as an appropriate act. In the New Testament, the death sentence is given and carried out by the villains of the story, not by heroes such as Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, or Stephen.
Finally, Romans speaks to the fact that Christ has fulfilled the law. This refers to not just a few verses in Exodus, but to the whole of the Old Testament law. In the Gospels, we are given a new law through Christ — to love God and love people.
So as a Christian, I do not believe the death penalty is morally right and can therefore not support it. But what options do we have? Are there any correctional actions we can take that are moral and that appropriately address our need for justice? Yes. I believe that incarceration is the remedy we seek. However, I do not believe that the modern American approach to prison is harsh enough.
I believe that violent crimes such as murder and rape should carry not just long or life prison terms but should also carry hardship beyond a cell and walls. Luxuries such as education, television, physical fitness equipment and the like should be denied. I also do not believe that daily necessities should be responsibility of the state. Food, toiletries, medical supplies, and medical care should fall to the wrongdoer and his family.
This blog post is an official entry for the Law Blogger’s Scholarship, sponsored by The Law Office of Joshua Pond, http://www.joshuapondlaw.com.
I was almost with you there until you said daily necessities (not completely, but almost). Here's the main reasons why 1) the 8th Amendment (look at it, it's a good read) prevents cruel and unusual punishment, and at least in terms of punishment starving a person falls under that category, we don't exactly pay people in jail that much and for long term sentences they probably wouldn't make enough to eat. 2) Individuals are responsible for their actions not their families. They shouldn't have to pay for an adults up keep when they are not the wrongdoer. 3) from a purely secular standpoint, crimes are crimes because we as society say they are. We don't like your actions so we take it upon ourselves to punish you for them by incarceration. Its our decision to do so. We can't take away a person's ability to care for themselves and then be annoyed with the fact that there is a cost to that decision. Criminals decide to comit crimes and they pay the price with their freedom, society decides to punish them and we pay the price with the cost of their basic necessities.
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