Significant sections of the UK population think we should bring back the death penalty - at least for cases like the Soham murderer Ian Huntley. Huntley molested and killed two innocent young girls - surely it's obvious that he deserves to die. The only reason in most people's minds for keeping him alive is that death is too easy a way out - perhaps better that he should stay alive and be made to suffer.
I can see the logic - and feel the emotional power - of such thinking. The only problem is that it overlooks some vital realities, particularly for Christians.
One - people like Huntley are unfortunately still people; they are still human beings. We desperately don't want them to see them as human, as being in any way like us - so we label them as Evil, as Monsters; we try and convince ourselves that we have nothing in common with them. Indeed, we eagerly place on them all the evil that we can't bear to face in ourselves, and hurl at them all the loathing and disgust we feel for those unacceptable, shameful parts of our own natures. But in so doing we do not stop them from being human; we merely become less human, less real ourselves.
Two - all people, however far they have fallen, are at least potentially redeemable. It's not for us to decide who can and who can't qualify for ultimate mercy. For our own sakes we dare not deny even the worst criminal the right to genuinely repent and reform.
Three - we who set ourselves up to judge may not be killers or sex offenders, but we still might not look too good under close scrutiny. I know I don't have the right to throw stones at anyone, even at Huntley, and I suspect you don't either.
Four - none of us have the right to wield the power of life or death over another. As soon as we claim that right, we are in grave danger of abusing it.
Five - killing Huntley will achieve nothing. It will not hurt Huntley himself for more than the briefest period. It will not bring back the girls he killed, nor heal the wounds of what he did. It will not bring redemption or hope to anyone. All it will do is dehumanise the ones who kill him, and perhaps conversely re-humanise Huntley himself - as Saddam Hussein became for many a figure of sympathy in light of his humiliating execution.
Finally, though we may be clear in Huntley's case that he is guilty, in many other cases it's much harder to be certain. Miscarriages of justice and subsequent reprieves are commonplace.
The Bible and capital punishment
Those who seek support for the death penalty in the Bible are on shaky ground. The Old Testament law of Moses did of course prescribe the death penalty for certain offences, though we wouldn't recognise many of these as crimes today - Sabbath-breaking for example. But in fact the death penalty was not often enforced, and the Bible only records a handful of cases when it was - mainly for religious offences.
When we come to the New Testament, all the examples of capital punishment are either miscarriages of justice or abuses of power - John the Baptist beheaded by Herod for example. Neither Jesus nor the apostles ever prescribe the death penalty (leaving aside the highly unusual case of Ananias and Sapphira).
When Jesus himself was presented with a woman caught in adultery, for which the law of Moses required that she be stoned to death, his judgement was 'let him who is without sin cast the first stone'. When all the woman's accusers had duly slunk away, Jesus, who alone was without sin and so did have the right to condemn her, turned to the woman and said, 'neither do I condemn you'. I would say that makes the Christian attitude to the death penalty fairly clear.
But the most compelling argument for me is Jesus' own bearing of the death penalty, in the ultimate miscarriage of justice in all human history. Christians believe he bore it for all of us, on behalf of all of us, and in place of all of us. In so doing, I also believe he completely fulfilled and utterly abolished the death penalty for all time.
In one sense, we are all of us under sentence of death, and none of us knows when our time will come. How will any of us face that moment, and when it comes will it feel like a penalty or a reward?
I think it's over-stating things a bit to say "The only reason in most people's minds for keeping him alive is.."
ReplyDeletethere are a lot of anti-death penalty people out there!
Completely agree otherwise - look at Myra Hindley's demonisation. She's portrayed in the media as a witch so we don't have to face the fact that we all have the capacity to do terrible things