First off I want to take the topic off of the specifics of “Tookie”, as both side allege that their view is right.
I am in some ways going to cut across the grain of thought in some people in the Emergent movement.
I do not believe in killing someone. I refer to myself as a modified pacifist. I will not go out of my way to harm someone. I choose peace over anything even if it involves self-sacrifice. Yet, with that being said I will defend those who may be harmed around me.
Scenario:
This is often over used, yet to me still stands. If someone breaks into my house to kill my family, I will defend them unto my own death, even if it means I must kill the other person…. You may ask how is that being a pacifist? Well, that is the modified part.
If someone who may harm me approaches me, I will try my hardest to not harm that person and see what God is doing in the midst of the confrontation.
I have done a crime. I must do the time.
We talk about community and values in Emergent often. Yet, we must realize that society as a whole create values in community that may include the death penalty for a crime. I may agree or disagree, and this country gives us the right to choice either way. It also gives us the choice to pursue changing the current values of the community concerning issues like the death penalty.
I am sad by this, but I do believe some people are a blight to society, not that they are not loved by God, nor that they cannot be saved, but that they have reached a point that like an abused animal that lashes out, they do the same. Too often it is blamed on not having a proper environment to grow, but to me I think that is mostly rubbish, as one must make choices in life. To be caught up in wrong choices that go against the community values or the national values give no one right to complain if they are caught and justice is served.
If I am caught speeding and I get a ticket, I made the choice to take the chance to get the ticket. The law was there, it has no regards to whether I disregard it or not.
In the case of a man who lived a life of hardcore crime and then changes as he is in prison for years, does nothing to eliminate the crime committed. To kill someone still leaves that person… dead. The person may have changed in prison, but the penalty as decided by our national values may be carried out with expectation to crimes were parole is an option. This is also a value we have as we have the process of appeals to give criminals a fair chance to bring their case for freedom up before a board to decide if they have been rehabilitated.
Do I think one can have a sentence changed from death to life without parole? Yes, and maybe in Tookie’s case that should have been so.
Again, I may or may not agree with the national values, but I myself if being against the death penalty, do not see this man’s blood on my hands. I see he took a life and his life was in his own hands by that choice.
There will be a time when society will say to be a Christian is a crime. In that the death penalty may be carried out. I have made the choice to accept Jesus and so if that is a crime I will lose my head. Don’t laugh, in many Arab countries this is now happening. It is not to far of a stretch to see it here someday.
We are to forgive. To forgive does not always equate with our past being gone and done away with. A person who smokes heavily comes to Christ; the gives up smoking may still get cancer. It was not God’s fault, not does it diminish God’s forgiveness and salvation. It is just a simple fact of life in this world.
Am I comfortable that a person is executed? No, but not because I am against the death penalty. It is because a soul may have been lost to hell. Yet, to turn to God for salvation is their choice, and I cannot nor anyone can make that choice for that person.
If one makes choices that get them the death penalty, and change fro the better, we should praise God, but not expect that they do not pay the debt to society. One must remember that though Paul was a murderer by proxy of condoning the stoning of Stephen, it was within that communities values to stone who they thought blasphemers. To note also that it was illegal to carry out a death sentence because they were under Roman rule and to do so would place their law over Caesar’s… but I digress. Paul was within his rights as a Pharisee to persecute and judge Stephen, right or wrong. I believe Paul never really got over the stigma of the murder of Stephen. It seemed to haunt him and many in the beginning of ministry would wonder if he were genuine or a spy.
Though the Tookie case is interesting, we have a case of a triple murder here in Montana were a man murder the father, then took a small boy and his mother to a motel and murdered them. He is requesting that nothing hinders his execution, as he desires to die. The question still is with as many child molesters and sex offenders released on parole for good behavior while locked up, do we really want someone who murdered once on purpose to walk our streets and possibly murder again?
Changed or not, I think that if God wants them free from prison they will be freed, if not God will use them where they are and if they are true believers they will be content with that. As Paul said in Galatians 3: 26. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27. for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Blessings,
iggy
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