Capital Punishment

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court on Capital Punishment has started the conversation anew. Should Christians favor the death penalty or should they oppose it? Most people state their position with finality, as if "I have arrived and anyone who disagrees with me isn't thinking." I suppose that's generally the case in most subjects. I find this one a bit more sticky.

A lot of people on the Christian side of the question will argue against the death penalty. They do so on a variety of biblical passages. (Anyone who suggests that "those who oppose the death penalty do so apart from the Bible" aren't paying attention.) The most common approach is the "turn the other cheek" and "forgive" arguments. "Jesus never executed anyone," they might say. "We are commanded to 'turn the other cheek' and 'forgive your enemies'. How can you execute someone and obey those commands?" This argument, to me, is problematic. If this interpretation of "turn the other cheek" is accurate, then there are many ramifications. Christians cannot be concerned about justice of any sort. They can't call for jail time for felonies or tickets to speeders. They cannot lock their doors at night or defend themselves when attacked. In fact, it seems as if those who make such arguments are violating their own position because they are defending their views when they should be simply turning the other cheek. In other words, if "turn the other cheek" is an absolute command to not respond to any sort of insult or attack, then there should be zero response from Christians when insulted or attacked, even if it's to defend such a view.

The second problem with this argument is the sense of "forgive" that is offered here. It appears that "forgive" has two components here. First, it means "no consequences." It is not possible to forgive if there are consequences to one's transgressions. If God, for instance, forgives a repentant drug addict, He would be obligated by the term "forgive" to prevent or repair any damages that the drug use might inflict. Those would be unjust consequences for a forgiven person. A murderer who truly repents should not be arrested or jailed because forgiveness should include "no consequences." I don't think anyone would actually argue this, but it's the only logical conclusion from the argument that "forgive" precludes Capital Punishment. The other component is the problem of who can forgive whom. It appears, from this "forgive" argument, that all Christians are required to forgive all offenses. The problem is that the right to forgive doesn't fall on all Christians; it only falls on the wronged parties. A child rapist doesn't wrong everyone. He wrongs the child and God and, to be fair, the family, but not everyone. A Christian in California doesn't have the right to forgive a murderer in New York if their only connection is that they are fellow human beings because the murderer in New York didn't do anything to the Christian in California. Only wronged parties have the right to forgive.

There are other arguments by Christians who oppose the death penalty. One is the argument that Jesus would forgive. This seems odd since Jesus clearly only forgives the repentant at any time, yet the argument suggests that Jesus would forgive everyone all the time. That doesn't work unless we are going to embrace Universalism. Some argue that the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." This one often comes from a "pro-life" approach. "How can you be in favor of Capital Punishment and oppose abortion? If you're pro-life, you must oppose both." However, the "Thou shalt not kill" blanket statement seems to say more than it intends. No Christian could be a police officer because they may be called on to shoot a criminal. No Christian could serve in the military for obvious reasons. However, when you examine the command, it turns out that it references murder, not general "killing", and requires malice rather than simply death. And if you can't see a fundamental difference between a convicted murderer and an innocent newborn, you have bigger problems than "Is the death penalty biblical?" So these arguments are problematic.

One of the really popular arguments is not from Scripture, but from compassion. "If you put someone to death, you will end their opportunities to come to Christ." It's a funny thing. This is not a biblical argument, but it seems one of the most difficult to answer. The problem, of course, is that it ignores the sovereignty of God. It assumes that God wants to save everyone and knew that this one would come to Him, but, somehow, got cheated because the government agencies put the poor guy to death before God could reach him. Poor God! Nice try; no prize for you. Sarcasm aside, I think you can see the problem here. It's just that we don't often take God's sovereignty into account when we make these types of arguments.

One of the more disturbing biblical arguments is "Jesus came to abolish the Law." It is absolutely undeniable that Capital Punishment is an Old Testament concept. God Himself passed laws that demanded the death penalty for certain crimes. Before the covenant with Israel, there was the Noahic covenant where God told Noah that murder was punishable by death "by man" (Gen. 9:6). The argument, then, suggests that Jesus changed all that and all of the Old Testament Laws are out the window. This is seriously problematic. First, Jesus said, "For verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18). The Law in some form must continue until the New Heaven and the New Earth. Second, if we argue that the Old Testament Laws are out the window, then we remove the Old Testament Laws. "Yes," you might say, "that is what we're saying." So ... how is it that you wish to retain the Ten Commandments then? You see, if you toss them all, you toss them all. If not, then some remain. If some remain, which ones? On what basis would you toss the Gen. 9:6 rule? You see, this argument becomes a real problem.

Other arguments are farther from Christianity. "Capital punishment is not a deterrent." This may or may not be true. I would agree that today's version (where the convicted criminal stays on death row for decades) is likely not a deterrent. The Bible agrees. "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11). And in our current system I'm not entirely sure we can change that fact since it is absolutely imperative that the condemned be given every right to prove innocence. But I'd like to point out something that isn't considered in this argument: Capital Punishment isn't intended as a deterrent. If it would provide deterrent, that would be good. However, the intent is not to deter others, but to correct a wrong. It is not intended to deter others, but to provide justice for an evil committed. And in one very real sense, it cannot be denied that a murder who is executed will certainly be deterred from committing the crime again.

The other argument is the Roman Catholic argument. It was hinted at in my last paragraph. "What if you execute an innocent man?" This is a valid concern. We've seen lately several examples of wrongly-convicted people being sent to prison. There may have even been wrongly-convicted people who were executed. And this, I think we all agree, is a bad thing. Still, it begs the question. Do we fail to act at all on the possibility that we make a mistake?

I want to point out that I have made no arguments here for the other side. I haven't argued for Capital Punishment. I think there are arguments on that side to be considered, but this isn't the intent here. I don't, in fact, have all the answers. (Surprise, surprise!) It's just that I have to wonder about the Christianity that these arguments will leave us with. We cannot defend ourselves. Forgiveness requires "no consequences". Christians forgive all sin (which, according to Jesus, is a right reserved by God). God is not actually sovereign if someone gets put to death before they were going to come to Him. There is no law for Christians, no rules, no moral code. You're on your own. Be good ... whatever that means. There are real concerns for Capital Punishment that need to be addressed, but I'm afraid that the "Christianity" we're left with when we actually consider most of these arguments is not a Christianity we're familiar with. It's certainly not a biblical Christianity.