The Bible endorses and commands the death penalty. The places that it is commanded reflect the behaviors that are of greatest concern to God. You might not agree with the death penalty at all or with the hierarchy of infractions that lead up to it, but no one is really asking you, or me. It is simply what God declared.
The most common form of that death penalty was stoning to death.
(Exo 19:13 KJV) There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.There are frequent statements that a person will be put to death but don’t designate the method.
It seems today like a cruel and unusual punishment but that is not the message of stoning. The message is that it is an act of the community punishing the most heinous of crimes. No one is proposing stoning for leaving your trash can out on the street too long after pickup. It is for culture threatening actions. The community is so outraged at the outrage that they come together to administer the cure. It would be almost impossible for one person to stone a criminal without at least a lunch break.
The recidivism rate is very low, just like other forms of capital punishment. Occasionally there is a target that fools the stone throwers, the apostle Paul did it at least once, but it is fairly effective.
The citizens cannot pass on the duty to the state. You have to be serious and take responsibility. Most people would think twice about a verdict of guilty if they were required to throw the first stone.
The Bible is clear. There are some things that are so evil you should die for them. Got a problem with that? Tell God about it.
homo unius libri
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.