From: daveshao@leland.stanford.edu (David Shao)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Wesley Allen "Hang Me" Dodd
Date: 7 Jan 93 06:34:50 GMT
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA

In article <Jan.6.02.00.27.1993.2881@geneva.rutgers.edu> mjsmith@cac.washington.edu (Martha Smith ) writes:
>
>i am more concerned about those who executed dodd or wanted his
>execution ...  they need to forgive dodd and seek forgiveness for
>their failure to forgive.
>
>note that bondi in her second book on the desert fathers makes and
>interesting point on what forgiveness is that we are required to
>forgive everyone.  it is not necessarily re-establishing a ruptured
>relationship; it is at least no longer seeking revenge or wishing evil
>for the one who committed the wrong.

This viewpoint about it being wrong to seek justice is simply not
Scriptural.

Read Acts 1: 15-20 where Peter describes the fate of Judas.  Peter
cites the passage in Psalms saying "Let his habitation be desolate."
If we turn to this passage in Psalm 69, we see that in verses 19-21
there is a description of Jesus's suffering on the cross.  Immediately
after these verses we read in Psalm 69: 22-28

  Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should 
  have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

  Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins
  continually to shake.

  Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
  hold of them.

  Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

  For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the
  grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

  Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy
  righteousness.

  Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written
  with the righteous.
 
The disciples aren't praying for Judas, they are cursing him for his
crimes.  They are praying for his name to be stricken from the book
of life!

Read Revelations 6: 9-10 where it is written

  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the
  souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
  testimony which they held:

  And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord
  holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
  them that dwell on the earth?

The quest for justice is one of the central themes of the Bible.  
Read the prophets--the Lord judges a nation in large part based upon
how it provides justice for those who have been wronged.  The death
penalty is everywhere in the Bible described as being appropriate
for crimes such as those committed by Wesley Dodd.

A while ago I initiated a discussion about capital punishment.
I received a reply asking why I thought it was so important to support
the death penalty.  Reading the postings on this newsgroup I see more
and more clearly why it is important to assert its justness--there is
a certain segment of Christians who use every opportunity to
gratuitously bash capital punishment.  We supporters, who have the 
weight of Scripture behind us, are continuously told by this group
that we are wrong.  We cannot allow the heart of the Christian
community in this nation to be hijacked by the opponents of the death
penalty.  We cannot allow them to try to associate in the minds of the
general public Christianity with opposition to the death penalty.
For to turn our backs on what is boldfacedly stated in Scripture is
to abandon following His Will.

Yours in Christ
David Shao