From: aaron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu (Scott Aaron)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Death Penalty
Date: 12 Jan 93 09:02:50 GMT
Reply-To: aaron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University

In article <Jan.11.03.45.17.1993.21243@geneva.rutgers.edu>, daveshao@leland.stanford.edu (David Shao) writes:
>In article <Jan.8.00.46.26.1993.2462@farside.rutgers.edu> aaron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
>>
>>You mean like Jesus did with the adulterous woman?  She should have been stoned
>>for her sin but Jesus let her off, thus avoiding God's commands.  
>
>What do you mean let her off?  Did Jesus raise his hand and shoot forth
>lightning bolts to drive away her prosecutors?  Let us read the passage
>ourselves:

The Law said she should be stoned.  Jesus decides to not condemn her, though
according to the Law he should have.

>They dragged a helpless woman (where is the man who was with her?) before
>Jesus and planned to execute her in front of him, hoping in the process
>to provoke Him into repudiating the Law under which she has been
>judged.  But Jesus repudiated neither the law nor the punishment.

The implication seems to be that, as an opponent of the death penalty, I
repudiate the Law.  Not at all.  A murderer deserves death for his/her crime.
The law is just.  But since I am just as guilty in God's eyes as Jeff Dahmer,
I can't condemn him to death.  It would be like having Joseph Stalin presiding
over the war crimes trial of Adolf Hitler.

>Jesus shifted the focus of the discussion from His making a choice
>to the accusers making a choice.  The accusers chose the way of
>evil.  THEY renounced the Law in an effort to avoid judgment on
>themselves.  

They realized their own sin and guilt.

>Justice is administered unevenly in this country.  Why don't the
>opponents of the death penalty use the millions of dollars that are 
>being squandered to defend heartless murderers to try to change to 
>system to benefit all of us?  Why must they defend the Ted Bundys
>of this world instead of championing the rights of victims?  Why
>the identification with the most evil of humanity?

If only all Christians could see themselves as Paul saw himself.  In his
letters, he says things like "what a wretched man I am" or "Jesus came to
save the sinners of the world, OF WHICH I AM THE WORST."  According to the
Bible, you are no less evil than Ted Bundy or Jeff Dahmer.  I notice you
didn't respond to that part of my post.

Contrary to what someone has posted, I do not feel pro-death penalty Christians
are any less Christian than I.  There are perfectly good arguements in favor
of capital punishment and there is no clear cut right answer (too many 
Christians seem to think everything is black and white).  But the arguements
I've seen on the net in support of capital punishment seem to deny the most
fundamental concept of Christianity:  we are all sinners, dead to God because
of our sin and no one is any better than any other.

  -- Scott @Brandeis

	"But God demonstrates His	"I tell you that in the same way,
	 own love for us, in that	 there will be more joy in heaven
	 while we were yet sinners,	 over one sinner who repents, than
	 Christ died for us."		 over ninety-nine righteous persons
					 who need no repentance." 
		-- Romans 5:8 [NASB]		-- Luke 15:7 [NASB]