Capital Punishment: a Christian response?

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3 months ago
by Tim in ,

I can remember it vividly; soon after Christmas a few years ago I picked up my new gift, a book called The Age of Politics. The book was written by Brett McClafferty, a young aspiring politician who had run for mayor of his hometown and, by a single vote, lost the primary. He was 19 at the time of the election. Anyway, as I read through McClaffertys book for the first time on that winter day, this section struck me.

Left-wing liberals in most cases oppose the death penalty, then they go and defend abortions. To me thats hypocritical. How can you condone killing in one instance and not killing in another? I believe you should be pro-life across the board. No capital punishment, no abortions.¹

Now, by that time, I was very much into politics. But, there were some issues that I either ignored or simply hadn’t gotten to know enough about and abstained from commenting on. I knew that politicians and valued individuals around me were in favor of the death penalty, but I had never stopped and considered what all that entailed. I would have told you I was for the death penalty, but in truth I had given very little thought to the issue.

Since then, I’ve considered the subject more and more. From a Christian perspective, aren’t we called to show compassion to our fellow man? To forgive them of their sins as Christ has forgiven us? To give the job of judgement to Him, the Righteous one?

Part of the logical argument for belief in Christianity surrounds this concept of forgiveness. Timothy Keller, in his New York Times bestselling book, says

Can our passion for justice be honored in a way that does not nurture our desire for blood vengeance? [Miroslav] Volf says the best resource for this is belief in the concept of God’s divine justice. If I don’t believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation. Only if I am sure that there’s a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain.(emphasis original)²

If we trust in a God of divine justice who will one day right all wrongs, then why do we place the life of someone God loves in the hands of a fallible human judge?

Now, allow me to clarify: I do not deny the biblical commands concerning the rightful punishment of criminals. My problem is the actual application in our legal system. God commanded us

Do not judge according to appearance, but with righteous judgment.

in John 7:24. But if we cannot guarantee righteous judgement for the excused, are we not mandated to take capital punishment off the table?

Just take a look at the case of Troy Davis:  7 out of 9 non-police witnesses “have recanted or contradicted their testimony”³ yet Davis was still executed.  Most of us would say that 7 witnesses contradicting or recanting their testimonies would certainly leave reasonable doubt in our mind.  So was Troy Davis’s execution righteous judgement?  Should it have been carried out?  I don’t think so, especially considering American standards of innocence and guilt.

Until Jesus returns, I’m not sure that we will ever truly know whether capital punishment is biblical.  But I leave you with this passage from Matthew 23:23 (NIV):

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

 

1 McClafferty, Brett. The Age of Politics. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2008. Print. (Pages 22-23)

2 Keller, Timothy J. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Dutton, 2008. Print. (Page 77)

3  ”I Am Troy Davis: The Fight for Abolition Continues” from Amnesty USA

 

ThAutCast: Misrepresenting Chuck Colson

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9 months ago
by Tim in ,

Recently the founder of Prison Fellowship, Chuck Colson, wrote his daily commentary with the title “Autism and Agape: What Max and Emily Taught Me.”

 

Colson begins by recounting a memory of his daughter and grandson during a tense moment in a mall.  He said,

All in all, not one of my fonder memories, yet it’s one I value, because it’s a reminder of how Max and Emily have taught me the meaning of love.

However, the “objectionable” remark by Colson, according to The AutCast, was this.

It’s a kind of love that the secular, materialistic worldview cannot account for, much less inspire. The best explanation it can give is a condescending, Darwinian explanation for altruism. In this account, a parent’s self-sacrificing care for the child isn’t altruistic at all. It is merely a way of assuring that our selfish genes are passed on.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I take his statement to mean that a pure Darwinian worldview cannot understand a parent’s self-sacrificing care and love for a child that, in a “survival of the fittest” environment, would not survive.  Colson himself sums up his position perfectly a few paragraphs below.

People like Emily put the lie to this idea, precisely because the objects of their love are, evolutionarily speaking, terrible investments. They can’t take care of you in your old age and they are unlikely to pass on your genes.

However, ThAutCast strongly disagrees with Colson, stating in their own blog post,

So because I do not believe in God, according to Mr. Colson, I cannot understand my own parents’ love for me.  He shows how unselfish he is by suggesting that only people like him can be unselfish.

I don’t think Colson ever made any claim that Christians are the only people who can love, or understand love, or be unselfish.  If anything, Colson merely observed that a strictly Darwinian view of the world can’t really understand love for something it would deem unworthy.

I believe the true issue here is the miscommunication between Colson and his readers.  While Colson’s comments were directly attributed to a secular, materialistic, Darwinian worldview, some readers seem to think Colson meant that to include all non-Christians.

They couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

I’m tired of all the rhetoric

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9 months ago
by Tim in ,

Stop the senseless noise!

That’s right, I’m tired of the rhetoric. I’m tired of the name calling, the lack of progress; all of it. I mean, do we truly believe that legitimate progress will come of this? How are we supposed to, I don’t know, perhaps solve some social and political issues when we’re flinging negative (and often times inaccurate) terms across the aisle like: homophobic, gay agenda, ex-gay, bigot, etc.

Tell me, how are we supposed to come to a mutual understanding if we forget to recognize that there are real people on the other side, with friends and family just like ours? You can call him “homophobic,” or you can try to understand how he’s developed his beliefs. You can say they support “the gay agenda,” or you can listen to the compassion they have for those afflicted with AIDS.

Now, let me be clear: both sides are at fault. I hear it when I tune into a program on the American Family Association’s radio programming AFR Talk and they’re talking about “the gay agenda” in Washington. I read it when I check out articles like this one that attack “ex-gay therapy.”  Its rampant in both ideological/political camps.  And it needs to stop.

Why can’t we, instead of attacking one another’s beliefs, attempt to communicate and come to a mutual understanding?

Pain

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10 months ago
by Logan in

What is pain? I feel it. So it’s a feeling. Does that make it an emotion? Is emotion synonymous for feeling?

See how questions often times only lead to more questions? Hell, I just asked a question right there. It seems there are more questions than statements in my mind these days… And that can be a very overwhelming thing for a philosopher. It’s difficult for me to even explain most of the things that are going through my head. And all this confusion leads to pain. And then I go and do things like try to figure out what pain is. Why do I put myself through this? Why can’t I ignore all these questions? A year from now, I doubt I’ll care about anything that’s going on in my life at this moment, so why do I care so much about it now?
It just doesn’t make sense.
But I care anyway. So I just have to deal with it.

Gay Marriage Diagram

My proposal to resolve the Gay Marriage debate

1
10 months ago
by Tim in ,

For well over a year, I have been involved with the debate concerning gay marriage. I have won academic debates, spoken with various individuals, and engaged in online debates (<3 Michael Martin) concerning the issue. However, I believe that there is a solution to this divisive social issue.

Exploring the issue

To create a lasting compromise, we have to first understand the main points of each side. One of the main arguments supporters of same-sex marriage bring up are the benefits of legal matrimony. Joint tax fillings, medical decision-making, etc. are just two of these benefits. On the other side of the issue, most opponents hold religious concerns. This is most likely in part because all five major world religions are opposed (in some degree) to same-sex marriage.

Now, I realize that this is a grave simplification of both sides of this issue. However, it is both of these arguments which my plan satisfies.

Considering what we know about both sides of the debate, I believe that this diagram best represents the marriage dilemma. On the one hand, you have the vocal minority who represents the greater social acceptance of same-sex relationships. Yet on the other hand you have the religious opposition to gay marriage. These two sides are waging a war to win the legal part of the marriage equation. But what if we remove legality from the equation?

The Plan

Simply put, the government would no longer “marry” people. Instead of issuing marriage licenses, the government would legally “recognize” a relationship/couple. This satisfies the loudest arguments of both groups; same-sex relationships gain government recognition and benefits, but it preserves the religious requirement that gay relationships not be called “marriage” or considered part of the institution of marriage.

In the end, I realize that this is not a perfect solution. But this is not meant to be an attempt to resolve the deep philosophical, moral. and social issue of same-sex marriage. My hope is that this proposal is pragmatic and would appeal to enough moderates on both sides that it would effectively end the political debate, leaving only the extremes of both sides left to squabble.

The Trinity

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1 year ago
by Dylan in

I have a Mormon friend with whom I often discuss or debate with on the ground of their theology. For quite some time now I have realized that The Church of Latter Day Saints do not believe in the “Trinity,” but instead in a triad. According to their beliefs Father, Spirit, and Son are three separate gods working towards ‘one purpose’ or ‘the same goal.’ The other day in Church the Sunday School teacher was talking about the Ten Commandments and one in particular struck me. So, after this thought occurred to me I asked my friend which god they thought was most important. He answered “The Father.” This lead me to ask if Mormons also worship Jesus and the Holy Spirit to which he answered, “Oh, definitely.” Right away my initial thought was that their set of beliefs is flawed. The first of the Ten Commandments states “Do not have any other gods besides Me.” Taking this into consideration I came to the conclusion of one of two things:

1) Mormons are either correct about the triad, but are sinning by worshiping Father, Son, and Spirit because are breaking the 1st commandment by worshiping more than one god.

or

2) Father, Son, and Spirit are part of one Being, one God. If this is the case then there is no contradiction.

Furthermore, I was later discussing this with another friend who kindly pointed out Isaiah 43:10 to me. This verse states: “no god was formed before Me and there will be none after Me.” This verse only solidifies my point that “the Trinity” does not contradict scripture at all!

Hello world!

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1 year ago
by Tim in

So, instead of deleting this post, I decided to simply edit in my “Hello, how do you do?” post.  So yeah, I’m Tim, owner, manager, etc. of Justhink.  Hopefully that will take off eventually, but since this is my personal blog, you aren’t likely to read much about Justhink here.  You will, however, read a lot on politics, education, education reform, Christianity/religion, etc.  So if you like any or even none of those topics, I invite you to subscribe to my blog and look forward to a plethora of reading material ;)

Well, here I go…

0
1 year ago
by Logan in

(Again on my own! Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever
known!) I’m a classic rock fan. The title of this post makes me
think of Whitesnake, as you might be able to tell by my
parentheses. Maybe not, if you don’t know that song but… Anyway,
I’ve Joined Justhink. My good friend, Tim created the site. I think
it could be pretty cool, as long as he gets enough people to post
at a fairly regular time with good content. I don’t know how
regular I’ll post, or how decent the content of my posts will be,
but I can guess that they’ll be pretty weird, just because, well,
I’m pretty weird. Some
people call me Jumpy McGee, some call me Woodstock. Some even call
me Santa! But most people just call me Logan. I’m a stereotypical
teenager – oh wait, no I’m not. Other than the fact that I text all
the time, I’m pretty completely opposite the stereotypical
teenager. I care about things. I care about things that I think I
should care about. I care about people. Everybody but me. I’m here
to make sure everybody else is happy. This can lead to some pretty
terrible stuff sometimes, unfortunately. Sometimes I think I should
become more selfish. Then maybe people would stop walking all over
me like I’m a freakin 50′s diner black and white checkered floor.
Or I guess skate… It’s not a perfect analogy. But in all
seriousness, sometimes I do think I should stop trying to please
everybody. I think it might be more beneficial for me and many
other people. But at the same time, when I do that I feel like I’m
doing something wrong… It’s such an unfortunate predicament. Wow,
I’m ranting in my first post. I expected to just make this a “Hey
everybody, I’m posting!” type thing, and then it gets into this
personal problem… I do that sometimes. Anyway, Hey everybody, I’m
posting! I like art a lot – love to draw, and I also like to think,
even though I havn’t done much of that lately. This blog will help,
hopefully. I should go now though, this post is long enough…
Bye!

And now begins…

1
1 year ago
by Tim in

So, you’ve somehow stumbled on our little corner of the blogsphere, Justhink.  Here at Justhink, we strive to create a blog where each post leaves you with something to think about.  We pull from a variety of blogs here at Justhink and across the thousands of blogs on the Net. Each post that is submitted to us is vetted and then either approved or rejected. Please, feel free to look around at our posts here, and don’t forget to check out the blogs that we pull from.

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