death penalty

I was reading in the Birmingham News the other day that a 49 year old man had been executed the day before. He had been on death row for 26 years. They strapped him down and killed him. Well, we say "executed" instead of killed, because "execute" has more of an official ring to it. But they killed him.

Why do we do this? Because there is still a belief held by many people and some governments that we must do "justice." A man kills another person. We put him in a cage, then kill him because Justice demands it.

Who is this "Justice"? Is it some god we bow down to?

They say that God must do justice because Justice demands it. In other words, there is some god named Justice that gives orders to God.

God's people used to have a law: an eye for an eye...a life for a life. When Jesus came, he sat on the Mount and taught that we are to no longer follow the 'eye for an eye' law. Now we are to imitate the mercy of God. He didn't mention this other god named Justice. He taught that there is only one God -- the God of Creation and Redemption.

So, what we do when we (the government) execute someone is the offer a human sacrifice to the god named Justice. This is a primitive concept of religion. Something Christianity has moved beyond.

Of course we need to keep dangerous criminals away from society. We need prisons. But we don't need human sacrifice.