For the last two Sundays we have tackled two heavy topics, divorce and abortion so today we get a bit of a breather as we look at a less emotional issue, the issue of capital punishment. Once again we will look at this issue through the perspective of experience, reason and scripture.

So let’s begin by looking at this issue through the eyes of scripture. If you look at capital punishment in the bible you will find two conflicting views. The first view is found in the old testament and the second view is found in the new testament. In the old testament you will discover that the Hebrew nation sanctioned and practiced capital punishment.

In fact if you look at just the first five books of the old testament you will find references to 17 offenses for which a person could be executed. Our scripture lesson from Deuteronomy is one such example. If it could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a person was worshipping an idol or pagan god, then according to the law that person was to be executed. You could be executed for showing contempt to your parents, you could be executed for touching sacred vessels in the temple. If you were caught committing adultery you could be executed. Yes the Hebrew nation practiced capital punishment and they did so hoping that it would be a deterrent to major offenses.

But while capital punishment is affirmed in the old testament, in the new testament we find a conflicting message and this message comes straight from Jesus, who focuses squarely on the 6th commandment, the commandment that said “Thou shall not kill.” Now of course the Hebrews tended to overlook this commandment when they practiced capital punishment, but Jesus couldn’t. Clearly Jesus took this commandment to heart, and that’s why he said what he said in our scripture lesson this morning. Don’t kill, said Jesus, in fact don’t even get angry. Don’t get revenge when someone hurts you by taking and eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. In fact, said Jesus, don’t even hate your enemies or those that have done you wrong.

Yes in Jesus words we find him telling us that as people of faith we have to live by a different ethic, an ethic that avoids killing, and getting even and hating. So given his words I think it’s safe to infer that Jesus would not have endorsed capital punishment. In fact when given the chance one day to affirm capital punishment, when Jesus was handed a women who was caught in the act of adultery, Jesus chose grace and forgiveness.

The Jewish leaders wanted to stone her, after all that’s what the old testament law said needed to be done. But Jesus stood by the woman and challenged the crowd to pick up a stone if they were sinless. After the crowd dispersed Jesus confronted the woman about not sinning again and told her to go and sin no more.

Clearly Jesus had a different mind set than capital punishment for dealing with violators of the law.

So when you take the bible as a whole at best you get conflicting views about capital punishment. So what do we find when we look at this issue from the perspective of reason and intellect?

Let’s look at some facts. It is a widely accepted fact that administering capital punishment is far more costly to society than sending someone to prison without the possibility of parole. That is largely because of court costs and the appeal process. It is a widely accepted fact that death sentences are declining in our country although as Americans we continue to be evenly divided on this issue. It is also widely acknowledged that there have been mistakes made where innocent people were put to death for a crime that they did not commit.

We also know that capital punishment is not equitably administered, that is ethnic minorities and those who are poor, who can’t afford good legal representation are consistently put to death in higher numbers then those who are white or wealthy. Now those who advocate for capital punishment argue that it is a good deterrence for crime and that might be for those who are sane, but one thing that needs to be considered is that most heinous crimes are committed by those who are drunk, high on drugs, mentally sick, or consumed by unrestrained anger. Given this fact, rational assessment, by those who do heinous crimes seldom happens, and thus capital punishment as a deterrent, many times never comes into play by those who kill. So when you look at the facts, and when you look at the margin for error, recognizing that one error, one innocent person put to death is too many, I think the facts suggest that there might be better ways to deal with those who commit heinous crimes than capital punishment. Not only do the facts suggest that the death penalty might not be the best punishment, but reason and logic also seem to indicate that killing those who kill others is a philosophical contradiction. Someone put it best when they said, “Why do we kill people who kill people to teach that killing is wrong?”

That quote is found in your bulletin insert along with another excellent statement that reads, “The most fundamental argument for discontinuing the death penalty is that society can best express the seriousness of its commitment to the sanctity of human life by abstaining from taking it, despite having justifiable cause. To respect life precisely where its bearer has forfeited personal claim to that respect would be society’s ultimate statement both of the sanctity of life and of the kind do society it wants to be.” Whereas the bible gives us conflicting views about capital punishment, I believe that reason and intellect soundly suggest that there are better ways to punish people than execution.

Now quickly let’s look at experience. As you might suspect, the experience of those who are affected by capital punishment varies. Some prisoners on death row welcome capital punishment while others fight against it. Most families of the prisoners who are in death row are against capital punishment while families of the victims are usually in favor of the upcoming execution.

Some executioners report that they will never do an execution again, while other executioners are seemingly unmoved by the experience. Some who witness the execution are deeply troubled by the experience and require therapy and counseling after the experience is over, while others who witnessed the execution are unmoved.

Some families of the victim report that the execution has brought to them a sense of closure and relief, while other family members of a victim report that the execution did not bring closure or satisfy their desire for revenge.

So those whose lives are touched by an execution are affected in many ways. Therefore the resource of experience doesn’t really shed any helpful light on the subject of capital punishment. Like the resource of scripture, the resource of experience is ambiguous at best. The only clear direction seems to come from reason and intellect which I think suggests that capital punishment is not helpful to society.

My friends, there was a time in my life when I thought that there was a place in our society for capital punishment but not any more. I now oppose this form of punishment. I like what our denomination says about this issue, you have that position statement in your worship insert. I think that if we truly value the sanctity of life, then taking the life of those who kill just isn’t right. Therefore I believe that when someone has committed a heinous crime they should be imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole. I also believe that their imprisonment should not be one of ease, but hard work and extremely limited privileges.

Oh sure there are times when a particularly gruesome crime is committed and I react with a visceral level of disgust and anger and find myself saying that person doesn’t deserve to live. But when I set aside my emotion, my sense of reason tells me that God will deal with that person. God will hold them accountable, so we don’t need to take their life to teach them a lesson. I don’t know where you stand with this issue of capital punishment, but it’s my hope that our reflection on this issue will help you in your quest to form a faith response. We take a break from our sermon series next week. But when we pick it up again we’ll tackle the topic of pornography. I hope that you’ll be with us again in worship.