Death Penalty Debate Should Tell Us Something

Several Left-wing groups and most of the Leftist blogs in South Dakota are crying about the upcoming execution of convicted murderer Elijah Page, practically begging Governor Rounds to spare his life.

I'm reasonably sure that during the two hours Page tortured his "friend" Chester Poage in that stream, Poage probably pleaded for his life, yet those pleas obviously fell on deaf ears. If the pleas of an innocent man went unheeded, why should we now heed pleas on behalf of someone guilty of murder?

This debate also tells us something else, not only about the value of life on the Left, but also the Left's values about life. The Left fights relentlessly (not a little, but relentlessly) for the "choice" to butcher innocent unborn children, yet they get all worked up at the just punishment of someone who has displayed casual disregard for the value of human life.

Protection of innocent life vs. protection of murderers? What does that say about the values of the Left?

The Death Penalty: Doing What We Must

I was doing a little reading last night in a great book called "God and Ronald Reagan" by Paul Kengor, PhD., when I came to a passage about how Ronald Reagan dealt with capital punishment as governor of California.

Reagan was a deeply Christian man (though Reagan is my greatest hero, even I didn't realize the depth of his faith until I read this book), and had given a lot of thought to the death penalty and found it to be Biblically sound. Yet...

...while Reagan seemed confident that the death penalty had a biblical basis, during his governorship he was compelled to pray for guidance at least once over the issue. When thirty-seven-year-old Aaron Mitchell was sentenced to death for killing a Sacramento police officer (and father of two, as Reagan usually noted) during an armed robbery, the question of clemency reached Reagan's desk. He would later recall the night before that decision, which he tried to postpone, as the worst of his governorship. He said no part of a governor's job is approached "more prayerfully" than a death penalty decision. As Reagan agonized over the matter, Donn Moomaw flew in to counsel him; the two knelt together by Reagan's coffee table to pray over the issue. Even after Moomaw said "amen," Reagan jumped in, asking for help to learn God's will and do what was right.

In the end, Reagan refused to grant clemency to Mitchell, and the killer was put to death at 10:00 A.M. the following day in San Quentin's gas chamber...That he ultimately chose not to prevent the execution suggested how firm his convictions were"

Unlike convicted murderers, the taking of a life--even a guilty murderer's life--is not something good people do lightly. That's part of what makes the execution of someone who has disregarded the value of life different from the murderer's act.

Though it is a great burden, though it isn't easy, if we truly believe in the sacred, precious nature of life, and if we believe in justice, then we know what it is we must do.

Prejudiced Against Finding the Truth?

The Answers in Genesis website features an interesting article today entitled "Inherit the Prejudice."  The author tells how he grew up not liking Christians and that he found a lot of seeming inconsistencies in the world. 

While my case wasn't nearly as extensive as his, I can relate to a number of his thoughts:

I had experienced pain and suffering. Why did I have to suffer? In fact, why was the entire world such a horrible place full of war, starving children, murderers, child molesters, disease and cancer?

There are solid explanations for this, but unfortunately most churches do an utterly lousy job of teaching their children and adult members about these foundational issues.  Maybe the church could afford to ignore the question of origins in a simpler age, but in our current world which brims with scientific inquiry, it's like letting your kids play unsupervised near a busy interstate highway. 

Sadly, many people (like this author, and like me) are getting "run over" because too few in Christianity bother to explain "Why am I here?" and "How did everything come to be?" 

The Bible says a people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and that truth is being played out in our society.  Even in the church, there are many who believe they have to compromise their theology and, because we place it under the banner of "science," believe in a myth (evolution) that requires far more "faith" than does belief in the claims of the Bible.  In short, a little investigation reveals that science supports the Bible better than it supports evolution. 

You can read the whole thing at http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2006/0814inherit-prejudice.asp.