If your confused by the title of this blog then we have something in common. I have always been in favor of the death penalty. I really don't know why, I just always have been. I figured it was a just thing. You know, a life for a life. I'm also very pro life. As I get older I am seeing more and more, a contradiction between being pro-life, and supporting capital punishment.
Now when I say that I am pro-life, I mean very pro-life. I consider abortion murder, believe it should be outlawed, and put the death of these unborn children on the same level of the holocaust. I make no apologies for that. My reasoning behind this extreme conviction? Pardon my language but, because their human freaking beings!
It's sad that I have to elaborate further than that statement but I will. All humans, regardless of their stage in life, are sacred creatures created in the image of the Living God. We have been given an eternal mind and spirit just like our creator. Each and every human being, regardless of how insignificant or lowly we think they are, has been called and chosen by God for a special divine purpose. As you can see, being pro-life, goes much further than opposing abortion. It is treating all human life as sacred with sanctity and reverence.... Which brings me to the death penalty.
I understand from a financial sociological standpoint the reasoning for capital punishment. These criminals are a very real danger to society. Killing them would insure without a doubt that they will never endanger anyone again. I suppose life sentences would do that too, but that would also drain our resources and tax payer dollars. There's just one problem with that logic.... A human being is not A number. People are not cells on a spreadsheet. They are not lines on a budget sheet, gears in a machine, or logistical variables. You cannot use the, "it saves money" argument when talking about a person's life.
A person who has a family. A person who has a mother that will fall to the floor in horrific cries as her son is put to death. A person who has children. We have the right to end that life? Who are we? Some may say, what about self defense and war? Any rational person will understand the huge difference between killing some because we think we should, and killing someone because they are trying to kill us.
Still there is the question, what about the mother, children, spouse, and family of the person that was murdered? Killing the murderer will not bring the murdered back, nor will it take away the pain. You cannot expect a clean, neat, well planned execution of one life to equate as an adequate trade for the gruesome murder of another.
I must digress. The purpose of this blog was not to argue for or against capital punishment. It was to ask a question to the pro life crowd... Take a hard look at your convictions. If your really so pro-life, how do you wrestle with the apparent contradiction of treating all human life as sacred, while supporting the execution of another sacred, divinely called human being, bearing the image of God Almighty?
