http://www.islandpacket.com/living/religion/faith-in-action/article132371739.html
I wrote this piece about capital punishment in light of the sentencing of Dylann Roof who murdered the folks in the AME Church in Charleston, SC. This is from a religious perspective. Thank you for taking th time to read it and for any comments.
Rabbi Bloom
1 comment:
It would seem that the Judeo-Cristian religious question is more about the nature of free will. If you note, none of the ten commandments say "thou shall not judge." Four of the ten commandments involve protecting the life that the lord has created. Life is given though the vessels of man and woman acting with free will creating families and communities. Children should honor their parents and the family units itself is honored in couples not straying and coveting others. It would seem the emphasis is all on the sanctity of the creation of life, not in the judgement of others. The pope, on a totally unrelated matter of Gay marriage, once said "Who am I to judge?." and that is the essence of this problem. Are humans ever able to set up judicial systems that do not violate the God given sanctity of human life? We are flawed beings and will always make mistakes in our judgements. Is it right to take the life of a mentally ill mass murder? Were we wrong in our judgment of his or her sanity? Does it matter? So the question really becomes this: if we could judge on taking a life and be accurate 99.99 % of the time, are we acting immorally when we literally kill an innocent or mentally ill man or woman? That will always happen. If a justice system takes the life of a person that is clearly guilty such as Dylan Roof, it will one day take the life of someone who is framed in a miscarriage of justice. How can society condone setting up a system that will indeed one day kill an innocent person? Many would argue that the price we must pay is to not take human life for those who are clearly guilty. Perhaps another question might need to be asked, since we do have free will. What do we gain? Will God have mercy on us for such an act?
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