Last night death was interrupted. Duane Buck was set for execution. His execution would have been the second this week and the eleventh this year in Texas alone... and two more executions are scheduled for next week. When Presidential candidate Rick Perry celebrated his 234 executions as Texas governor last week in the debate, the audience roared in applause. As a Christian I found that deeply disturbing.
There is an incident in the Gospels where Jesus is asked about the death penalty.
Here's the scene. A woman has been humiliated and dragged before the town, ready to be killed. Her execution was legal; her crime was a capital one. But just because it's legal, doesn't make it right.
Jesus interrupts the scene -- with grace.
He tells all the men who are ready to kill the woman, "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." And of course he reminds us all that if we have looked at someone with lust in our eyes we are adulterers. If we have called our neighbor a fool we are a murderer. You can hear the stones start to drop, as the men walk away.
The only one who is left with any right to throw a stone is Jesus -- and he has absolutely no inclination to do so. We can see that the closer we are to God the less we want to throw stones at other people.
It is this dual conviction that no one is above reproach and that no one is beyond redemption that lies at the heart of our faith. Undoubtedly it's why the early Christians were characterized by non-violence, even in the face of brutal evil, torture and execution. Of all people, we who follow the executed and risen Christ should be people who are pro-life, pro-grace and anti-death.
The last 2000 years of Christianity have been filled with those interruptions of death. After all, many evangelicals believe that Jesus' own death on the cross was an interruption ("the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ" Romans 6:23) -- according to conventional evangelical wisdom, our sin would warrant us all the death penalty were it not for Jesus. How then can we who have been spared death so quickly become people who are ready to dish it out?
Besides, much of the Bible is written by murderers who have been given a second chance -- like David (who committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba and then had her husband killed). How can we rejoice in death, even the death of a "terrorist" like Osama bin Laden when half of the New Testament was written by a terrorist named Saul of Tarsus (who went door to door trying to kill the early Christians before his radical transformation), whose conversion was so radical it was as if "scales fell from his eyes" (Acts 9:18) and so fundamental that he changed his name.
The interruptions of death continue. I recently heard a friend of mine who is living in prison tell me his story... a story very similar to that of Duane Buck in Texas. My friend, admittedly and regrettably, committed a terrible crime. But the victim's family were Christians, and so in court they argued against the death penalty. They insisted that we are all better than the worst things we do, and that no one is beyond redemption. And they knew that there is something wrong with killing someone to show that killing is wrong. Because of their persistent grace, my friend was spared the death penalty. In prison, he pondered their words, and began reading the Gospels... and became a Christian. To this day, his life is a resurrection story.
Our Gospel is a Gospel of grace, in spite of how scandalous grace may be, and in spite of all the ways we Christians have forgotten that grace.
When Duane Buck got the news last night that the execution had been stayed, these were his words: "Praise the Lord Jesus. God is worthy to be praised. God's mercy triumphs over judgment, and I feel good."
This is the good news -- mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). Death has been interrupted by grace. No one is beyond redemption. No one, not King David. Not Saul of Tarsus, not Duane Buck. Not you or me.
Their stories, and our own, remind us that we should never write any one off. God's grace is bigger than our mistakes. Death Thou Art Dead.
May the interruptions of death continue. And may our lives become a part of the interruption.
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So in the case of Troy Davis, that was just The Big Guy being "Mysterious?" Still worthy of praise?
Jesus stated that child molesters should be drowned and that murderers should be killed .(Matthew 21).. Mary, the adulteress, never killed or molested anyone. Jesus was merciful, but he was not Mr. Rogers or Buddha.
But for some people, the Bible is just a means to an end - and their final objective is to enshrine their mere human opinions as being holy. I guess they don't realize they're throwing out the Third Commandment by doing that.
Yes, I'm really compelled by the thought process of people who are pro-life and support the death penalty, glorify war, and villify any woman who has an abortion. Those are some deep thinkers, right there.
That John 7:53 through John 8: 11 weren't in early manuscripts isn't a "notion": they have the early Greek texts, and it isn't there. When the canon was established, the John they had didn't include it ( earliest extant complete copy of John = 350 CE which doesn't include it ): so it wasn't "missing" and they couldn't have been aware that somewhere down the line, someone would add it. They ran with what they had.
"the Bible wouldn't exist at all. "
We couldn't be so fortunate: wonder how far man would have advanced without Christianity or Islam ?
Thoughtful post: you make some good points.
And please don't bring up the usual purportedly atheistic suspects, adolf, pol, joseph s, et al, as their violent personality cults were onto themselves, and not secularism by any stretch, and a meme that would never thrive if the human population hadn't already developed the societal habit of worshiping superbeings for centuries prior.
Republicans complain that government can't do anything right, but when the subject is executing American citizens, they believe that the government is infallible regardless of the evidence to the contrary.
Espionage (18 U.S.C. 794)
Treason. (18 U.S.C. 2381)
Trafficking in large quantities of drugs (18 U.S.C. 3591(b))
Attempting, authorizing or advising the killing of any officer, juror,or witness in cases involving a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, regardless of whether such killing actually occurs. (18 U.S.C. 3591(b)(2))
----all at the federal level. Then the states have a few of their own:
Treason (Arkansas, Calif., Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Washington)
Aggravated kidnapping (Co., Idaho, Il., Missouri, Mont.)
Drug trafficking (Fl., Missouri)
Aircraft hijacking (Ga., Mo.)
Placing a bomb near a bus terminal (Mo.)
Espionage (New Mexico)
Aggravated assault by incarcerated, persistent felons, or murderers (Mont.)
Rape of a child below a stated age ( TXx, Ok, SC, Mont, La, and maybe Ga.)
There are currently two people on death row for crimes which did not include murder; both in Louisiana, both for rape of a child.
Fanned and faved
Where is there a shred of evidence that they don't exist? I do not go to church, am not a religious person but I think it is funny how the liberal mentality of "everyone has a right to express themselves" goes out the window when it comes to faith. When liberals talk of religion it's almost like they are looking through the large end of a telescope, where everything is focused into a small microcosm of only the most fantastic elements of the stories. If that is all you see, you will never see the full picture.
Like it or not, the utopian LIBERAL ideas have their very root in religion... Christianity in fact.
Stop to ask yourself what is wrong with following the beliefs taught by somebody that was not only a trailblazer of human rights in ancient times, but also somebody that was so revered as to stand out among hundreds of people that claimed to be a messiah.
Robin Hood and Santa Clause also have their roots in real stories and real people and became the built up mythical figures of today over generations of story telling. If you are to consider yourself an educated person you need to take lessons wherever you find them...even if they are myths.