Timing, BLM, and the Death Penalty
MATTHEW LYNCH
The U.S. Justice
Department announced [last] Monday that it will
resume federal executions after a hiatus of nearly two decades. The timing of
this announcement in the middle of a nation-wide cry for police reform raises
questions about the motives for resuming this practice.
But for many
Christians, the death penalty is a biblical mandate. Many Evangelicals appeal
to the Bible’s supposedly clear teaching on the death penalty to defend its
ongoing place in the American justice system. Genesis 9 is key here, since it seems
to teach that God “requires” humans to take the life of a murderer in exchange
for their deed (9:5-6).[2]
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison
Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian prison-focused non-profit, declared
that he now backs the death penalty on biblical grounds. Colson writes,
The Noahic covenant (Gen 9) antedates Israel
and the Mosaic code; it transcends Old Testament law per se and mirrors ethical
legislation binding for all cultures and eras. The sanctity of human life is
rooted in the universal creation ethic and thus retains its force in society.[3]
For Colson,
Genesis 9 mandates the practice of
capital punishment. It is a “non-negotiable standard” of biblical justice, and
a moral society depends on it.
But Christians have good reason to leave
Colson in the cold on this one. The case rests on shaky biblical foundations . . .
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