Jackson Free Press

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:8-16, NIV

The Clarion-Ledger in its Dec. 13, 2005, editorial on the death penalty said that John Nixon's execution was well-earned. They went so far as to ask the question concerning the Earnest Lee Hargon case, where one of the victims was an innocent little boy, "Where is the compassion in watching a four-year-old die?" My question to them would be, "Where is the justice in watching grown men die?"

I am sorry that The Clarion-Ledger felt the need to exercise their God-complex in defending an abhorrent act of human nature. They, along with other supporters of the death penalty, describe in great detail the gory highlights of why someone was convicted and condemned, but in the same breath say that injecting poison into a human being is humane. They seek to prey on our emotions and invoke the notion that retribution is just. It is an insult to the intellect and innermost moral core of the society as a whole.

The same people who extol that women who have abortions are participants in the act of murder, and are in a hissy fit about whether the phrase "Merry Christmas" should be on a seasonal greeting card—which ironically seems to be the time of year when these executions take place—say that murder sanctioned by the state is justice meted out. I wonder what side they would have been on if they were in the crowd that shouted, "Give us Barabbas," hindsight not withstanding.

You remember the story: a man who professed to be the King of Kings was executed by the Roman Empire for the crime of blasphemy and treason, at the request of the crowd gathered, urged on by the clergy amongst them. He was nailed and tied to a cross, alongside two thieves, and left to hang until He died. That was an act of capital punishment.

Many who watched the movie "The Passion of Christ" saw the re-enactment of that execution and were initially repulsed by the goriness of it. They could not stomach such cruelty. Yet, many of them have since left the theater, bought the DVD, and then when they hear of an execution in their state, support it wholeheartedly.

Why such a duality in thought? Why do so many Christians believe in such a concept, knowing that is how Jesus died? Because it is driven by a man-made thirst for revenge, and those who advocate it quench that thirst by re-creating images through words and pictures of the horrific deeds that led to that condemnation and subsequent execution. It is the constant desire to watch the guys in the white hats do in the guys in the black hats, as Hollywood has proven through generations of financially successful action films.

But as the rapper Jay-Z samples in his song, "HOV," "This ain't no movie, dog." Which brings me to a relevant question: Why don't they televise these executions, being that it is so humane? Surely that could be an effective deterrent to crime. But wait, thievery still went on in the Roman Empire after that fateful day on Golgotha, so no, that won't work. Never mind.

Let's get back to the misguided God-complex. As shown in the biblical scripture, God had the chance the render the first execution for the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. Instead, God marked, cursed and sentenced Cain to isolation. That is the equivalent of life without parole in a penitentiary. Correction, I mean prison, for to say "penitentiary" would imply a place of the remorseful, the penitent, and surely we know that those sentenced to death show no signs of that, according to administrative aides of conservative Republican governors.

If God did not see fit to condemn Cain to death, who are we to do such? Maybe it is because God understands that we are at war with principalities and powers controlled by Satan, and not flesh and blood, which are driven emotionally; that those who commit the most heinous of crimes are redeemable, even if they cannot return to the free society from whence they came.

I do not support the system of capital punishment in America. It is flawed to the core, for how can something so inherently unfair in the areas of race and station in life, as studies have shown, be considered just? The U.S. Supreme Court has even flip-flopped on the issue on whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual. It is time that we end this practice founded upon the false illusion of justice, deterrence and closure.

God said in Romans 12:19, NIV, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay." The Clarion-Ledger, and others of like mind, should shed their God-complex and let the One and Only God do His will.