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The End Of The Death Penalty

Posted Jun 16 2010 by Jonathan Brink in , , , with 10 Comments

Amnesty International from Digital District™ VFX Post-Pro on Vimeo.

This was exceptionally creative. How do you feel about the death penalty?

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About the Author

Jonathan BrinkI am an business development and communications consultant. I am also the senior editor and publisher for Civitas Press. I recently published, Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole, New Christianity. (Civitas, 2011)View all posts by Jonathan Brink →

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    Interesting to watch this side by side to this:
    http://pastormack.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/when…

    Maybe in some rare cases where evidence is overwhelming and the circumstances heinous enough, it would be more merciful to both perpetrator and the family of the victim to keep the death penalty in play.

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    Interesting to watch this side by side to this:
    http://pastormack.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/when…

    Maybe in some rare cases where evidence is overwhelming and the circumstances heinous enough, it would be more merciful to both perpetrator and the family of the victim to keep the death penalty in play.

  • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

    I'm not suggesting its easy but I just don't think it works.

    But let me ask you this. How do you reconcile Jesus on the cross and the death penalty?

  • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

    I'm not suggesting its easy but I just don't think it works.

    But let me ask you this. How do you reconcile Jesus on the cross and the death penalty?

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    The same way Paul was able to reconcile it in Romans 13 when he viewed the sword in the hand of the government as God's instrument to punish and restrain evil. Luther followed in Paul's footsteps with his teaching of God's twofold way of governing: violence not being an option for the church and the individual Christian but a necessary evil in a broken world in the hands of the state.

    Let me ask you back: how do you reconcile Jesus on the cross and a lifelong prison sentence?

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    The same way Paul was able to reconcile it in Romans 13 when he viewed the sword in the hand of the government as God's instrument to punish and restrain evil. Luther followed in Paul's footsteps with his teaching of God's twofold way of governing: violence not being an option for the church and the individual Christian but a necessary evil in a broken world in the hands of the state.

    Let me ask you back: how do you reconcile Jesus on the cross and a lifelong prison sentence?

  • http://pastormack.wordpress.com/ Pastor Mack

    Good call JS. As a Christian, I absolutely believe it is the duty of the church to be a community of radical forgiveness. Just today I read a story about an 80 year old woman bludgeoned to death in her church with the cross that was sitting on the altar. Only a serious invasion of grace can make forgiveness in those kinds of situations possible.

    As a citizen though (for instance, if I'm in the jury box), I think it is the right and duty of the civil government to imprison and sometimes execute certain individuals. I would also extend it beyond murder to serial pedophiles and rapists. Besides the fact that I think it can easily be argued that life without parole is more “cruel and unusual” than execution, I think it gets to the point that only a sick society would spend large amounts of government income simply to keep certain kinds of criminals alive.

    At no point did Jesus indicate that the governor had no right to execute him; it was, of course, an unjust death – but it was not an unjust authority to begin with.

  • http://pastormack.wordpress.com/ Pastor Mack

    Good call JS. As a Christian, I absolutely believe it is the duty of the church to be a community of radical forgiveness. Just today I read a story about an 80 year old woman bludgeoned to death in her church with the cross that was sitting on the altar. Only a serious invasion of grace can make forgiveness in those kinds of situations possible.

    As a citizen though (for instance, if I'm in the jury box), I think it is the right and duty of the civil government to imprison and sometimes execute certain individuals. I would also extend it beyond murder to serial pedophiles and rapists. Besides the fact that I think it can easily be argued that life without parole is more “cruel and unusual” than execution, I think it gets to the point that only a sick society would spend large amounts of government income simply to keep certain kinds of criminals alive.

    At no point did Jesus indicate that the governor had no right to execute him; it was, of course, an unjust death – but it was not an unjust authority to begin with.

  • http://www.emergingmummy.com Sarah@EmergingMummy

    Chilling to watch. And yet inspiration and beautiful at the same time.

    I am against the death penalty in all cases. I live in Canada, where it is illegal. I can't see any reason to do so – it's a terrible thing to ask another human being to kill another, even in the name of justice. I can't see that it ever results in closure of the God kind.

  • http://www.emergingmummy.com Sarah@EmergingMummy

    Chilling to watch. And yet inspiration and beautiful at the same time.

    I am against the death penalty in all cases. I live in Canada, where it is illegal. I can't see any reason to do so – it's a terrible thing to ask another human being to kill another, even in the name of justice. I can't see that it ever results in closure of the God kind.

Business development and communications for growing businesses.