Posted on 10/31/2007 9:14:55 AM PDT by Wuli
In July Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were sexually abused and brutally murdered by parolees Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, who now face the death penalty. The Hawke-Petit family – including husband and father William, who survived the attack – were members of the United Methodist Church in Cheshire, CT, a liberal activist church “where parishioners take to the pulpit to discuss poverty in El Salvador and refugees living in Meriden,” reports The New York Times.
The church has been led by three pastors in a row who oppose capital punishment in favor of “restorative justice,” and several congregants attended midnight vigils two years ago outside the prison where CT executed its first convict in 45 years. The parishioners are anguished over how they should respond to the capital charges brought against the defendants, according to The Times:
The killings have not just stunned the congregation, they have spurred quiet debate about.......
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalmavens.com ...
This faux pastor still doesn't get it.
Respect for life requires that you put down vicious beasts so they can't kill again. Anything less dishonors the memory and denies justice to this murdered mother and her daughters. It also puts other innocents at risk.
So, The Rev. Diana Jani Druck says maybe it would be OK to execute them, since the rapist-murderers are white. If they had been black, that would have been a different matter.
Still, she isn’t sure.
Another reason why I’ve left christanity. Every church nowadays seems to be run by these whackjobs.
Try the Presbyterian PCA.....
“So, The Rev. Diana Jani Druck says maybe it would be OK to execute them, since the rapist-murderers are white. If they had been black, that would have been a different matter.”
Judging guilt or innocence by the color of the offender’s skin is the same mentality that drove howling mobs to lynch black men a century and a half ago, and these fools continue to refuse to understand that racism is wrong, regardless of its intent or application.
The actual words were: “Thou shall not commit murder”
Not: “Thou shall not kill”.
Which is why the ancient Jews, from whom we got the ten commandments, were not squeamish about capital punishment for capital crimes.
The “accepted” interpretation is a modern invention.
The actual words were: “Thou shall not commit murder”
Not: “Thou shall not kill”.
Which is why the ancient Jews, from whom we got the ten commandments, were not squeamish about capital punishment for capital crimes.
The “accepted” interpretation is a modern invention.
Have faith.
Many - not all - of the individuals who take such a point of view are not ruled by a spiritual connection, but by pride. I believe many of them like to take on this position as a means of feigning moral superiority. Certainly, this is not Christian.
My church favors respect for all life, even that of murderers. I would agree with this teaching if it could be ensured that such criminals would never harm others again. As there can be no such accommodation I feel comfortable with capital punishment - as long is the convicted are beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Conversely, when such criminals are put to death, I don’t believe that it should be done out of a sense of vengeance. To do so would to become like the murderers. It should be a cool, simple and intellectual matter of law.
The thing that really gnaws at me about such debate is that it seems that some Christians appear to give a higher degree of attention to the value of the life of the criminal, rather than to that of the innocent and the victim.
I see this attitude more of being “liberal” than it is being “Christian”. I certainly don’t like to put myself in a position to quantify the faith of another. Yet, I don’t understand it and while I used to strain to grasp such a mindset, I no longer wish to come to an understanding. I see such a worldview simply as foolishness, which through the grace of God, I will never be able understand.
Looks like those Methodists have had to search their own souls for answers to the death penalty. Their former preacher has to be classified as a damn fool, and anyone who has had a close friend murdered will agree with my statement. Death penalties do not stop murdering from happening again and again, but it does stop the person executed from doing it ever again. Whatever the color of your skin, if you murder someone, you deserve to die for your actions.
WOW! Like I posted before....Sorry, I kept getting a Proxy Server error.
Numbers 35:33
Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
The death penalty is a command.
It’s not Christianity that’s at fault. It’s trendy clergy, who don’t have much idea of what tradition, the creeds, or the Bible have to say.
Secular liberalism infects many of the mainline churches, and parts of the Catholic Church, but it’s not real Christianity, in my view.
Some of us not-so-ancient Jews aren't squeamish about it, either.
You've got to be extraordinarily careful that the person actually did the crime, but once that's established its hangin' time (or shooting, or the chair, or injection, etc.). Scum like this don't deserve to live, and we in the rest of society don't deserve to have them still around, costing us money better used to help the unfortunate and with the risk of further violence as the result of an escape and/or parole.
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