Dead man walking

I recently had a chance to watch the 1995 Oscar winning movie “Dead Man Walking”. If you haven’t seen it, consider doing so. I strongly recommend it. It is quite the story. Keeping the best for last, the movie climaxes by zooming in on convicted criminal Matthew Poncelet’s last few days before his scheduled execution. It takes you on an unexpected emotional ride that keeps your heart racing, your mind captured and your eye on Mr. Poncelet’s jail cell clock.

As I switched off the TV, my mind was freed from the grips of the movie. The age old question rose back into my head: “Dead men walking” or “Men walking till they die”? “Execution” or “Life Imprisonment”? And even after this heart wrenching movie, I still have to side with capital punishment. Y’all ready for this? Here we go.

(The following arguments are purely biblical. I plan to add a small extra-biblical argument later)

The first piece of biblical evidence I’ll bring to the table comes from the post-flood account of Noah. Right after the flood, God’s first order of business was to make a covenant with creation not to flood the earth ever again. His second work was to instruct Noah on how to live a Godly life in the post-flood era. Amongst the instructions we find the following commands:

Genesis 9:4-6
"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. "

How will he demand an accounting for the lifeblood of man? Verse 6 seems pretty clear. It does not need any exposition.

I know some of you are thinking “This is Old Testament. We are in the new testament now.” I will get to New Testament evidence soon, but for now let me give you two reasons why this counter argument doesn’t work. The end of verse 6 says “For in the image of God has God made man.” Why should we execute a murderer? Because in the image of God has God made man. Now let me ask you a question. Is this still true under the new covenant? Are we still made in the image of our creator? The answer is yes. So if the reason for the command still applies, why shouldn’t the command? Secondly, though this is Old Testament we have to take into consideration that it is not Old Covenant. It is not part of the laws of Moses but its part of the laws of creation. When Christians look for biblical insight in the area of dating relationships, marriage, homosexuality and divorce, we often look at the account of Adam and Eve. I don’t hear anyone yelling “Old Testament” in those cases. For these two reasons I think this counter argument fails.

A second Old Testament piece of evidence is the numerous mosaic laws that God declared are punishable by death. I’m not arguing that we should apply those laws today, but at least we can safely say that God doesn’t find anything inherently wrong with capital punishment.

Still many of you might not put too much weight in what’s been discussed so far because it’s Old Testament literature. And if that’s all we had, I must admit that I might be inclined to do the same. However, if the New Testament has supporting arguments, I don’t think it leaves us much choice. Let’s take a look.

In Romans 13 Paul commands obedience towards the government and the ruling authorities. Paul writes “For he [The government] is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

“Bear the sword”. What can possibly be done with a sword when administering justice? Execution seems to be the only answer. Granted, Paul is most likely using the sword as a symbol. He is certainly not speaking directly to the matter of the means of punishment. But capital punishment was very prevalent in his day. To use a symbol like that most certainly doesn’t speaking against it. Therefore it doesn’t leave much question as to whether Paul approved it.

Staying with Paul we find yet more evidence in favor. Acts 25 tells of Paul’s account while in custody. During a court hearing with governor Festus, Paul says If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. -- Acts 25:11

Apparently, Paul agrees that there is a crime that deserves death. And had he committed that crime, he would not refuse to die.

Putting it all together, I find it hard to accept any other view. The Old Testament clearly upholds captial punishment. The new testament, though not as strongly, seems to follow suite. In places where you might expect the new testament to say something against it, it doesn't.

That’s all I have for now. I know there may be many biblical objections to this view popping into your heads. If you care enough to raise them, feel free to do so. That’s what this blog is for. And I hope to be able to answer your questions or comments.

Put the camera down!

Say “cheese” everyone! Now I am one to like cheese. But picture taking on the other hand… not so much. It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with a little picture taking, but this generation has gone so picture crazy it’s driving me mad. I’m just not buying into it. Let me explain what I mean.

The whole picture concept is a little strange to me. Really, what you are doing when taking a picture is this: You are suspending the present (in order to take the picture, everyone has to stop what they are doing, if not everyone, at least you have to) so that in the future (when you look at the picture), you enjoy the past (the moment the picture represents). So really, your focus is on everything but the present; which is the only thing that’s real. When you take a picture, you take it for the future. When you look at a picture you look at the past. Both are fluff. One might not even exist. The other is long gone.

Secondly, it seems the more we progress, the more picture taking we do. Everyone has a camera. Every cell phone comes with one. There are video cameras, digital cameras, all kinds of cameras. Most people even own one of each. I remember even my 10 year old cousin wanted a camera for her birthday! Everyone just wants to always take pictures all the time. And God forbid we ever go somewhere without a camera. Oh no! That’s just horrible. Now we have to drive all the way back to pick it up. If it’s too far we actually might consider buying another one. I mean we could always have one more camera.

The worst part about all this is that we often even take it to the next level. We ruin the moment we are trying to capture in order to capture it. That drives me crazy. How many times has this happened to you? You are with old friends or family. You are full of excitement and energy. Everyone is laughing and talking and making jokes. Then out of nowhere, to your ears’ utter dismay, some loser camera guy yells out “let’s take a picture everyone, yeah!!” Now as soon as you realize what that means you know the next 20 min are going to be excruciating. Firstly, you have to stop everyone from doing what they’re having such a good time doing; the very thing that makes this moment worthy to be captured. Then, you have to get everybody organized to fit in the view of the camera. If you have kids or whatever, good luck with that. Finally, or at least you think its “finally”, they take the picture. And as soon as everyone starts to disperse, someone else yells “wait, wait, take one with my camera”. Now everyone with a camera wants in. One camera doesn’t work, the other one’s flash didn’t trigger. Someone has to go pee, a baby is crying. Aw for goodness sakes!!

But that’s not all. We’re even crazier than that. This one is my favorite. Sometimes, we’re so caught up in this picture taking business, that the moment we’re trying to capture gets ruined because we can’t capture it! We’re in a beautiful moment, but because we realize we can’t capture it, we get so flustered that we ruin everything. “Oh Wow, my 8 month old nephew is walking. That’s so cute… so precious! Quickly, get the camera!!... Where is the camera??!! NOOOO, We forgot it??! We forgot the camera! HOW COULD YOU FORGET THE CAMERA! WHY DID YOU FORGET THE CAMERA! IT WAS AT THE DOOR, I PUT IT RIGHT THERE! THIS IS JUST SO STUPID!! AWWW MAN!! David just stop walking and leave me alone, I’m trying to find the camera. WHAT IS THIS… CRAP!”. The effects are the same in the case of dead batteries, no memory space and camera malfunctions. The very moment we are trying to capture is ruined because we can’t capture it

Why don’t we just enjoy the moment for what it is. And in the future, instead of trying to borrow from the past, let’s look to make more special moments. Ones that are even better than the those of the past. The past is gone. Press onward. Live life in all its abundance, in the “now”. Run this race with your family and friends each day for itself. And in the end, say “cheese”… for a photo finish.