Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Supreme Court vs. The Supreme Court


The supreme court has tipped their hand and showed us some of the criteria they use to determine whether or not causing intentional death is justified.

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On October 30th, the Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Mississippi murderer. There was no doubt about the guilt of the killer. In a capital punishment case the prosecution MUST prove guilt beyond the shadow of doubt. It would be a sad tragedy indeed to put an innocent person to death. The high court, in the case of this murdererer, blocked the execution until it concludes an ongoing review of lethal injection. The conclusion of the review should come about next year sometime and until then, there will be a moratorium on executions. The primary question is whether lethal injections constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In other words, do they hurt? It’s true the method used now is not the same as that used to euthanize a pet and perhaps an improvement can be made in the kinds of drugs used.

I’m not unhappy with this moratorium. I’m not anti death penalty. Genesis 9:6 says,
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
That is the beginning and the end of the argument for me. The image of God in man is not to be taken lightly and every human on the face of the earth, regardless of deed and thought, carries with him a portion of dignity that is derived from the creator Himself. We ought to show respect to all, and part of that respect means that our government must punish the evil doer; in the case of murder the guilty should die.

So why am I pleased with this moratorium? Two reasons:

First, our government does not know how to execute the evil doers with fairness for all. Black men are executed far more frequently than white men and poor people are executed more often than the wealthy. Until our leaders can fix the inequities in the system, I am all for a postponement on execution.

Second, the supreme court has tipped their hand and showed us some of the criteria they use to determine whether or not causing intentional death is justified.
This gives me hope in curbing the four thousand a day habit that America has developed in its abortion addiction.

Does a lethal injection hurt the one being ‘terminated’? Good question, and so important that until this question can be answered, we will have NO 'termination of life' by lethal injection for years to come and believe me, it will take years.

In Roe vs Wade, 34 years and 48,589,993 dead babies ago, the most important question that came up before the Supreme Court was, ‘When does life begin?’
We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to an answer.
In other words, the answer could take years. However, instead of calling a moratorium on the killing, the black robes legalized the slaughter of the innocent.

The question of when life begins is not the only difficult question posed by the practice of abortion. What about the question that the court is considering at present, the one that has halted executions - does it hurt? Could a brilliant lawyer form an argument that may cause a supreme court justice to consider that cutting a baby to pieces inside the womb might hurt the baby? Does it cause discomfort for the baby as her head is crushed? In a partial birth abortion where the entire baby is born except for his head, does it hurt when the scissors are pushed into the base of his skull? As I said, perhaps an exceptionally smart lawyer could at least insert doubt into the high jurist’s mind that abortion might not be painless. That should be all that is necessary to place a moratorium on abortions until these questions can be answered.

Clearly there are many questions that are being overlooked while the killing continues. Questions philosophical, legal, medical, psychological and theological. Isn’t it important that we answer these questions before killing one more innocent or is the killer the only one who deserves such a thorough review of procedure and practice?

Recently, my own Senator
Russ Feingold, D-Wis. on introducing the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act spoke these words -
We should take advantage of this apparent pause in executions to consider the severe injustices within the system as a whole
In all honesty, I couldn't agree with you more senator, but let's look past the walls of death row and into the abortionist's clinic.

I appeal to, I beseech, I cry, I beg the supreme court to follow it’s own cautious reasoning and call a moratorium on the termination of the pre-born until these questions can be answered beyond a shadow of doubt. May God have mercy on us.

For more questions to ponder please see Kirby Anderson's excellent arguments here.
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5 comments:

  1. Great Point. It shows what happens when Caesar becomes autonomous. The courts who reject God's law simply don't know what they are doing, and have no objective standard for their practice.

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  2. The solution to the race issue regarding the death penalty would be to enforce it on all murderers, once there has been sufficient proof for the murder, and proof that it was indeed murder. (I would also like to see it for attempted murder as well - same crime, just a worse shot).

    But the point with the courts criteria was spot on. The larger question, though, concerns the courts right to make such a decision in the first place. Just what is a person?

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  3. I will go even so far as to say I think pragmatically this should be one of the leading arguments for the pro-life position... for it's not just in the moratoriam on the death penalty that "pain" is set forth as a critical factor but in the debate over torture as well.

    ... Seems this is an issue (pain) that resonates with the public in debate.

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  4. Bob,

    You made some excellent points! I do have some questions for you regarding this statement:

    "First, our government does not know how to execute the evil doers with fairness for all. Black men are executed far more frequently than white men and poor people are executed more often than the wealthy. Until our leaders can fix the inequities in the system, I am all for a postponement on execution."

    (1) How does the postponement of a particular punishment, especially one that you agreed is commanded and authorized by God, follow from *some* misapplications of it?

    (2) Given that there are (and presumably always will be until Christ returns) inequalities and misapplications in *all* punishments meeted out by human institutions, doesn't it follow, using your reasoning above, that *all* punishments should be postponed?

    Questions to ponder.

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  5. Dang, I can't edit the clunkiness and typos of my last paragraph. Pretend I wrote it like this:

    If the justices have ratcheted their compassion filters so high then why can't they see this inconsistency?

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