The Death Penalty and Mike Pence

 

I recently heard former Vice President, and current Presidential candidate, Mike Pence say that, if he is elected President, he would push for quicker execution timelines for people who commit mass-murder. Hmmmm.

Now I know that allot of you concur with Mr. Pence on this issue. Hell, there was a time when I was one of them! In fact, I've been known to say things like, "There's just some folks who need killin'" and " The world would be a better place if some folks weren't in it". Of course, like Mr. Pence, I had my list of folks I thought it acceptable to kill - MURDER per se, you know the usual - child killers, rapists, terrorists ... Philadelphia Eagles fans ... oh be quiet I'm kidding about the Eagles fans (fingers crossed), but you get the message. I had, like Mr. Pence concluded that under certain circumstances, it was okay to kill another person.

About a year ago I was reading this Ann Rice book, I think it was called "The Wolf Gift" or something like that - good book. Anyway, in her story there's this normal guy, a Real Estate agent, who is bitten and obviously becomes a Werewolf.  However, since he was a decent guy he was constricted over the fact that in his new persona he had the desire to murder human beings, which he did in multitudes. To justify his need to kill, he became, like Mr. Pence and I, selective over WHO he would kill, finally choosing sex offenders, gangsters ... people he considered criminals. In other words he justified his murders by ONLY killing those, who, in his opinion, had it coming.

As time goes by and the murders mount up the whole city of San Francisco becomes aware of these attacks, and, in a moment of reflection he confesses to his brother, who happens to be a Priest, that he is the one doing the killing. His brother however, a devout follower of God is appalled and overcome with sadness when faced with the fact that his baby brother could actually kill another person. Well, as you already know, the younger brother tries to justify his blood-thirst by assuring his brother that the people he selected for death, were evil. You know, there's just some folks who need killin': the world would be a better place if some folks weren't in it ... sound familiar? I mean that's pretty normal in America, right? That's what I was taught ... and if your honest with yourself, most of you were taught the exact same thing, often times in church. In fact MOST Christians actually support the Death Penalty, hence the position Mr. Pence recently took on the subject ... he of course is trying to appeal to his Religious base of voters. But is this what a Christian should think?

Like I said, I'm no one to judge, I felt the same way - on the outside - but inside, in that deeper place, that river of soul buried deep within, I wasn't so sure. And, as strange as it sounds coming from me, I began to pray about this ... and a couple other sacred cow beliefs as well.  But, like I said, I was conflicted with what I had been taught to believe with the words of Jesus, and so I prayed asking for an answer, and, do you know how God answered my prayer? through that darned Ann Rice book. Yeah. When I read the words spoken by her Catholic Priest character to his monster brother the light went on, I finally understood why it should be, under ANY circumstance, unacceptable for ANY Christian to support the Death Penalty. So what did her character say? Well, rather than explain, I'll just let the words of Ms. Rice speak for themselves.  This is the Priest talking to his brother:
 

             "You killed them. You Killed them in their sin! You terminated their destiny on this earth.

             You snatched from them any chance for repentance, for redemption. You took that from them.              

             You took it all. You snuffed out forever the years of reparation they might have lived!

             You took life itself from them and you took it from their descendants, and yes, even from their victims,
             you took what their amends might have been"

How powerful are those words!! When you kill a sinner you deny that person the chance at repentance. Point is: if you believe in Jesus then you believe in the Holy Spirit and in salvation through repentance. Under that system of salvation by acceptance, when you kill a person in their sin, before they have completed their allotted time to repent, you send them to Hell; if God believes in giving us a chance at repentance, who are we to deny it? And so it is that I now come to you and repeat what I said earlier ... it is impossible for a Christian to support the Death Penalty.

Please do me a favor and send this to Presidential candidate Mike Pence ... and to any other Christian organization you can think of. Someone needs to tell them so that THEY don't die in their sin.

Peace and Love be with you all. Mark out.

 

Bruceton Mills, 10/22/23