A Moment of Grace
Last week in a televised GOP debate, the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, celebrated that his state has executed 234 death row inmates under his governorship (more than any other governor in the modern era). His defense was met with a roar of applause from the audience.
The statistic alone is shocking. But the fact that it was not only defended but celebrated (in the name of some kind of twisted justice) by such a public figure that claims the name of Christ is beyond troublesome.
There is actually a passage in the gospels where Jesus is asked about the death penalty. A woman has been humiliated and dragged before the town, ready to be killed. Her execution was legal; her crime was a capital one.
Yet Jesus interrupted her execution with a moment of grace.
“Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone,” Jesus said.
As you read the passage, you can hear, in that moment, the sound of grace as the stones are dropped to the ground and the accusers walk away. The only one left with any right to throw a stone is Jesus and he has absolutely no inclination to do so.
As Shane Claiborne says, “The closer we are to God the less we want to throw stones at other people.” Undoubtedly this is why the earliest Christian movement was characterized by non-violence, even in the face of absolute evil.
How have we arrived at the point where so many “Christians” celebrate death? If the conventional evangelical wisdom is right, and our sin, apart from Jesus, warrants us death, how can we, who have been spared death, be people who are so ready to dish it out?
Before you go the route of Perry, and defend death with a perverted, unbiblical understanding of justice, be reminded that a large portion of the bible was written by a murderer named David and a terrorist named Saul of Tarsus.
For those who defend the death penalty in the misguided name of crime prevention, I am reminded of a story from one of my favorite theologians, Stanley Hauerwas.
Stanley was once asked to speak at a rally against the death penalty. He approached the microphone and proceeded to declare, “I am for the death penalty. I think they should build a guillotine on Wall Street and execute people for stock fraud.” Although his comment was deeply sarcastic, his point struck a chord. The death penalty cannot be justified by claiming it prevents crime. If such were the case, the death penalty would be much more profitably used against dispassionate, white-collar crime than against murder, which is usually too entangled in personal vindication to be prevented by detached calculation.
Sadly, the real reason the death penalty is used, is a desire for revenge, a temptation to which Christians must not succumb.
My hope is that Rick Perry, and all who align themselves with the Christian tradition would be people who not only believe that God’s mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13), but would be people who call that truth into action.
May we be a people who, like Jesus, interrupt death with moments of grace.
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About Me
Sharing the LOVE of God, shedding LIGHT on modern culture, and providing a MELODY to the unforced rhythms of grace.
Patrick J. Craig is an INTJ, coffee-shop loving, book-reading, NPR-listening, question-asking, student, musician, and lover of people.
