After blogging about Rick Perry and the inanity of Texas, I started thinking about those devout Christians who support the death penalty.
On the one hand, I get it. Eye for an eye, etc, etc. Surely, somewhere in the Bible it says the death penalty is OK, because the Bible pretty much says everything is OK (slavery, sacrificing humans, etc …), depending on the interpreter. But sometimes, oh sometimes, I wish these people would use their good brains more than the good book.
Human error is a fact of life. We’re not always right, whether we like to think so or not. Sometimes we think the Arizona Cardinals are going to win the Super Bowl. Sometimes we think John McCain will be president. Sometimes we think someone is guilty of a crime. In fact, we know he’s guilty of a crime. Look at all the evidence. Look at the witnesses. Look at the track record. He’s guilty, no doubt about it, and he should die an absolutely horrible death.
And yet …
Perhaps he’s not guilty. Perhaps the evidence was tampered. Perhaps the witnesses were biased. Perhaps confessions were coerced. One is never, ever, ever 100 percent certain about something he/she did not witness (and even witnesses aren’t usually 100 percent certain), and therefore, one can never, ever, ever be put to death. Ever. It’s wrong, because it’s flawed. Factually.
If there is one group of people who should stand against the death penalty, it’s devout Christians. God and Jesus and salvation and all that stuff—it seems to clearly bark against the idea of killing someone in a deliberate fashion. And yet, Rick Perry does—and will continue to—enjoy massive support among right-wing Christians, who gobble up his anti-abortion and pro-gun blather as if it were free Christ-flavored gum-balls.
And here we are.
