I did not want to post this on my spiritual blog because it does not necessarily deal with spiritual issues.
As of this writing, there are over 85 dead in the recent killings in Norway from a lone gunman who also blew up government buildings using a method similar to what was used in Oklahoma, here in the US.
This kind of news reminds me of why I believe in capital punishment, so called. I do not believe in capital punishment as such but I do believe in the death penalty. The question that often arises in my mind is this, is there a true and just penalty for the death of so many lives. One offender gives up his life in an electric chair or by lethal injection while 85 people have lost their lives in a horrifying way by a callous person who neither respects or cares about the lives of other. Is his death really a payment for such a crime and how do you balance that to make it fair?
The truth is, you can't. There is no fair way to balance punishment for such a heinous crime, especially if you are thinking in terms of fairness and justice, and is it really "fair" to those victims' families for such a person to be "rehabilitated" by society, if such a thing were possible, for losing their loved ones in such a way?
I read that the maximum penalty in Norway for any crime is 21 years imprisonment! I hope this is a mistake by the writer whose column I read. If such a thing is true how fair is that to those victims families? To extend the life of such a person who would do such a thing is to say to those who would do such things that there is no crime they will ever put you to death for, so go ahead and do what you want, you'll never die for it.
A recent study shows that most criminals are not stopped from committing such crimes out of fear of the death penalty. Is this a reason to not have a death penalty? This is still thinking from the rehabilitation point of view, that if we can produce enough fear in a person from the start then they will not commit murder. Such reasonings are evident of how blind we are to the real purpose of the death penalty. First, and foremost, it is to prevent that person from ever committing such a crime again and to never allow them that opportunity. After all, we can never really know their heart, or the future, as to whether they will or will not ever commit that crime again. If allowed out on the street, whether rehabilitated or not, just like the alchoholic, he may again at some point return to it. Second, to show there is a maximum penalty for such crimes and that there are crimes considered so immoral, wicked, or heinous by any lawful society that they warrant such judgement. Third, by such judgement, show there is an ultimate right and wrong while extending to it's victims some sort of repayment for their loss, though inferior a repayment as it might be. Thus, the crime committed in Norway would be such an act and would warrant such a penalty.
Living in society today in which right and wrong values are on the judgement stand in our courts and states and in which every one decides for themselves what is right and wrong, it becomes clear why the death penalty is even questioned to start with. After all, what is the ultimate penalty but whatever the ruling class decides, in such a society that throws out God and leaves the answer to the question to itself? If right and wrong as we have been taught is constantly being attacked then who decides right and wrong but the ruling class? Under those standards the man who commits such crimes is right if society decides he is because it's only the ruling class who can say he is wrong, not a ultimate right or wrong decided by God. And if we are no more than animals and should be allowed to grow naturally as some believe well then why condemn such a person. After all, nature does not condemn the animal kingdom for killing violently for food or sport? Animals do what they want or are driven to do by their very nature.
The death penalty existed for so long because man believed there was a higher power, God, who would one day bring all men into judgement and that there was a maximum crime in which the punishment was death. Man now tries to toss God out of the picture and what can only take his place will be a society that has no set standard except what it deems to be right at the time with men struggling for the right to decide who makes that decision; a society driven by the course of nature and by it's own instincts. Such a society is difficult to live in since there are not set standards of right and wrong except what those who have the power say it is. In such a society people will openly steal, kill, deceive, cheat and anything else, and those at the top see themselves above the law since they create it. If society sees their officials do such things then why shouldn't it's people, and all the more so seeing those at the top taking it all for themselves? We live in such a society now. Our officials want to make more laws even while they violate the very ones themselves. This year there has seen more corruption by those in power than any other. Never has freedom been more preached from the pulpits of government at the same time more individual rights have been taken away, all for the sake of the rights of a select few.
I suspect this man who committed the horrific crimes in Norway will never suffer the death penalty for his crimes to those 85 people or their families because of his rights to be rehabilitated for his crimes, and yet those 85 people and their families rights will mean absolutely nothing if that happens. The rights of the one will have outweighed the rights of the many for justice and freedom from fear all their lives, and the knowing they will be able to walk the streets free from fear of him 21 years from now when he gets out.
2 days ago
