Troubled

Today I’m feeling troubled.

I’ve been confronted lately with a lot of discussion on crime and punishment. What is justice? How do we dispense it on Earth? When do we fail to be just through inaction and apathy? And when to we overstep our authority and when do we overstep our authority and try to play God? What is the Christ-Like (I hesitate to say Christian because that term in this arena has been co-opted to mean too many different things) response to crime and punishment and how does this reinforce or push back against the way we do things?

A couple big stories in the news this past week have gotten me thinking. One is the Troy Davis execution. Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 for the 1989 murder of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. In the years since his arrest and conviction Davis has always maintained his innocence. Following the trial seven of the prosecutions key witnesses recanted some or all of their testimony that was used to convict Davis with several of them citing they were strongly pressured by the police to implicate Davis in the murder.

Now like any good story in the news there are multiple sides to this one. And whether popular public opinion agrees with Davis’ persistent claims of innocence (and a huge number of people have signed petitions implicating at the very least sincere doubt of his guilt) or whether the courts and parole board have been correct in their upholding of the conviction and the sentence in accordance with Georgia law is not what really matters to me in this debate. I’m not interested at this point in the miscarriage of justice that may or may not have happened at the trial that convicted Troy Davis (although I probably should be) I’m concerned with the idea that we think we have the right to execute anyone in this day and age.

The secular argument against the death penalty ranges from “it’s distasteful” to “it’s inhumane” but the reasoning why it might be either of these two things or somewhere in-between is because of the real risk of executing an innocent person.  It certainly seems as if the circumstances surrounding this case merit skepticism – but I’m compelled to ask as a Christian – does it matter if he was innocent?

Today in his blog Resident Theology, Brad East makes the comparison between two executions that occurred last night in the United States: Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer. One is a black man convicted of killing a white cop (a great many believe wrongly convicted) and the other is a white supremacist who no one doubts brutally murdered a black man by dragging him from the back of his truck. Both were killed by the State last night – sanctioned murder in the vein of an eye for an eye but we cry out injustice over one and quietly applaud the other.

I’m not trying at all to make light of the heinousness of Brewer’s crime but I find it ironic that with a huge question mark hanging over the guilt of Troy Davis and a massive public outcry including appeals for clemency from people like the former governor of Georgia, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XIV, the family of Mark MacPhail sat and watched as Troy Davis made his final statement – one still proclaiming his innocence – before he was lethally injected and killed. At the same time the family of James Byrd – the man brutally killed in a hate crime by Lawrence Brewer was holding a vigil in remembrance where the victims daughter told the media:

“The execution doesn't mean that much to me because it's doesn't bring my father back,"
 "I want the world to know that I have forgiven him and I don't hate him."

“I feel sorry for Brewer because he has so much hate inside of him," she said, "And didn't understand how to get out of him and he took the wrong path.”

Mercy. Whatever happened to that?

At the same time today I heard on the radio as I was coming to work the story about how convicted pedophile, rapist, murder, etc. Clifford Olsen was dying of cancer. You’d be hard pressed to find a more despicable person residing within the Canadian penal system – the things he did are difficult to even think of without feeling sick and getting angry. And the question on John Gormley Live this morning was this: 

“Is it "right" (ethically/morally) to wish death on Clifford Olson?”

In the unscientific, “crash the radio” 60 second straw poll that Gormley calls the “reality check” 90% of responders said “yes”

Yes it is right (as listeners and the host went onto proclaim) to revel in and celebrate a painful death to cancer. Yes it is right to get joy out of an old man suffering in jail. Sick. During the last days of his existence knowing that people are cheering for cancer to win the battle for his life.

Does this bother anyone else?

I may be retreading ground I already covered when I commented on the death of Osama Bin Laden earlier this year – but has it occurred to anyone that Clifford Olson was someone that Jesus died for?

That Jesus died for Lawrence Brewer?

That Jesus died for Troy Davis?

Does it seem inconsistent to anyone that as Christians we will rush to defend and protect the sanctity of an unborn life we have never met but at the same time many of us are all too eager to end the life of a walking talking person beloved by Jesus? Does being Pro-Life have an expiry age?

Does it seem strange that we rush to uphold carefully selected pieces of Old Testament law that give us the “right” to pursue vengeance as it suits us while ignoring not only most of the other Old Testament codes but the explicit New Testament ones that we claim augment or replace the ones we hold onto?

Has everyone forgotten this:

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:27-31 (TNIV)

Or this one:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 5:28-32

Or what Paul says in Romans:

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Romans 12:19 (TNIV)

Something about all of this doesn’t add up. Am I the only one who is troubled?