Too Clean and Far Too Common

The last public execution in France.   I have been meaning to write about this, but haven't had the time.

   Those of you who are familiar with me and my politics will know I am against the death penalty.1 So, it might seem contradictory for me to argue today that as long as the United States wants to continue killing its deathrow inmates, it ought to do so in a very public and violent way: beheadings.

   Sticking needles into the arms of the condemned and putting them to sleep as we have been doing since 1982 has made capital punishment too antiseptic, too "humane", and far, far too common. Were it messy and cruel, the good Christians of America might lose their stomach for executing her prisoners.

1 . . . except in very limited political situations where executions would lead to stability. The execution of Nazi leaders and Osama bin Laden would fall into that narrow scope.

Knock 'em Dead

   The line which drew the loudest applause in last week's Republican debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was a question moderator Brian Williams started to pose for Governor Rick Perry of Texas, noting that under the governor's tenure 234 death row inmates had been executed.

   How odd, I thought, that the vast majority, if not all, of those clapping probably considered themselves not only good Christians, but pro-life, to boot. How do they reconcile their unbridled enthusiasm for capital punishment with the teachings of Christ?

   Boggles the mind, it does.