Death penalty

(excerpt from my journal entry dated November 4, 2010, a Thursday).

I’ve always asked this question regarding death penalty and its morality. I’ve always been against it because it does not seem “Godly” or “Christian” to me. The usual argument for it, or rather, against death penalty is that only God can take away our lives, and so the most severe punishment that we should mete out a fellow man is reclusion perpetua, not death penalty.

Nakakakonsensya siguro maging judge meting(?) out the death penalty on anyone, kahit pa notorious criminal yun. However, I think the counterargument for it is that, by extension, while we carry on God’s charity, God’s creation, God’s love and power and mercy, why not, by extension, carry out God’s justice?

I think the next question would be how do we know exactly what God’s justice is? What is God’s brand of justice? What indicators are there to find out? A person’s conscience? A people’s collective conscience?

There is no universal acclaim for the death penalty, kahit pa nga parusa pa ‘yon, legally mandated, sa isang napaka-notorious na criminal. May perspective pa nga na primitive or barbaric ang death penalty. Did Jesus speak against it? I haven’t really and thoroughly checked on it. Even when He was meted out such a punishment, He did not say anything against it—or did He? Did everything He said get written down anyway?

Syempre, there are passages like “Love your enemies,” which I think is a big step up from the Golden Rule. But then, what really is love? Is it always about kindness toward everyone, even so-called “enemies”?

Is there no love in meting out death? Could there be none?

As a Christian (philosophically, at least), I know that if I mete out death on anyone, or allowed for such a thing to take place in my presence, I know I’d be uncomfortable. I know it would bother me. Would that be God “speaking out” His will in me?

I feel rage also when I hear of injustices done against the helpless. Like yung uncle ng friend ko na binaril nang dalawang beses sa mukha dahil lang sa pulitika. What really bothered me was that the murderer just simply, casually, walked away, and then rode off on a motorcycle. It was coldblooded. And in my initial rage, I wished for death—slow, painful, and scary death—for that murderer.

But would that be God in me enraged over what happened? Kahit ngayon na naiisip ko pa rin yun, I still feel anger toward that son of a _____, although now I’ve left enough steam off my head that I don’t wish death for him anymore. Just punishment. Just his conscience awakening in him, driving him mad for what he had done, and experiencing the pain he caused my friend’s family.

Naiisip ko, if it truly is God manifesting His will through us, we will have to be “whole”—complete; the totality of God’s present intention for us in this world. I’m sure the judges who mete out the death penalty do not give out such a punishment out of anger or prejudice; neither out of just pure logic. It would have to be them in their wholeness/completeness in God’s place and time.