December 2007 Archives

Candidate and ordained minister the Reverend Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee find support for capital punishment in the death of Jesus:

Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, "This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency."

After all, if Jesus wasn't OK with it, he might have prayed "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." Oh, yeah, he did - as documented in Matthew 39, Mark 14:36-39, and Luke 22:42-44.

Well, why didn't he say something about his unjust treatment on the cross, like "you guys are wrong" or, knowing his gracious nature, "Father, forgive them." Oh, yeah, he did - as documented in Luke 23:34.

Yet if we are going to use the death of Jesus, who by tradition and faith was innocent and blameless, as justification for capital punishment, it is only a minor step to say that it justifies the execution of the innocent.


That's the problem with using past violence to justify violence in the present - it assumes we cannot learn a better way. The rule of "an eye for an eye" was meant as a limit - that one could not extract more in vengeance than the initial harm. Yet even "eye for an eye" leads to the eternal violence of retaliation.


There is a better way - the way of deescalation, of relaxing the tensions, of mending relationships. That does not mean we should let murderers go free - but it means that revenge does not offer anything more than temporary satiation of our own blood lust.


I cannot make my enemy stop hating me by killing his loved ones.

References:
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/12/huckabee-faith-baptist-pastor-sermons.html

What would lead people to call for the death of a person?

Perhaps their pastor.

The Reverend Wiley S. Drake,(First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park California) asked people to pray for the deaths of the Reverend Barry W. Lynn (United Church of Christ), Joseph Conn and Jeremy Leaming. The three men, leaders of People United for the Separation of Church and State, had filed a complaint with the IRS because Drake had drafted an endorsement of Presidential Hopeful Mike Huckabee on church letterhead.

Perhaps the prayer went something like this:

Heavenly Father, we call upon you to send death upon the Reverend Barry Lynn. We pray that you would make a widow of his wife, and orphans of his now grown children. We pray that his grandchildren would seek and yet not find him, and that his denomination, the United Church of Christ, would mourn his loss.

As I wrote the above in jest, I found this:

He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer:

"Persecute them. ... Let them be put to shame and perish."

"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

"Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg."

 - http://www.civilbrights.net/node/4673


I am overwhelmed by shame: shame that a member of the body of Christ has called out "I have no need of you" to other members, shame that an ordained minister has cried to God not for blessing but for punishment for men and their families.

Not all Christians are like this.

I promise.


References:

• http://pietyandpolitics.com/3/barry/
• http://www.civilbrights.net/node/4673
• http://www.auok.org/who_is_barry_lynn.htm

In nearly every language, there is a variation of what Christianity calls the Golden Rule.

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. --- Judaism: Talmud, Shabbat, 31a

That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. --- Zoroastrianism: Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. --- Brahmanism: Mahabharata, 5:1517

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. --- Buddhism: Udana-Varga 5:18

Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you. --- Confucianism: Analects 15:23

Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. --- Taoism: T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. --- Christianity: Matthew 7:12

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. --- Islam: Sunnah

*In that it harm none, do as ye will. --- Wicca/Pagan: Wicca Rede 1

* --- Shintoism:

* --- Native American

My duty towards my neighbors is to love him as myself, and to do all men as I would they should do unto me. --- Book of Common Prayer: Catechism

All things whatsoever that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thee, do thou also not to another. --- The Diache, Teachings of the Twelve Apostles

Do as you would be done by. --- English Proverb

What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others. --- Epictetus: Encheiridion

Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others. --- Isocrates

This is the sum of all true righteousness: deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt by. Do nothing to they neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee hereafter. --- The Mahabharata

To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbor as one's self, constitue the ideal perfection of utiltarian morality. --- John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

Treat you inferiors as you would be treated by your betters. --- Seneca: Epistolae ad Lucilium, Epis. XLVII, 11

Be excellent to each other. --- Bill and Tedism


This is a very nearly universal idea. And yet, we are willing to apply this only to people who believe in our own version, and sometimes only a subset of that group.


So what of waterboarding?

Waterboarding was developed to help in converting people to Christianity by the Spanish Inquisition, so it does have a Christian basis. I wonder how many of the inquisitors were subjected to waterboarding?

Kaj Larsen was waterboarded as part of his training, and had it done again to demonstrate what was happening. I think this person may be able to judge what he would have done to him.


When will we learn to treat other human beings as human beings? When will we learn that torture encourages torture? When will we learn that killing encourages killing?

And when we we learn that mercy encourages mercy ?

I'm really tired of settling. I'm not interested in incremental rights. I'm not willing to support a candidate who talks out of both sides of his - or her - mouth, speaking on one hand of "protecting marriage" from gays and at the same time "supporting gay and lesbian people" with domestic partnerships or civil unions.

I'm in seminary because I have an irresistible, irrefusable call to ministry. Despite the fact that I would not choose myself for such a vocation, I cannot seem to resist the compelling force to walk this path. And, rather than telling me how foolish I am, many people who know me encourage me to persevere, saying they see in me something that tells them I have a true calling. Yet every time I try to follow this path, I hit insurmountable obstacles.

When I finally realize how impossible this is for me, a divorced, transsexual lesbian (now in my forties), with yet somewhat traditional and orthodox theology, I come to my senses and stop.

And then comes the intense feeling of loss. Some time later, perhaps six months or a year, I realize I cannot say no to this call. No matter how difficult, how impossible, how ridiculous it is, it is what I must do.


Now I have hit another immovable object. I have to stop. And yet the call is an unstoppable force.


I know the fault is in me. Either I am failing to understand how God is speaking to me, or I am failing in walking the path God has set before me.

And it makes me very sad.


I do not blame God. I blame myself for the failure - even for the failure to see where I have failed.

I cry out for help. I pray that God will grant me whatever I need to do God's will - whatever that will may be. I pray I will be made into the person God has dreamed me to be.

I pray for wisdom to know which way I should go - not the destination, but for the place to plant my next step.

I pray for the humility to accept whatever task to which I may be set.

I pray for the courage to do whatever I must do.

I pray for the strength to overcome the obstacles which I must overcome.

I pray for the acceptance that there are obstacles I was never meant to overcome.

And I pray that my love would always increase, to always care for the others I would find on my way, and for the grace to forgive those who I feel have harmed me, no matter how I felt I was harmed.


I don't know what to do, but at least I have the humility to admit that.