November 28, 2020

WASHINGTON The Justice Department is quietly amending its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods like firing squads and poison gas.

Now that the turkey is cooked, picked, and packed away as leftovers, we can get on with normal life in the United States of executions.  That is, after seventeen years of holding condemned persons in a hellish stay, the Justice Department has proceeded with killing them under the aegis of the outgoing administration.  I mean, why wait another second to murder these criminals, after seventeen years of anticipation?  And why not use poison gas?

Eighty million citizens (so far) have agreed that the current administration has failed.  Eighty million Americans want somebody else to be responsible for agencies like the Justice Department.  Eighty million people realize that monsters are running amok in Washington, and not just in the White House.  Eighty million of us stand aghast as the incumbent pardons a person who egregiously lied to us and our federal legislators and the FBI, while at the same time authorizes the death of prisoners whose cases he probably never heard of, let alone thoughtfully considered.

But let’s not argue the details of the present moment. 

Let’s get ahead of the fundamental issue:  the death penalty itself.

Presbyterian theology, which I nominally ascribe to, hangs its hat partly on doctrines laid down by the sixteenth century French theologian John Calvin.  Among these was his description of human beings as utterly depraved.  Unfortunately, this theology has infected American consciousness since the Pilgrims, those folks who allegedly brought us Thanksgiving and, probably, the death penalty for things like witchcraft.

Isn’t it time we applied a more godly view to our assessment of humanity?  The God I worship declared all creation “good” to begin with, including people.  When the original pair screwed up, according to the story, they did not die.  They got a second chance, with the “punishment” of working out how to live in a world of suffering.  Can we not find a way to apply this redemption to our fellow human beings, no matter the “screw-up” involved?

When it comes down to it, who has caused more death in our country: the person convicted of murdering another person, or the persons responsible for the deaths of millions by hunger, hopelessness, and lack of health care?

Eighty million Americans have decided to kick out a death-dealer in the White House.  Now let’s see about reworking our judgments concerning the real criminals against our civil life.

Let’s begin by eliminating the death penalty for lesser offenders.