[Announce] Fw: Choose Mercy Over Death, The Daily Oklahoman

[Robert Waldrop]

This great opinion article, by Catholic Worker 
Marcus Evans, appeared in today's Daily Oklahoman.

RMW
----- Original Message ----- 

Subject: Choose Mercy Over Death, The Daily 
Oklahoman

Op Ed Piece in The Oklahoman  1/20/2009

On January 22nd, The State of Oklahoma is 
scheduled to execute a convicted murderer at the 
State’s death chamber in McAlester. Considering 
the world’s lack of support for capital 
punishment, we shouldn’t be surprised when our 
state makes international news. Yet within the 
borders of Oklahoma the killing of a human being 
by the civil authorities will go almost unnoticed 
by most residents.  Executions have become part of 
the accepted fabric of our culture, with some 
Oklahomans even showing a sense of pride in being 
“hard on crime”.

     We are a people who are known to share our 
Christian faith.  Herein lies the paradox of 
capital punishment and our culture.  A thorough 
study of the scriptures reveals the difficulty in 
reconciling capital punishment with the Christian 
faith, especially when discerning our modern 
society’s ability to render murderers harmless 
while exiling them from society.

     The scriptures record three remarkable 
examples of God’s involvement in “capital” cases. 
The first is recorded in the book of Genesis. It 
is written Cain murdered his brother Abel. 
Consequently, God exiled Cain to the East side of 
Eden, where Cain feared anyone he came upon would 
kill him for the crime he had committed.  God 
intervened by marking Cain with a sign of 
protection, thus sparing Cain’s life.  The second 
example is recorded in the gospel story of a woman 
caught in adultery.  Jesus was asked by the crowd 
“...the law commanded us to stone such a one. But, 
what sayest thou?”. The answer from the very lips 
of Jesus was “He that is without sin among you, 
let him first cast a stone at her”.  Having heard 
this, the crowd dispersed.  Finally, we find Jesus 
as the victim of capital punishment. Tried, 
convicted and executed by the civil authorities, 
the very One who stood beside and protected others 
who were facing the death penalty, was Himself 
executed.

     On January 22nd ask yourself “What would 
Jesus do?”  Would Jesus inject poison into the 
veins of a man until he dies?

     Let’s move forward with a moratorium or 
abolition of the death penalty.  Rather than 
making national and international news for 
killing, we will make news for joining the rest of 
the world’s advanced nations in choosing mercy 
over death.  Let’s leave the executing to China, 
Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan who, along with the US, 
lead the world in executions.  Japan is the only 
other advanced nation still using capital 
punishment. Furthermore, with the exception of the 
US, Christianity is practically non existent in 
these nations.

     Oklahoma, let us choose mercy over death.

Marcus Evans is a career firefighter and the 
director of a local food pantry.