yet another death we could avoid..
The State of North Carolina is planning on killing Samuel Flippen this Friday morning at 2 a.m. Here is a copy of something I posted on a web-forum about the whole ordeal:
As a Christian, I firmly believe in the power of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Those things have brought salvation to this earth and all that is in it. Our salvation was bought at a price, and that price was the blood of Christ. Christ died for our sins so that we don't have to.
This alone is enough reason for me to support the abolition of the death penalty. I believe it makes a mockery out of God and of Christ's death. The state is telling us that Christ's sacrifice wasn't enough and that we must shed the blood of humans in order to make sin right. This is simply idolatry. To execute Sam Flippen or any other human being is to offer blood sacrifices to the god of Vengeance. How dare we presume that Christ's blood was not enough? How dare we take the life of another human when God strictly forbids this? What about Jesus' instruction to love our enemies? Jesus himself refused the death penalty for a woman who had been caught in an act that the law of the time required a death sentence for. If God is for the death penalty, then Jesus should have been the first to hit her upside the head with a rock and kill her. The law required it. Jesus resisted. In fact, he forgave her and released her with the instruction to sin no more.
To execute Sam Flippen is for the state of North Carolina (and by the state I mean all of us: the citizens of NC, lawmakers, government officials, prison guards, etc.) to cast the first stone, to say to Jesus "step aside, foolish man, and let us do what we believe is right." If any of you wish to tell the Executed and Risen Lord to step aside, please go right ahead. As for me, I will obey him and work for mercy and compassion.
As a Christian, I firmly believe in the power of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Those things have brought salvation to this earth and all that is in it. Our salvation was bought at a price, and that price was the blood of Christ. Christ died for our sins so that we don't have to.
This alone is enough reason for me to support the abolition of the death penalty. I believe it makes a mockery out of God and of Christ's death. The state is telling us that Christ's sacrifice wasn't enough and that we must shed the blood of humans in order to make sin right. This is simply idolatry. To execute Sam Flippen or any other human being is to offer blood sacrifices to the god of Vengeance. How dare we presume that Christ's blood was not enough? How dare we take the life of another human when God strictly forbids this? What about Jesus' instruction to love our enemies? Jesus himself refused the death penalty for a woman who had been caught in an act that the law of the time required a death sentence for. If God is for the death penalty, then Jesus should have been the first to hit her upside the head with a rock and kill her. The law required it. Jesus resisted. In fact, he forgave her and released her with the instruction to sin no more.
To execute Sam Flippen is for the state of North Carolina (and by the state I mean all of us: the citizens of NC, lawmakers, government officials, prison guards, etc.) to cast the first stone, to say to Jesus "step aside, foolish man, and let us do what we believe is right." If any of you wish to tell the Executed and Risen Lord to step aside, please go right ahead. As for me, I will obey him and work for mercy and compassion.
posted by justin at 10:03 PM
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