Ye Shall Know Them By Their Fruits
A little while back, while the fires were raging in Southern California, I was listening to hate radio and the host was posing the question of whether arsonists should be executed. I suppose he had run out of ways to defend the current administration’s crimes and wanted to focus on other crimes, so he chose this topic.
Of course, this “Christian” host was all for executing arsonists, but he wanted his listeners to weigh in on whether mentally ill people who start fires should also be executed.
I sent an e-mail telling the host of my opposition to killing people based upon my Christian beliefs. He replied on the air almost immediately that we had a God-given right to protect ourselves from people who wish to do us harm. I agree. As an individual, I see nothing wrong with using deadly force to protect me and my loved ones in a situation that might warrant it.
However, as a society, that is what we have prisons for.
True, prisons are expensive, but only because of corruption and stupidity. As it is, prison is a far cheaper alternative to the death penalty, with trials alone costing the equivalent of 100 years of incarceration. Add in the appeals and, well, you get the point.
As I listened to yet another so-called Christian explain how he could justify the killing of another human being by invoking the name of God, I went to BibleGateway.com, and tried to find God’s spin on the subject.
I could not find anything specific on the death penalty but I did find the Sermon on the Mount. Right there in the gospel of Matthew, chapter seven, verse sixteen, I found the title of this essay.
What does that passage mean? In verse eighteen, when Christ says, “A good tree cannot produce bad fruits,” What is He telling us? Are those who favor the death penalty “good trees?” If your “fruits” are vengeance and death to others, then the answer is obvious:
You cannot be a Christian.