Many in this country cried with shame last week when the United States Supreme Court ruled that states could no longer execute those convicted of their crimes they committed when they were juveniles.
Surprisingly, the biggest whining toward the end of the child execution era came not from liberal heathens living sinful lives in California, but from the Bible belt. It seems those most upset that society will no longer be able to kill juveniles are the same people who claim to go to church on Sunday while subscribing to good Christian principles. It is clear that they lack the most important value of all – compassion.
In a move that illustrates just how contradictory they really are, Republican leaders from President George W. Bush to Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore lined up to protest the Court’s decision. Conservatives high in the Bush Administration’s “redneck agenda” (to borrow a phrase from Green Day’s “American Idiot”) were even more angry that some of the Supreme Court’s reasoning in determining that juveniles should not be executed hinged on international opinion – in making their decision, the Court cited the fact that no other civilized country on the planet condones such a barbaric practice.
Here in Virginia, the death penalty is still affixed to murderers, and until recently, this state executed juveniles and the mentally retarded. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) – an outspoken conservative -while Virginia governor streamlined the criminal justice process to make it easier to execute those convicted of a crime. Yet when Allen appears on television, he cries about how wrong abortion is and how his religious faith tells him that.
His religious faith should tell him something else as well. The Bible clearly states in the Ten Commandments, “Thou shall not kill.”
Except for the Old Testament, when confronted with crime and retribution toward people committing heinous acts, the Bible talks about compassion and forgiving – not about executing. Jesus Christ himself was nailed on a cross and beat down, yet his dying words to his killers were “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
While conservatives love to point out exactly in the Bible where it says that it is inherently wrong for homosexuals to marry and that abortion is wrong because it kills, they don’t truly subscribe to all the beliefs and values of the Bible because if they did, they would see like the rest of the civilized world that the state-sanctioned killing of anyone is wrong.
Yet instead of running to their Bible, which is what Republicans usually do when faced with a question of life or death, they turn away from it. Conservative legislators doggedly go after a woman’s right to end an unwanted pregnancy, yet they want to reserve the right of the state to kill off someone it doesn’t want in society.
The heart of the problem is that conservatives cherry-pick their beliefs to fit their motives. If people are going to call themselves Christians and wholeheartedly believe the words of the Bible, they should not be able to pick and choose – it should be all or none.
Republicans love to dress up and promote their belief in God. On one news channel they protest the fact that the Ten Commandments are banned from schools and courthouses. Flip the channel and there they are again, protesting the end of juvenile execution that the Ten Commandments clearly outlaws.
I guess some things will never change.