Extract from Drifting Sands #17, "Last Rights", first published as a haibun on September 01, 2022
“An eye for an eye,” we read in the Bible. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed”, Genesis 9:6 “Thou shalt not kill!” states one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah. By this, we are to understand that all murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. Sharia law endorses the death penalty, and the United States looks on, professing outrage. As a leader in Human Rights, some may question why this major democracy continues to support brutal ways of dying, sometimes botched, for those languishing on Death Row.
No wonder there’s such confusion, such controversy!
But as Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer working against the death penalty in United States asks: "Why do we kill people who we think killed people, to show that killing people is wrong?"
What I've long found to be a cruel irony is that so many who call themselves "pro-life" are the biggest proponents of the death penalty (just as they're against health care and feeding the poor). The problem comes when we can conveniently choose either to see or not to see others as "people." God sees us ALL as people, people who belong to Him. "For I take no pleasure in anyone's death," declares the Sovereign Lord. - Ezekiel 18:32a
"Leave room for mercy"
Extract from Drifting Sands #17, "Last Rights", first published as a haibun on September 01, 2022
“An eye for an eye,” we read in the Bible. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed”, Genesis 9:6 “Thou shalt not kill!” states one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah. By this, we are to understand that all murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. Sharia law endorses the death penalty, and the United States looks on, professing outrage. As a leader in Human Rights, some may question why this major democracy continues to support brutal ways of dying, sometimes botched, for those languishing on Death Row.
No wonder there’s such confusion, such controversy!
But as Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer working against the death penalty in United States asks: "Why do we kill people who we think killed people, to show that killing people is wrong?"
What I've long found to be a cruel irony is that so many who call themselves "pro-life" are the biggest proponents of the death penalty (just as they're against health care and feeding the poor). The problem comes when we can conveniently choose either to see or not to see others as "people." God sees us ALL as people, people who belong to Him. "For I take no pleasure in anyone's death," declares the Sovereign Lord. - Ezekiel 18:32a
Thanks, Dale.
That was a difficult read. Thank you for sharing the gift link.