The death penalty is once again under attack across the country but this time by conservatives. It is often defended as a needed punishment or deterrent for murder and decried as being cruel and antiquated, yet the death penalty is not understood for what it really is, the honor of life.
Raw Transcript:
Why should proponents of life care about the death penalty? Does the death penalty actually promote life? We’ll take a look at the battle against the death penalty and why Christians should oppose that. Indiana, the death penalty. I’m pastor Paul Holt and this is the Bible Factor.
Well, I wanted to dive in to something that probably isn’t all that popular.
In fact, chances are that most people won’t want to have this conversation and that they’ll usually, if they are forced into it, they’ll usually be proponents of getting rid of the death penalty and that’s understandable. Nobody really likes even the concept of the death penalty. In fact, not just progressives, but increasingly conservatives are more in opposition to the death penalty than at any time in previous American history.
The death penalty has always been a big part of our judicial system, but over the years it has become very cost prohibitive and quite unpopular to promote the death penalty in many of our states.
In fact, this is the reason that there was such a battle over the death penalty in Wyoming this year as Wyoming’s death penalty was kept alive after the Senate rejects the repeal effort. This according to the Powell tribune.com, uh, the article by Ramsey Scott and CJ Baker, uh, describes an effort to end the death penalty in Wyoming and it was shot down in the legislature on Thursday after making it through the house by relatively comfortable margin. House bill one 45 was defeated on its first reading in the state Senate on a 12 to 18 vote. You’ll notice that the margin, although decently sizable, is still pretty close. Park county’s senators split on the bill with Senator Rj cost a Republican of Powell voting to repeal the death penalty and senators Hank co out of Cody. And why it Aguilar out a Thermopolis voting to keep it on the books.
Prosecutors oppose the repeal with Park County prosecuting internal attorney Brian scoring, urging co to vote against the bad bill as he put it. Wyoming has had cases that weren’t the death penalty and Wyoming will have cases in the future that warrant the death penalty score. It said in an email that is why the law should remain while the death penalty is rarely imposed in Wyoming. Prosecutors more often use it as leverage when attempting to negotiate plea deals in murder cases. Now the fact is that what we are seeing is the continuing effort to well fight against life. Have you ever noticed that people that are pro-abortion are also anti-death penalty, but unfortunately it is becoming more common than people that are opposed to abortion are also starting to become more often opposed to the death penalty. And this, well, this is unfortunate because we really misunderstand what the death penalty is.
I saw many people arguing, uh, about this particular subject and one article writer that I haven’t pulled up here, uh, actually said that it is a good thing for Republicans and conservatives in general to oppose the death penalty to show that they are the party of life. But you see that’s not true. If we oppose the death penalty, we actually oppose life. What do I mean? Well, the death penalty, contrary to popular belief and common argument is not about a deterrent. Now, that may be why a lot of people have a vote in favor of a death penalty or find themselves pro death penalty. But that is not the reason for the death penalty. And I’ll get to the reason in just a moment. Other people believe that the death penalty is punishment for murder. And to a degree that is true, but that’s not its primary purpose.
The purpose of the death penalty is not to punish the murderer specifically. And that is where the key understanding of the death penalty really comes in. Because you know, we have a lot of folks that are opposed to the death penalty. Uh, one of the representatives, uh, bonder a state senator I should say, described his support for ending the death penalty as stemming from his pro-life beliefs. But one of his antiabortion colleagues had a different take. He said, I find it disheartening in America that on the one hand we are saying it’s okay to send it’s innocent children to death up to the day of birth for being an inconvenience. And yet all the while we’re seeing a push across this country to spare the lives of convicted rapists, murderers, and pedophiles said, Senator Bo Bitumen of ran Chester. I find it backwards and I would much rather we abort the murderers, rapists, and pedophiles.
We need to get our priorities straight in this country. To a degree he’s right. Um, but we’re still missing the point while under Wyoming law, only first degree murder can be punished by execution and only if at least one aggravating circumstance is present. You see, a lot of people want to oppose the death penalty because they consider it to be a disgrace. Other people say that they value life and that’s why they oppose the death penalty. But really what we run into when it comes to the death penalty, it’s not about punishment and it’s not about deterrent. Those are ancillary benefits of the death penalty, but really that’s not why the death penalty should be imposed in our, in our country. It goes to genesis chapter nine and I think this is so critical to really understand. This is one of the commands given to God, to Noah, and it applies to all of mankind.
You see, originally the death penalty was one of the core doctrines that core commandments, if you will, of a nation of mankind to deal with murder, not as the punishment, but to signify the value of human life. Genesis chapter nine verse three every moving thing that lives shall be food for you as and as I give you the green plants, I give you everything. Verse Four says, but you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is its blood and for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning from every beast. I will require it and from man from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Verse six says, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. What is the purpose of the death penalty? According to scripture, the purpose of the death penalty is to show the value of human life.
Let me make my point. Verse Five says, Eh, at least in the middle of the verse says, a four from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. You See, what God has stated plainly is that the life of man is valuable. Why? Because God made man in his own image. According to verse six God wants to lift up the value of human life. That is why the godless are opposed to the death penalty, and that is why the Christian must be in support of the death penalty because the death penalty is not about punishment of the murderer. The death penalty is not about the deterrent factor from killing the murderer. You see, the purpose of the death penalty is to say that God created man and that man is created in the image of God and therefore man, more so than any animal man, human beings, their lives have value.
Their lives are important to God even if you don’t find their lives to be important, and you see the godless cannot support any activity that recognizes the value of human life and therefore recognizes the value of God or even the existence of God. The reason the death penalty must go in the mind of the godless and in the mind of people that are being pulled away from the truth that God has revealed to man. The reason that the death penalty must go according to the godless is because the godless know that the death penalty holds up the value of human life and therefore it is indirect opposition to their need to take human life. There need to kill children in the womb. They’re need to destroy the lives of human beings. You see, God created the death penalty, not for him to carry out, but for the governments of man to carry out.
Where do I arrive at that conclusion? Well because man is required and that power, that authority is given by the citizenry to the government. You see the godless, progressive, we’ll use the government in any way except for its core purposes. Why is it that those on the left that oppose the righteousness of God? Why is it that they’re not interested in defending the border? Why is it that they’re not interested in supplying for the national defense? Why is it that they are willing to destroy the infrastructures of our cities and our states to destroy the law that was set up by the citizenry to protect our nation? Why is it that the godless left want to put an end to the core responsibilities of human government, namely to defend the borders, to uphold a lawful society, and one of those ways in which is upholds a lawful society is to carry out the death penalty.
You see, one of the big arguments in the Wyoming law repeal was the expense of carrying out the death penalty. The number that was given is that if they repeal the death penalty, it would save the state $756,035 in 2020 for a beginning to end death penalty case. Why is it so expensive? Because the godless left over the decades have piled on more and more and more and more burdens to make it next to impossible to carry out the death penalty because endless appeal after endless appeal, some 20 and 30 years sitting on death row for many people have created situations where the death penalty really is too much of a burden for a state to carry out, so then they lose their will to enforce the death penalty and one of the core purposes of government is taken away from the government. Again, it’s not punishment for the murderer.
That’s a side benefit. It is actually to say that the life of the person who was murdered has value, has meaning and that we value your life regardless of your race, your sexual orientation, your ethnicity. However, we want to describe a human being, their gender, that their life has value, and we have places like New York state that take away the value of human life so that we no longer can even prosecute a person for killing a child inside the womb. Pretty soon, I’m sure it’ll be okay to kill babies, you know, while they’re still in the single digits because we don’t value human life. You See, God gave us the gift of the death penalty to uphold the value of human life and to say that your life matters, my life matters, and that if someone else comes along and takes our life, well, their life is required of them by the government through a lawful process.
Now we’ve allowed a lot of people to destroy that lawful process and really, Wyoming, Wyoming legislatures should work to restore the process. All of our state should work to restore the process that brings value to human life. The death penalty promotes life first and foremost, before we ever get to the deterrence, which is a deterrent because other people think twice before killing somebody and it is a punishment and people should understand that they should not have killed another person and that their life is now forfeit as a result when they are convicted correctly in a court of law and with the supporting witnesses and evidence, yes, there have been mistakes, but if we are more careful in how we prosecute a case in the first place, that would be reduced. The fact is that the death penalty matters because life matters. May the Lord Richly bless you. Indeed, as you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, God bless you. And if you enjoy this program and you think others would benefit from it, please share it and a click a thumbs up. And the, uh, the bell, if you’re on youtube and the subscribe button, if you’re on iTunes or Google play and we’ll see you again tomorrow. I am pastor Paul whole. God bless you.
