Pope calls to end life sentences?

Last updated on: October 25, 2014 at 9:45 am by Dave Griffey

Pope calls to end life sentences? 2014-10-25T09:45:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Catholics pining for an end to the death penalty have put almost all eggs in the ‘life sentence’ basket. That’s because we’re not prepared to say ‘just let the criminal go, and if he kills, we’ll try again.’ That was common among the liberal attitudes of the 70s, because the idea was that there were not criminals, only victims of cruel and unjust, oppressive societies. And those who were part of those unjust societies? Well, it was never said, but I always got the impression that there was a sort of ‘serves them right’ attitude whenever an innocent was killed by a released prisoner for whom rehab hadn’t taken hold.

The Death Penalty, in the end, is part of the realization the Church had ages ago that we not only live in a fallen world, but are called to be in the fallen world. Unlike the Amish or monastic communities, most are called to be in this fallen world a light to the world. Salt of the earth and all. Because of this, our heavenward focus had to be tempered with concessions to living in light of the way it is.

Hence, Just War. Hence, the Death Penalty. Hence putting an end to that idealized Church of Acts 2, where all share and none are in need. Some Catholics will have millions. Some will starve. And like the Death Penalty and Just War, this was simply a fact of life. We could try to do it in light of endless layers of Christian teaching. But we had to accept the realities.

Now we have the Church, in light of endless assaults by the post-Christian Left, and to be fair, some left over barbs from Protestants and non-Catholic Christians, trying to revise its old teachings to conform to the expectations of the post-modern world. Just War is almost – almost mind you – a thing of the past. Likewise, the Death Penalty has been under assault for decades.

But now Pope Francis throws in the gauntlet against not just executing prisoners, but imprisoning them for life. In fairness, advocates of the Death Penalty have used this very argument. How is imprisoning a person for life, with no hope of escape but death, any different than executing them? For Catholic legalists, of course, there is a world of difference. In that particular branch of the Church, you can indirectly cause the death of millions, as long as you don’t directly cause the death of one guilty person to save them.

But for most, that’s not the way it should be. Something about throwing someone into prison for life isn’t much better than executing them. Assuming the generally implicit universalism in the modern Church, there is no concern for saving the prisoner’s soul. So no real reason to execute, and yet how to validate keeping them in prison for life?

Enter Pope Francis. Not just do we ban the Death Penatly, but we ban life sentences, too. Which is, in fairness, consistent. But it opens up a problem. Are we advocating the old liberal notion that if a person kills again, we’ll just try again? We have loved Bonnie and Clyde, but have hated Ozzie and Harriet?

And if not, how do we reconcile the radical discipleship that says ‘if the innocent be like to die, then so be it, we’ll just try again’, with a Church that still allows us the creature comforts and luxuries of commercialism and affluence while our fellows starve in the mud around the world. That, to me, is the challenge.

For if the Church builds a radical discipleship on ‘by the degree to which I’m willing to let others die so I can live in comfort have I displayed my righteousness’, then I can’t help but think we’re entering into a new period of history destined to once more give Jesus a couple black eyes and take the Gospel, yet again, down a notch or two in the eyes of the world.

The good news is that Pope Francis may be pushing for a completely radical discipleship that will soon challenge the non-Acts 2 approach of living out the faith in addition to such favorites as capital punishment and Just War. Whether Catholics will hear all of it, or just the portions that help them win arguments on the blogosphere, has yet to be seen.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 21, 2014

You can't argue with success

Next Post

October 26, 2014 When I read news stories about Catholicism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Atheism Awesome things Bigotry for the hip American Blogging Books Catholic Catholic Teaching Catholics on the Internet Christian Persecution Christian Unity Christianity and America Christianity in the Post-Modern World Christianity in the world Culture of Death Culture of Life Current Events Decline and Fall of the Christian West Defending Liberty Fun Stuff Global Warming Good Causes Good News Gun Control Health Care History Holidays Homeschool Humor Important things Inspiring Stories Interesting Insights Interesting Stories Islam and the West Liberal "Tolerance" Liberal observations Life in a post-Christian world Memorial Movies Musings News Other Blogs Our Big Politically Correct Bother Politics Popular Culture Post Modern Values Prayers Pro Life Promoting LGBT Protecting Liberty Racism in the world today Scientism Social Observations Sports Strange Stories The Boys The Catholic Church and the Left The Decline and Fall of the American Dream The end of liberty The Faith and the Left The Faith and the Right The Family The Greatness of God The Internet The Leftist Juggernaut The LGBT Question The Media The Pope The post-liberal Left The Power of Propaganda Tributes Twilight of the American Experiment Uncategorized Uneducating Postmoderns When the Church is wrong Why learn from history when we can repeat it instead Wisdom in the Post Modern Age World Events

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who stopped the sun from setting during a battle?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah Moses Joshua Samuel