Monday, October 17, 2016

The Christian Case against 776

On Facebook, I'm seeing a lot of arguments that are similar to the following:
or

This kind of sentiment seems to be the basis for Oklahoma State Question 776 - a law that, in effect, says that nothing can be considered cruel and unusual punishment when it comes to the death penalty.  This is designed to protect Oklahoma when it executes an inmate using a bad combination of drugs, a combination that could cause the inmate to writhe in agony for 40+ minutes, as in the case of Clayton Lockett.  (Side note: The Atlantic has a marvelous write-up on that execution.)

I've written about Lockett's execution previously, so I'll skip any talk about the case or the concept of execution, and jump right into this idea of suffering as it pertains to the Bible. 

Many people quote the Torah:
 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

“Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
    has God made mankind. (Genesis 9:5-6)
(That passage always invokes the Boondock Saints police station scene for me)
Or:
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. (Exodus 21:23-25)
As if to say that God is on the side of visiting punishment like-for-like upon those who have committed crimes, without remembering the words of Christ, who took this passage from Exodus and turned it on its head:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.  And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
(Matthew 5:38-45)
Jesus was all about forgiving those who committed harm, as He proved when He was executed.  Here he is, on the cross, and he prays:
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
Earlier, when Judas leads men to arrest him, and Peter cuts off one of the men's ears, he tells us that he is perfectly capable of seeking retribution:
Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.  Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53)
But Jesus is not alone in these sentiments.  Paul echoes them:
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)
And here, Paul is quoting Proverbs 25 (for the last part) and Deuteronomy for the first part:
"It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
    In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
    and their doom rushes upon them." (Deuteronomy 32:35)
Vengeance belongs to God alone, should He desire to take it; we, however, are called upon to love our enemies, and we know of love from Paul that it is first "patient" and second "kind."

As for me, I do not believe in the death penalty excepting where an inmate might ask for it (it might be kind if an inmate is suffering in prison); but that said, it is far more kind to execute someone through non-painful means, even if that means we have to be patient and wait for a better drug cocktail to become available.  Love demands we do these things for even those who have committed ghastly murders.

The alternative is that we become just as violent and horrible as those who we seek to execute.  We become Pontius Pilate rather than Christ crucified.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The New Republican Arguments for Trump

This is a decidedly NSFW article, as you might imagine...

Since tapes were released of Trump saying he likes to grab women "by the pussy", major Republicans have been fleeing the sinking ship of Trump left and right.  Many of the everyday people who support Trump, however, have been doubling down on their support, as we would expect.  Here, then, are some of their biggest arguments:

This is a Tu Quoque fallacy, which is Latin roughly for "You too."  Imagine using this defense against someone when you've been accused of murder.  "Did you kill Mr. Soandso?" The prosecution asks, and you say, "Well sure, but you killed a man once, too!"  See how ridiculous it is?  In this case, you're both wrong.  If I had said anything vulgar about someone, I was in the wrong as well.  That doesn't justify Trump's statements, it merely shows that I am an equal offender if I made such statements, too.

This argument pops up in lots of different ways.  For instance, one go-to for many Trump supporters - and, indeed, for Trump himself during the debate - is that Hillary Clinton's husband is worse.  This comes from two distinct groups - three women accusing Bill Clinton of wrongdoing, and one woman who is generally universally acknowledged to have had an affair with him.  We'll come back to the former group in a moment, but the latter group brings up some interesting arguments. 

I cannot bring up the exact text now, because Facebook removed it, but one person complained that Clinton had sodomized an intern with a cigar.  While Clinton has not acknowledged this, and there is no physical evidence supporting the claim, the intern in question was Monica Lewinsky, who claims that her relationship with Bill Clinton was entirely consensual.  That means, if he did sodomize her with a cigar, that was her choice to participate.  (A note: the Starr report refers to Clinton inserting the cigar into Lewinsky's vagina, which is not "sodomy" by most definitions.)

As for the other three women, they are Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, and Kathleen Willey.  All three allege that Clinton made unwanted sexual advanced on them - Jones that he exposed himself to her, Willey that he groped her, and Broaddrick that he raped her.  In all three cases, there was not enough evidence to go to trial for criminal misconduct, though Clinton did settle a lawsuit with Jones. 

These three issues are major, and we shouldn't be quick to dismiss them.  But, with that said, at this point they are allegations, not confirmed attacks.  If we accept allegations as true, then we have to do that for both Clinton and Trump - and Trump has his own share of rape allegations.  In such a case, we cannot say either one is better or worse, but rather that they're both horrible people.

To me, the point that swings the balance is the fact that, again, these are allegations, and have not been proven in court yet.  Given that, we can't say Clinton or Trump are worse on the allegations alone; therefore, we have to go to other sources.  For only one of the two people do we audio where he brags about molesting women. 

"But this was ten years ago," some Trump reporters will say, "and he has become a Christian since then.  That means he is forgiven, and we need to forgive him, too."

A person's religion is a deeply personal thing - what a person claims to believe cannot be examined with a microscope.  As such, we only have Dr. James Dobson's words that Trump has accepted Christ - words he later recanted - and similarly we have both Bill and Hillary's claims to Christianity.  By any measure, if we must forgive Trump, we must also forgive both Bill and Hillary for any perceived wrongdoing.

For most Evangelicals, there is a belief that sin can only be forgiven if:
  1. The sinner is a Christian (apparently a checkmark for all three people);
  2. The sinner seeks forgiveness; and
  3. The sinner turns from his or her sin.
That's important because Trumpeters will argue that Hillary has never asked for forgiveness for Benghazi, nor has Bill sought forgiveness for his alleged attacks on women.  Hillary has shown remorse for Benghazi, calling it her "biggest regret" and taking responsibility for it, but that isn't good enough for many people.  As for Bill, it's impossible to apologize for something you never did - and since he maintains his innocence, any apology would be an admission of guilt that could open him to severe criminal liability. 

But let's talk about step 3 of that - the sinner must turn from his or her sin.  This means not trying to deflect blame, as Trump immediately did, and it means ending the sin that started this - a fundamental disrespect of women.  A person cannot love another person and hold such disrespect in their hearts that they would joke about sexually assaulting said person.  Trump shows in more recent quotes that he is still the same person.

At the same time as the comments of groping came out, we were offered audio of Trump saying that he goes backstage during the Miss America pageant specifically to try to catch the young women and teenage girls nude.  And then there are all of his other comments about women, especially those that he tweeted at 3am on the night of the first debate, long after his supposed conversion to Christianity.

"Yes," the Trumpeter might say, "but Trump is a baby Christian.  Give him time to fix these things."

You're absolutely right.  But a baby Christian is never put in a position of power over other Christians!  A baby Christian is someone the author of Hebrews describes as follows:
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.  (Hebrews 5:12-14, NIV)
 Indeed, when we elect elders in the church, this is how we are taught to do so:
an elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.  Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.  Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.  He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:6-9)
Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.  (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)  He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.  He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.  They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.  They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. (1st Timothy 3:1-10)
These descriptions do not sound at all like Trump.  With the exception of the obvious focus on gender, they sound marginally more like Hillary (she has long been the wife of only one husband, and has shown herself not to be quick-tempered or unfaithful, is temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, gentle, able to teach, and not quarrelsome).

So electing a "baby Christian" who hasn't mastered these things is not only setting the country up for failure, it's setting that Christian up for failure.  The job of the president is a big job that is very taxing on a person.  A man or woman should already have a strong moral compass before taking on the job, and it's clear that Trump is not there yet.  Maybe he will be, some day, but not if we elect him now.