The Death Penalty and the Bible; Reflection 2

We have been asked to connect our chosen books with material discussed in class. While we have not explicitly discussed the death penalty, we have discussed the origin of evil in the world, using violence in the pursuit of justice (i.e. Just War), and equality of all individuals in the eyes of God. For today, I will be discussing violence in pursuit of justice, but instead of discussing Just War, I am going to discuss the equality of others in God's eyes and the application of that within our justice system.

In Deuteronomy 10:17, it states "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes"; in Proverbs 22:2, "Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all"; in Romans 2:11 "For God does not show favoritism"; in James 2:1, "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism". I mention all of these quotes for the purpose of showing throughout the Bible this theme of no favoritism of races, genders, classes, etc. When God punished people, God did not look at races and say "ah yes this man is black and therefore I will judge him harsher". So looking at our justice system through the lens of Christianity, we have to ask ourselves about how much of our punishments are based off punishing someone because of their race.

Maybe a struggle that I have with the death penalty is that it has the potential to be unfairly passed out. I want to be careful here because there is a lot of opposition to that claim, but there is also a lot of evidence to support it. The death penalty is passed out to individuals who knowingly committed a crime with special circumstances involved. However, as discussed throughout Debating the Death Penalty, the death penalty does carry a historical legacy of being race-based and there is evidence to support that the tradition carries on to this day. Black or brown individuals have been targeted and have often faced harsher sentences in numbers far exceeding the rates at which white individuals receive the same penalty for the same crime. Additionally, the likeliness of the death penalty for a black or brown individual skyrockets when the victim is a white individual. The Bible specifically discusses how every individual is viewed equally in the eyes of our Maker, so if that is the case, why do we treat individuals differently based on their skin color or gender.

Obviously the topic of race (and racism in America) is a topic that I cannot cover in one blog post, nor can I offer a solution for racism aside from the obvious don't be a racist.  If we are going to use the death penalty, it should be used equitably and consistently across all genders, races, and socioeconomic statuses or it shouldn't be used at all. But then again, it's difficult to implement that kind of rule because often times richer individuals might have better counsel that can seek a lesser punishment, or women are less likely to receive the death penalty in the first place. I guess what I am hoping for is a perfect world and perfect application of the death penalty in the justice system, but the reality is that will never be possible. For that reason, I feel like the death penalty is impractical.