so saddam's gonna hang, huh?
sonia asked me this morning how someone could be against capital punishment in a case like this. my answer: only if they oppose it in principle.let's get this out in the open. saddam deserves worse than he's gonna get. no question about it.
so today, i oppose capital punishment only in principle. but secretly, i'm kinda glad he's getting it. it's kinda like when someone finally beats up the class bully. you don't want it to happen, but you're not exactly sorry that it did.
welcome to my thoughts...hypocrisy and truth all rolled into one. :)
anyone who thinks that someone who opposes war and capital punishment in general is a weakling that is unwilling to bring the sword should suffer the difficulty just once of having to refain from supporting or taking actions that would bring great satisfaction...just because.
it's tough...trust.
posted by pablo
4 comments
4 Comments:
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steve w said...
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pablo said...
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Keith (Qoheleth) said...
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pablo said...
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Post a Comment"saddam deserves worse than he's gonna get."
dude, does it get any worse than the second death?
Rev 20:14-15
yeah, that's gonna stink.
hopefully they've got good chaplains where he's at. :)
"hypocrisy and truth all rolled into one."
Pablo, I don't see any hypocrisy here in you. To stand on your principle, even in the case of someone as low as this man, and still admit that something in you doesn't mind seeing it happen, takes character, and I wish there were more men with that kind of character around.
Chew on this for a minute - who is the hypocrite: the man who opposes the death penalty in principle, but admits there's a small corner of him that doesn't mind knowing Saddam will have that one last dance on the end of a rope; or the man who opposes abortion because it's murder, so he blows up an abortion clinic, killing the abortionist, two nurses, a receptionist, and a pregnant woman?
I don't think you're hypocritical as much as you are just eminently, gloriously human.
Perhaps, what you're describing really is just a little bit like the feelings of a loving God who also desires that no man should go to that awful second death, and yet because He is also perfectly just, He must also consign the lost there. Perhaps what you feel is just how difficult it is to reconcile mercy and justice, and satisfy both.
I think I'm a mirror image of you; I support capital punishment, but I take no joy in it when it is carried out, and I am repulsed by the inevitable crowds who rejoice in it, gloating and carrying on outside the prisons when it takes place. It's not something in which we are supposed to delight; I think we're supposed to be sober about it - not sorry we're doing it, but sorry this person's heinous actions required us to do it to fulfill justice, and that's a very different thing. It should be taken very, very seriously.
Thank God for you being consistent with your principle, and being true to it even when a part of you might feel otherwise -
- Keith
Perhaps, what you're describing really is just a little bit like the feelings of a loving God who also desires that no man should go to that awful second death, and yet because He is also perfectly just, He must also consign the lost there.
this is an interesting thought...probably very true.
the rejoicers make me sick too. we shouldn't enjoy it.
you know what really makes me sick? someone who yells "god is great" repeatedly while severing your head with a dull kitchen knife...
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