When is Murder Justified?

I had the incredible honor of hearing Sister Helen Prejean (known by most through Susan Sarandon’s portrayal of her in Dead Man Walking) speak. While already inspired by her life’s work, it was also amazing to me how she could weave in and out of humor and what is obviously an incredibly somber subject.

And so, it seemed fitting to address the matter of the death penalty as my next blog topic. While anyone following the subject knows of the incredible racial and economic disparities inherent in the judicial system, Sister Helen pushed this point even further, asserting that it epitomizes our different wounds — racism, prejudice, and reliance on violence to solve problems we fear.

And so the question for me as a Christian has always been, “When is murder justified?” Never mind the many innocents the state has put to death…even in the case of guilt, how is it that “Thou shall not kill” applies to the individual, but not to the state? How is it we believe as a society that we can stop murder and violence by practicing murder and violence?

Immigration

I was writing something on Uriah the Hittite the other day, and was struck by the implications for how the people of God approach the immigrant.

Now, in the case of Uriah, we see someone clearly ingrafted into the covenant community, even one of David’s “mighty men,” and yet it is still deemed necessary to identify him as a Hittite. There may be many reasons for this, but one purpose it serves is to show how this individual — ingrafted into the family of God — acts far more honorably than any of the others mentioned in the story who end up being explicitly or implicitly responsible for this honorable man’s murder.

As a country, there may be reasons for determining who can and cannot be part of the national fabric, but as Christians, we must recall that our God is not subject to borders. What’s more, our nation’s history of immigration policy is incredibly racist, with those excluded at any given point in history reflecting the prejudices of the day. Most recent policy debates would make you think the United States only had one land border with another country, as immigration policy always has far more to do with our southern border than our northern one.

As we engage in immigration policy debates, we would do well to do so with God’s heart for all His people, irrespective of nation, tribe, or tongue. As in the case of Uriah, we know of many immigrants serving their chosen country honorably…let us hope we can treat them with greater respect than Uriah was shown for his unwavering loyalty and service!

MLK Still Speaks Today

So many of the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. still ring true today. While many people tried to pigeon-hole Dr. King, particularly toward the end of his life, he was taking on more and more issues, seeing all intertwined within his calling. On this day honoring his legacy, then, I will let a rather lengthy excerpt from his speech delivered at Riverside Church in April of 1967 speak for itself in light of current events:

… when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do …we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

…For those who ask the question, “Aren’t you a civil rights leader?” and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: “To save the soul of America.” We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath —
America will be!

…America’s soul … can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

An Indictment from Centuries Past

I considered several posts for today, and clearly wrote none, but all the better, as nothing could have been as striking as we enter the second decade of the 21st century as the following from Walter Rauschenbusch’s classic Christianity and the Social Crisis, written early in the 20th century:

When the Nineteenth Century died, its Spirit descended to the vaulted chamber of the Past, where the Spirits of the dead Centuries sit on granite thrones together. When the newcomer entered, all turned toward him and the Spirit of the Eighteenth Century spoke: “Tell thy tale, brother. Give us word of the humankind we left to thee.”

“I am the Spirit of the Wonderful Century. I gave man the mastery over nature. Discoveries and inventions, which lighted the black space of the past like lonely stars, have clustered in a Milky Way of radiance under my rule. One man does by the touch of his hand what the toil of a thousand slaves never did. Knowledge has unlocked the mines of wealth, and the hoarded wealth of today creates the vaster wealth of tomorrow. Man has escaped the slavery of Necessity and is free.

“I freed the thoughts of men. They face the facts and know. Their knowledge is common to all. The deeds of the East at eve are known in the West at morn. They send their whispers under the seas and across the clouds.

“I broke the chains of bigotry and despotism. I made men free and equal. Every man feels the worth of his manhood.

“I have touched the summit of history. I did for mankind what none of you did before. They are rich. They are wise. They are free.”

The Spirits of the dead Centuries sat silent, with troubled eyes. At last the Spirit of the First Century spoke for all.

“We all spoke proudly when we came here in the flush of our deeds, and thou more proudly than we all. But as we sit and think of what was before us, and what has come after us, shame and guilt bear down our pride. Your words sound as if the redemption of man had come at last. Has it come?

Am I Any Earthly Good?

How many times have we heard the cliché about being “so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good”? While the point may be a valid one, in reality, it has been those who were most fixed on things above that did the most good here on earth.

It was Martin Luther King’s “dream” of having all flesh see the glory of the Lord together that fueled the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

It was Mother Teresa’s conviction that her hands should be the instruments of delivering daily bread – along with the love of God – that brought peace and joy to many of the world’s poorest people in Calcutta.

It was Desmond Tutu whose understanding that God is seeking the restoration of what He first created that inspired among the people of South Africa and the world the ability to achieve what many saw as “idealistic.”

Indeed, it was Jesus’ connection with His Father and love for His creation that transformed the lives of those with whom He came in contact and made salvation available to the world.

Is “this mind…in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”? (Philippians 2:5) What is your first thought in the morning? The last before going to sleep at night?  Most importantly, what are these thoughts accomplishing in the world around you in the time in between?

Proverbs tells us that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” (29:18) Are you being true to the vision the Lord has given to you or do you continue to ask what it is that the Lord requires, when the answer is given clearly in Scripture: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)