In the Supreme Court's first look in more than a century at the constitutionality of a method of execution, several justices Jan. 7 seemed inclined to pass on deciding whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Since the court agreed to take the case in September, there has been an effective nationwide moratorium on executions ...
But Justice Antonin Scalia said it matters little whether a problem with the way the drugs are administered sometimes leads to excruciating pain for the condemned prisoner.
"Cruel and unusual is the standard, not painless," he said.
Some discussion among the justices and the attorneys noted that veterinarians nationwide and the Kentucky Legislature have banned a similar three-drug option for euthanizing animals because of the risk of inflicting pain.
In the Genesis study on Friday morning, we read the principle biblical proof-text for capital punishment: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." (Genesis 9:6)
This verse settles the matter for a whole host of people who accept the Bible as a moral influence on their conscience. Some Christians don't see Jesus overturning this component of the Noahic covenant. In fact, it's an everlasting covenant with all humanity.
And it is everlasting: Acts 15:20 and 21:25 reiterate the command that Gentiles abstain from blood. Many Christians disregard this aspect of the Noahic covenant but cling to capital punishment.
I see Genesis 9:6 as legitimizing human government. But I think other verses demonstrate that God retains "the keys of death and Hades" (Revelation 1:18). Cain is punished but earns God's protection. Moses murders the oppressive Egyptian but survives another 80 years, leading the exodus people to the promised land.
Even without introducing the wishy-washy Sermon on the Mount, the turn-the-other-cheek language, God speaks strongly in his word about reserving his role as just judge. From a chapter that I memorized as an undergraduate student and still remember most of, Romans 12, verse 19 quotes Deuteronomy 32:351,
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.""But," so the argument goes, "surely vengeance connotes excess? Christians seek simply justice, not vengeance. We only want what we're entitled to, nothing more. Execution for murder cannot be too strong a punishment."
If there's any question on the meaning of vengeance2, etc. in this passage, the next phrase clears it up: I [the Lord] will repay.
Quid pro quo, payment in kind, retribution. Just punishment is in God's hands; we, like the anawim in Revelation 6:10, cry out: "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
1 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
2 Don't confuse "vengeance" with the common superlative "with a vengeance."
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