Saddam Hussein, as you’re no doubt aware, was executed last week. The CT blog has a good roundup of reactions by Christian leaders to the execution; most condemn Saddam’s crimes but maintain that the death penalty isn’t morally appropriate even in such a case. Note that the CT blog hasn’t yet found any statements from the American evangelical world, which I’m guessing would have a different take on the death penalty’s morality here. (If you come across such a statement from an evangelical leader, feel free to note it in the comments below.)
Whatever your take on the death penalty, the CT post has some quotes and links worth reading.
update: more thoughts and links at In the Agora.
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January 2, 2007 at 23:43
Mere Comments has a post by Dr. Lee Podles, a Catholic, strongly disagreeing with the Vatican on calling Saddam’s death sentence a crime in itself. He also attacks the Holy See for what amounts to moral cowardice. The 234 (so far) ensuing comments offer a cross-section of the debate on capital punishment from Protestants to Catholics to Evangelicals.
January 3, 2007 at 19:16
It seems like a Christian leader’s main struggle should be between feeling the justice of seeing a murderer be punished and that murderer’s eternal destiny. A Christian leader would believe that Saddam’s hanging inevitably meant he was on his way to meet God and the rest of eternity. There should be a struggle in all of us between justice and love. Justice is seeing someone receive what is due, while love sees Saddam as a being created by God to love and enjoy God and whose death could mean eternity cut off from that Creator. I struggled and reflected on both on my blog.
January 3, 2007 at 20:41
Saddam was a bully and mass murderer who was tried and convicted in a court of law and then executed according to the law of the land. I know that he was exposed to both Muslim and Christian theology during his life, but rejected both. He played the part of a Muslim martyr at the end to draw on peoples sympathy, but he was simply a sociopathetic killer who felt no remorse (amoral) for the killing of hundreds of innocent women and children. The sentence in this case was not retribution or retaliation, it was justice. He got off easy, wait till he knells and confesses before Almighty God.
January 4, 2007 at 03:01
Ask yourself ” What would Jesus have done?” and the answer is simple.
January 6, 2007 at 06:40
I agree with the comments of RichardH. Even a convicted killer can be saved prior to an execution. Each of us must atone for our sins, especially wanton murder. If Saddam had asked God to forgive him and apologized to all the families, and, like Paul, spent the remainder of his days saving souls, I believe he would have entered Heaven. However, he himself condemned himself to Hell! Andy’s remark “What would Jesus have done?” – I believe He would have left Saddam on his cross to Hell since he never ever acknowledged Jesus. This, the WORST sin before God.