Killing the killers

I offer no apology for our church and all others who believe that the death penalty is an immoral response to those who commit violent crimes.

I have read most of the responses that people made to the article in the Odessa American on Aug. 16.

Some people live in an either/or world. They cannot conceive of how someone can pray for both the victim and perpetrator of a crime as if when you pray for the perpetrator you are denying the victim his or her rights.

For those of us who are Christian, I would suggest reading Chapter 8:3-11 in the Gospel of John and see if perhaps Jesus is telling us to drop our stones.

Yes, we must ask for accountability and restitution from the perpetrator but we do not have the right to ask for that person's life.

There is another group of people who truly believe that a violent response will somehow satisfy a violent action. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence, you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." Or as one of our signs states: "How can killing the killers teach others that killing is wrong?"

There are many myths about the death penalty and its effectiveness or lack thereof. In a nation that prides itself on being No. 1 in so many aspects of life, we are the only industrialized nation that still utilizes the death penalty as if it really minimizes criminal activity.

Two other smaller nations that believe this to be true are Iran and Iraq.

Let me close with a quote from Loretta Scott King. "As one whose husband and mother-in-law have both died the victims of murder assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by legalized murder."