the basic message #E316
12/13/04
The headline on AOL simply read "DEATH PENALTY". Scott Peterson, husband and murderer of Laci Peterson has become somewhat of a regular fixture in the news this past year. Personally, I find the whole thing odd, what with normal people becoming "groupies" of the trial. I can't recall the woman's name on Fox News, but she had a regular slot during primetime talking about the trial. When people called in, they would talk about "Scott" as if they knew him. Weird, if you ask me. But back to the story that followed the headline- let's take a look:
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Dec. 13) - A jury decided Monday that Scott Peterson should be executed for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, whose Christmas Eve disappearance two years ago was the opening act in a legal drama that captivated the nation.
A cheer went up outside the courtroom as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days.
It should come as a surprise to no one that Peterson got the death penalty, but please focus on the last sentence of the story: "A cheer went up outside the courtroom as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days". As I understand it, there was about a thousand people in that group, so let's do a little scenario here, okay? Let's pretend I'm among the crowd for this little experiment.
John: "Okay everybody, what do you think about the verdict for Peterson?"
Crowd: "Yahoo!" "Burn, baby, burn!!!" "Let him feel the same pain he inflicted on Laci!"
John: "You guys sound like you're pretty fired-up about this whole thing."
Crowd: "You know it!" "Damn right!!"
John: "Okay, would all the Christians please move over to this side of the street, and all of the non-believers just stay where you are." "Now, may I ask a few questions to the Christians?"
Crowd: "Sure"
John: "As Christians, you believe in the Bible, and try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, right?"
Crowd: "You know it brother!" "We do our best!" "We try to."
John: "Fine, so when did Jesus tell us to rejoice when someone has been sentenced to death?"
Crowd: "What do you mean?"
John: "I mean exactly what I said."
I won't belabor this story any further, but you can see where I'm going with it. When I heard that the crowd cheered when the death penalty was handed down, my heart was heavy. Not for Peterson, but for Christianity. I have no way of knowing what the religious make-up of the crowd was, but I can probably safely say that at least half the crowd probably consider themselves Christians. How is it that Christians have become identical twins to "the lost"? I fully expect an atheist redneck to shout his enthusiasm in such a situation, but a Christian? Whenever I get into a conversation with some Christians about such things, I'm very likely to hear, "So John, what do you want to do, turn him loose?" What a totally stupid remark. How can anyone with a brain make the leap that since I protest the cheering of a death sentence, I want to release a convicted murderer?
Whenever Christians sink to the low of becoming jubilant in a situation like this, I must really wonder about their particular flavor of Christianity. Is there anyone out there than can look me in the eye and say that Jesus would approve of that crowd's cheering? If Jesus was in the crowd, he'd cry. Does that surprise you? Jesus would cry thinking about the cruelty Scott Peterson showed by murdering not only his beautiful wife, but his own unborn baby as well. And why did he do it? To return to the carefree life of a bachelor. I don't endorse the death penalty, but if anyone ever deserved it, it's probably Peterson. But Jesus would also cry for the crowd, since mercy was clearly absent from their vocabulary.
Christians should very clearly understand that while it might be legal to execute someone, we should never rejoice over such a thing. Simply put, legal doesn't necessarily translate to moral. Scott Peterson proved that he is a monster. Is there any purpose in Christians trying to do the same?