No. 29, March 1998

 

HOW ABOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?

 

            The world took little notice when the State of Texas executed some 36 men the last few years. But when Karla Faye Tucker was put to death by lethal injection on Feb. 3 it attracted global attention. This was mainly because the condemned was a woman, but also because of her impressive testimonials, widely televised, of being a changed person since her heinous crimes 15 years earlier.

 

            There was a groundswell of protest to her execution, including such influential voices as Amnesty International and the Vatican. The reasons for this protest, while not over the previous executions in Texas, is not clear. Perhaps because it was a woman, or because she had become a Christian (Is "born again" a necessary appellation?), or because the execution had been delayed for 15 years, or because it had become a celebrated case. Or all the above. In any event it was all to no avail.

 

            But it was not as blatant as it may have appeared in the media. The governor awaited a recommendation from the Board of Pardons, which was necessary for a commutation of the death sentence, which he probably would have acted upon had it ever come. It didn’t. Then the execution was put on hold until the governor heard from the Supreme Court on last-minute appeals. The governor at last went on TV and announced that the Supreme Court had rejected all appeals. In signing the order for execution he invoked God’s blessings upon the condemned, her victims and their families.

 

            There was something curious about all this. Was the wave of protest over capital punishment in general or over the execution of this particular person? Emotions ran high; some applauded, others openly wept. But do they applaud or weep at every execution or this particular one?

 

            The vast majority of those executed all across the nation are not only male but poor, even illiterate, and a disproportionate number are black. If Karla Faye Tucker had been Carl Tucker and black, we would hardly have heard about the execution, however "born again" he may have been. And how many weep when the poor, black Carl Tuckers are hanged or burned or shot or injected?

 

            If it is a condemned person’s conversion while awaiting death that draws our concern, do we really know how many on death row might have such an experience, quietly? And even if they remain impenitent to the end should we not mourn as much, yea even more, for them? "Weep not for me," our Lord could say as he faced execution, for he was in good hands, "but weep for yourselves." Should not our tears be for those who die bereft of hope?

 

            I hasten to add that I was grieved over what happened to Karla Faye, even while I rejoiced over her radiant faith. But I also grieve over all those who are executed, especially the disadvantaged who are often poorly defended in a court of law.

 

            We must all realize, as the poet John Donne has insisted, that any person’s death diminishes us – especially when we take his or her life! When anyone of us ends up in a death chamber, there is a part of all of us there with that person. The ancient rabbis had a rule that if one insisted on the death penalty for an offender he must be willing to serve as the executioner. How many of us are willing to strap the condemned to the gurney and insert the needle?

 

            You have likely concluded by now that I am opposed to the death penalty. Yes, and mine is a simple rule: We should not deviate from the eternal, moral law of God, "Thou shalt not kill, " except when it is absolutely necessary.

 

            The Sixth Commandment is an eternal, moral principle of the sanctity of life. Life is to be reverenced, even the life of one who has taken the life of another. If one has life, there is something of God in him, and we are not to destroy it, except when absolutely necessary for the preservation of society. A soldier may have to kill, a policeman may have to. One may have to do so to protect himself or his family. But such killing should be exceedingly rare, and always with reluctance and godly fear.

 

            The death penalty is not necessary. There are only two possible reasons for it: deterrence and revenge. There is no solid evidence that it deters crime. Even if it did, it is still not necessary. And revenge is unworthy of a decent, civilized society, especially one that claims to be founded on Christian principles.

 

            I am aware that one can quote the Bible for capital punishment. There are some twenty offenses where it is called for, including witchcraft, adultery, idolatry, profaning the Sabbath, kidnaping, incest, murder. A stranger who intruded upon a Jewish holy place, a farmer who kept a dangerous ox, or a child who cursed his parents might be executed. Whatever value such laws may have for us today, we are to remember that we are not disciples of Moses but disciples of Christ.

 

            All these situational laws have to yield to the "spirit of holy Scripture" as a whole and especially to the Spirit of Christ. "Thou shalt not kill" is in the Bible, but that is not what makes killing wrong. It is in the Bible because it is wrong! Cain realized he had disobeyed God in killing his brother long before the Ten Commandments were codified.

 

            The death penalty brutalizes life, victimizing all of us. It fails to realize that all of us are to some degree guilty of the sins of society’s children. It sometimes proves to be outright murder of the innocent wrongly charged. It reflects society’s insensitivity to the sacredness of life.

 

            Remember the old rule: if you are for the death penalty you should be willing to serve as the executioner.

 

            Even more important is that in a Christian society all punishment should be remedial. Whether we punish a child or a hardened criminal the end in view should be reformation, a changed life. We should seek to cure the criminal, and we don’t cure him by killing him. Until he is cured he must remain in prison, for life if need be.

 

            This, by the way, is the best argument for the commutation of Karla Faye’s death sentence and her eventual pardon. After 15 years she was cured. In killing her anyway we were saying that our motive was vengeance. She killed, so we kill her.

 

            The chief end of a society (under God) is to be a “City of God,” to reflect God’s likeness. God is merciful, eager to forgive. Jesus urges us to “Be merciful even as your Father in heaven is merciful” (Lk. 6:36). True, God is also a God of judgment, but he tempers his judgment with mercy. Jas. 2:13 lays down a sobering truth: “Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

 

            Do we really want mercy to triumph over judgment? – Leroy

 

MORAL CRISIS IN WASHINGTON: WHAT TO DO?

 

        Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. – Jer. 29:7

 

            This remarkable and surprising statement is part of a letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the Israelite community in Babylonian captivity. It is remarkable because he tells the captives to be realistic and respond to their predicament positively. They were to build houses, plant gardens, raise families, plan for the future. His letter was a “Thus saith the Lord” that told God’s people how to live amidst crisis.

 

            It is surprising in that it is in sharp contrast to earlier Israelite responses to their captivity in Babylon. Ps. 137 is a captivity lament. It begins with “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept.” They hung their harps on the willows and would not sing the songs of Zion in a strange land. And they cursed their captors, invoking a blessing upon those who dash the Babylonian babes against the rocks.

 

            But Jeremiah tells them they can sing Zion’s hymns in exile, they can settle in and be prosperous and happy. Rather than curse their captors they are to pray for them and work for their good, for Babylon’s welfare will be their welfare.

 

            This is a high level of spirituality in the Old Testament, and it anticipates the teaching of the Messiah that we are to pray for our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. The prophet is correcting a grave misunderstanding: God is not confined to Jerusalem and the temple, but is anywhere and everywhere. He can be served in a pagan land like Babylon as well as in Israel. He is also telling them they can behave as a redeemed community in an evil environment.

 

            This is a message for us as our nation faces a moral crisis in Washington. We can curse the media, damn the President, shoot the messenger, give up on the government, and give in to cynicism by believing the worst.

 

            Or we can listen to what God said through Jeremiah to his people in direr straits than ourselves. After all, the exiles in Babylon had to think in terms of 70 years! The word from the Lord was that they were to make the best of a bad situation. Instead of cursing the darkness they were to light a candle. They were to pray for Babylon and work for its good.

 

            Pray! Be a blessing! That is our calling in a time of crisis. What difference would it make if millions of believers were praying for those who are caught up in the tragedy in Washington? Jeremiah believed that prayer would make a difference for God’s people in captivity. Perhaps it was those prayers that caused a Cyrus to arise who would summons Israel to return home.

 

            We can pray for our leaders even when – especially when! – they do things of which we disapprove. And we can pray that truth will triumph, and that God will use the sins of our leaders to bring us to our moral senses.

 

            We are far more effective when we have a positive outlook – bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things. And we are not to forget that, like Israel in Babylon, we are pilgrims in a foreign land. This world is not our home. But while we are here we are to be a blessing, so that when we leave this world we’ll leave it better than we found it. – Leroy

 

 

 

            On Christian principles all punishment should be remedial; and capital punishment is the ultimate and the blunt denial of this principal. - William Barclay

 

 

THE QUESTION THAT HAS NO ANSWER

 

            Why do the righteous suffer, often grossly? Why do bad things, sometimes very bad things, happen to good people? It is asked in different ways, and the question is as old as Job.

 

            The point of what I have to say here is that however the question is asked, or however often, it is a question without an answer. In a way that is an answer: there is no answer. We better arm ourselves for life in this difficult world when we realize that some things are so baffling and mysterious that they defy explanation.

 

            Is that not the Bible’s answer? Paul may never have understood why he had to suffer a thorn in the flesh. He repeatedly prayed that it would be taken away. The answer? “My grace is sufficient for you,” which was less than an answer, however comforting it may have been.

 

            So with the book of Job. It doesn’t answer the question it raises. God responds to Job’s litany of sufferings with a lot of hard questions designed to put Job in his place. But he doesn’t answer Job’s question as to why he, a good man, had to suffer so grievously.

 

            When we ask why we ask the wrong question, for it has no answer. We should rather ask when - When bad things happen, what are we to do? - for it has an answer. That is the answer that God gave to Paul: when things go wrong draw upon God’s grace for strength.

 

            That is what Job eventually came to see, that he was asking the wrong question. He learned that he could accept with simple trusting faith what he could not understand.

 

            The essence of religion is trust in God, not understanding. Answers to our weightiest questions may not be important. What matters is not how we explain life but how we live it, not how well we comprehend but how well we trust.

 

            We do not have to understand why God runs the universe the way he does. That God is with us is what matters. Philip. 4:7 refers to a peace that surpasses understanding. Peace apart from comprehension, What a blessed truth!

 

            That peace is ours only in a life of trust. As Pro. 3:2 puts it: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own understanding.” We do not have to understand, and thank God for that! But we must have wholehearted trust that God is in control and that whatever happens he will be with us and he will see us through. - Leroy

 

Between Us . . .

 

            Many years ago Jim Bevis conned me into doing a “Raccoon John Smith” for his summer seminars for Campus Evangelism. I did one in Gatlinburg, Tn. before a thousand college students. They went for it. It was a way to teach them some Restoration history. Jim also had me walk in off the street and “disturb” the Lord’s day assembly when he was minister to the Brookvalley Church of Christ in Atlanta. Wearing a raccoon cap and long tails, and carrying a cane, I walked into the assembly while Jim was in the pulpit and told the startled congregation that I was a backwoods preacher from the boondocks of southern Kentucky who helped to start all this, and that I had some things to say. We got their attention!

 

            After all these years I recently did “Raccoon” again at a dinner honoring the senior singles of our congregation here in Denton, still with cane and raccoon cap. By now I’m getting old enough to play the part of the old hero who died at 84. But this time I had to compete with an act that was hard to follow, a singing dog! When his masters sang, he would raise his head and howl. He even “sang” when the dinner guests sang! It was hilarious. Not that old Raccoon didn’t also have some mirthful moments. Afterwards there was this dear senior single who said, “Leroy, that was just great. It was a tossup between you and that dog!”

 

            The Hebron Parkway Church of Christ in Lewisville (near Dallas) recently became simply Hebron Parkway Church. Not only did they drop their old name but started using musical instruments. At the invitation of their minister, who has been with Churches of Christ all his young life, I recently visited on a Lord’s day when Ouida was ill. It is the youngest church I know of, virtually all the adults being in theirs 20s and 30s, and lots of kids. Most were of Restoration back-ground, either Christian Church or Church of Christ. The service was animated but not charismatic, and the preaching was both enthusiastic and biblical. It was “us” (Lord’s supper, baptism, doctrine) except for the instruments. They told me they changed the sign out front so as not to mislead Church of Christ folk, who would often get up and leave when they saw the instruments. While I accept them no less as brethren, I wish they could have stayed with their heritage, which would mean to keep their name and remain acappella. We need congregations that serve as exemplars of meaningful change, leading the way for other Churches of Christ, but to do this they have to stay close to their roots. We effect change by staying with our people – like the prophets did and like Jesus did. You might get stoned or crucified, but you might still change things. Like old Raccoon John Smith, referred to above, when the Baptists tried to run him off, he insisted, “No, I’m stayin’. I love you too much to leave you.” In the end he “capsized” nearly all of them!

 

            It was sad news that came on the internet of the sudden death (heart attack) of Norvel Young, chancellor emeritus of Pepperdine, Feb. 17. He and I had some meaningful contacts through the years, which deepened, I believe, when I wrote him a letter of encouragement following his tragic accident that resulted in the death of two elderly women for which he was held responsible. Ouida and I were impressed that Norvel and his wife Helen went out of their way to be present when Pepperdine awarded me one of their Distinguished Christian Service Awards. The last time I saw Norvel, at a Pepperdine Lectureship, he told me that I should be pleased to see my dreams for Churches of Christ being fulfilled. I was planning to attend his gala party at Pepperdine on Jan. 1, 2000 heralding the new millennium. I wrote Helen that we should still have the party, for Norvel as well as the new century.

 

            Tom Langford, retired dean at Texas Tech, sent me an interesting 30-year old photo that I had not seen before. It was a picture of a group standing on the front steps of the old 14th and Decatur Church of Christ in Washington D.C. On the front row I am pictured standing next to clean-cut Kenneth Starr, who must have then been in his mid 20s and wholly incapable of even imagining the fate that has befallen him. Tom says Ken is getting a bum rap in Washington as special prosecutor in being made the bad guy, a view shared by many. One of my neighbors describes him as “the consummate pro” and hardly a “right wing conspirator.” Ken’s dad was a Church of Christ preacher. I suspect Ken, a mild-mannered man, would rather be at Pepperdine than in a Washington fish-bowl. He is a man with a job to do. But what happens if he does it?

 

            Ouida and I plan to be at Hartford Church of Christ in Hartford, Illinois, near St. Louis, for their 75th anniversary on May 16-17 weekend. There will also be a special service on May 15 at the Fenton Church of Christ in nearby Fenton, Mo. We would delight in your presence. For info: Berdell McCann, 618-254-6454.

 

 

 

            Norvel Young’s death makes his recent book, Living Lights, Shining Stars, all the more relevant. The book, which draws upon his long, interesting life in Churches of Christ, is a testimonial to his being one of those living lights and shining stars. He reveals his 10 secrets for such a life. $17 postpaid.

 

            Another book drawn from an agonizing and yet victorious experience in Churches of Christ and afterwards among the Disciples of Christ is Roy Key’s Fire And Sword. I read this book to Ouida, chapter by chapter, with gripping interest. It forced us to ask, What have we done to our people? Do we shoot our own wounded? A self-published book sold at cost. $10 postpaid.

 

            We are down to only four bound volumes of Restoration Review, covering the years 1985-92. These are hardbound, matching volumes with dust jackets, prefaces, and tables of content. All four for $55 postpaid.

 

            We are pleased that my revised edition of The Stone-Campbell Movement is being used in several colleges. You can have your own copy at $25 postpaid.

 

            Gene Shelburne knows how to write to hurting people without being sentimental. In his two books, The God Who Puts Us Back Together and Expect the Light, he tells us how to live in a troubled world. Ideal for gifts. $13 each or both for $25, postpaid.

 

            For information on our heritage as well as on principles of unity and fellowship, I recommend Our Heritage in Unity and Fellowship, which is a selection of writings of Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garrett, with an introduction by Cecil Hook, the editor. Even if I am one of the writers, I see it as being right on target in identifying who we are as a people or are supposed to be. At $9 postpaid it is our best bargain. Why not buy copies and pass them along? It will help solve our identity problem.

 

 

 

            Thank you for “Mary.” I’ve been meditating on her for a story I’m doing. Your in-depth, multi-faceted “visit” into her very being inspires me. Praise! - Kathy Wyler, Kerrville, Tx.

 

            How I wish I had spent more of my life doing more in-depth study of our Movement. The more one researches and reads the more apparent is the vast area of things not yet known or discovered. -Rolland Steever, South Bend, In.

 

            You know, Leroy, the older I get the closer I feel to Jesus. I don’t punch a clock anymore and I’m no longer in a hurry. God has given Charlene and me good health, receptive hearts, and a stronger desire to serve him. If it were not for Oles and Bernice Pinson we would still be very narrow Christians. Again we thank you and Carl Ketcherside for giving us a more workable approach to both Scripture and life. - Bob Howard, Pendleton, Or.

 

            We have new readers of this newsletter who have never seen copies of Restoration Review, which we published for 40 years. If such ones are interested in what we said during those years, we will send you a sampling at a nominal charge. We will send you 25 issues, selected at random, for only $5, postpaid. Once you sample these, you can decide if you would like more.