Last evening, there was a syndicated West Wing episode from the first season dealing with the Death Penalty. President Bartlet struggled with the federal execution of a two time murderer. He had the power to commute the sentence, but the episode was spent finding political cover for the decision.
In the end, President Bartlet decided against intervening. As the hour of execution struck, the President was with his Priest. The President said he was a leader of a democracy, and the overwhelming majority of Americans over long periods of time support and encourage the death penalty.
Further, the President told his Priest that he prayed for wisdom, and none came, and he is angry at God for not giving him wisdom while confronting the decision to commute a killer's death sentence.
The priest responded with a common yet favorite allegory of mine, that I am sure you are all familiar with, but I will repeat it anyway:
One day there was to be a flood along a river, and the authorities told everyone along the river to evacuate immediately.
One man said, "Nah, I am a religious man. God loves me. God will save me. I don't have to leave."
The waters rose.
The man climbs to the second floor of his now flooded home.
A policeman in a row boat comes by, and tells the man to come with him.
The man says "No no. I am a religious man. God loves me. God will save me. I don't have to leave."
The waters continue to rise.
The man is now on his roof. A helicopter hovers overhead, and the pilot screams through the megaphone for the man to grab the rope ladder hanging down.
The man says, "I told you before, I am a religious man. God loves me. God will save me. I don't have to leave."
The man drowns.
And at the pearly gates in Heaven, the man demands an audience with God. "God," he says, "I am a religious man. I thought you loved me. Why did this happen?"
God looked mad and distraught at the same time. "I sent you a radio report, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What the hell are you doing here?"
The President takes the story to heart, realizing that the simple truth of "Vengenance is mine, sayeth the Lord" was his only cover that he needed. That the simple fact is, as a man and a Catholic who was against the death penalty and who possessed the power to stop the killing, he knew what he had to do, but didn't do it. The Priest asked if the President wished to make his confession, and the President confessed for his sin of murder.
The President's cover was that the American people love the death penalty. It is the American Way. True that. But our passion for it places us in strange, yet revealing, company, against God.
According to a new report issued by Amnesty International, the United States is among four countries that carried out the vast majority of the 3,797 executions around the world in 2004. Amnesty's report states that the nations carrying out the most executioners last year were China (3,400), Iran (159), Vietnam (64), United States (59), Saudi Arabia (33), Pakistan (15), Kuwait (9), Bangladesh (7), Egypt (6), Singapore (6), and Yemen (6). The report notes that the increase in executions in China is partly due to a new way of estimating such executions since the government does not publicly release this data. The use of the death penalty declined in the U.S. in 2004 compared to 2003.
Five nations abandoned the death penalty in 2004 (Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal, and Turkey), bringing the total number of countries that have abolished the death penalty in law or practice to 120. A third of those countries have abandoned the death penalty in the past 15 years, a trend that Amnesty International says shows a "continued move closer to the universal abolition of capital punishment." Only 76 countries retain and use the death penalty, but few of those nations carry out executions each year. "The death penalty is cruel and unnecessary, does not deter crime, and runs the risk of killing the wrongly convicted, " the report concludes.
We are among the few that still kill to punish. We are among the few that loves killing. The company we keep is extraordinary. China. Iran. Vietnam. Saudi Arabia. Pakistan. Kuwait. Bangladesh. Egypt. Singapore. Yemen.
All backwards. All third world. All thugs. All not democracies.
But we are worse than all of those countries. Because we are a democracy. Vast majority of Americans choose to kill. They love vengenance. They love to defy God's law.
Indeed, we love to kill so much that until recently we killed children. And we still kill the mentally disabled.
What is my point?
That West Wing episode, more than Mass, the Terri Schiavo tragedy, and the Pope's death, got me really thinking about life and death in America, and how one's religion should guide you in these matters politically.
A tenet of Catholicism is that it is a sin not to act if you can prevent injustice. Ommission is like being an accomplice. That is why Bartlett confessed. He was complicit in the execution of the murderer. That is at least what the Nuns always taught me, and what that West Wing episode appeared to say to me last night.
I oppose the death penalty, yet I vote for Canidates who support it (Clinton, Gore, Kerry). I oppose abortion, yet I come up with a very nuanced position so that I can vote for vote for pro-choice candidates.
I am not doing enough. But my choices on the other side of the aisle are much much worse. The Republicans do not support life in the slightest. They force themselves into our private lives like rapists into a bedroom. Their anti-abortion stance is even compromised, as they choose not to support women and children during all other phases of life.
So the question this diary is asking is, if you believe that some things are wrong, and that belief is derived from faith, what more can an Average Joe do in a society that chooses the wrong?
I know a great many of you are not religious, and as such, this diary really does not speak to you. Feel free to comment anyway, but please respect those of us who do believe in God and follow a religion.