Driving past a Catholic church today, I found myself behind a car with a "You can't be Pro-Choice and Catholic" bumper sticker. Even though I'm not Catholic, I found the thing infuriating. In supporting a pro-choice position are you in contradition of papal instructions? Yes, but the vast majority of American Catholics differ with the Vatican on a number of issues. I don't see any "You can't believe in ordaining married men and be Catholic" bumper sticks (maybe because it's too long to fit).
In response, I made myself a brand-spanking new bumper sticker that I will display on the back of my car when I head into the church parking lot tomorrow: "You Can't Believe in the Death Penalty and Jesus."
After all, on the issue of abortion, the Bible is silent. Sure, the anti-choice crowd will try to pull some verses out of left field. Like this little ditty from Jeremiah:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
But to cite this is as proof of the soul being formed at conception is completely counter to the text. God knew Jeremiah
before he was conceived. It's a statement to the eternal nature of the soul, not a pronouncement that sperm + egg = sacred.
What the Bible actually says about abortion is pretty well nothing. Which may not seem strange to you if you don't realize that this is a book with rules for what crops you can plant, what you can eat, what you can wear. There are whole chapters describing what kinds of molds and fungus can be taken care of at home, and what variety needs to get looked at by a priest.
The absence of information on abortion is quite surprising. After all, women got desperate long before there were coat hangers and back alleys. Abortificants were handed out by wise aunts and sympathetic friends long before there was an RU-486. So why does this go undiscussed? I'm not saying that God doesn't care about abortion, but I'm saying that if you want to argue that abortion goes against the teachings of either Jesus or the Bible, you're going to have a hard time making your case from the literature. And the Biblical silence is odd, to say the least.
On the other hand, when it comes to the death penalty, there is plenty of direct Biblical attention. Everyone knows about the "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth," which must have resulted in a lot of dentures and eye-patches in Old Testament times. Heck, those guys had rules for killing people who two crops in the same field, or who dressed improperly (which makes What Not To Wear seem quite tame). There's plenty of good reasons to kill someone in Leviticus.
However, if you're a Christian, Jesus speaks directly to the idea of capital punishment. First, in the sermon on the mount, he points out one of those verses the pro-death penalty crowd is always trying to twist.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
And Yes, he says
kill, not
murder and no matter how many times Jimmy Swaggart tries to translate the text with his own divinely inspired dictionary, it's still going to say "kill." Jesus goes on to say that not only is killing wrong, just getting angry at someone is wrong. Finally, he comes straight to the question of retribution:
"You have heard it said 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' but I say to you...if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also."
Jesus specifically forbids revenge and retribution of all kinds. In fact, he hits us all with the hardest rule imaginable.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Unless you think it's a form of "loving them to death," it's hard to see how anyone could reconcile these statements with the death penalty.
So, while Catholics who are pro-choice are in disagreement with a position handed down by the church hierarchy, Christians who support the death penalty are in direct opposition to Jesus' own teaching.
