Beating a dead horse?
I know that we have been down this road before back in January or February, I don’t remember. But I just came across this three minute excerpt about capital punishment. In it, Piper (I know, I know I use him a lot but very few people have their stuff up for free and line up with me theologically) distinguishes between the principle and practice of capital punishment. Do you think that his distinction is fair/correct or is it wrong? (Click here and then on the words “some thoughts” highlighted in rend and underlined for a Quicktime audio application. Sorry about that guys!)
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There is no link (yet) so I can’t fully evaluate his arguments, but from what you said, I have a few comments.
I absolutely think that there is a difference between how a theory is justified and how it is put into practice. For example, I am fully justified in hugging my little brother. However, if I hug him so tight and for such a length of time that he dies from it, then I have abused my ability to hug.
I am on the fence about the justification of capital punishment, Jesus Christ and all his banter about forgiveness and a lack of instruction on the state level. However, even if it is justified, Dave has a litany of examples where the execution was botched or people who were going to be killed were exonerated. Because of those flaws in the system, I am against the death penalty, although it might be justified.