It was announced this week that the Muslim murderer responsible for the massacre at Fort Hood is to be put to death by firing squad in a public execution. As a good Catholic I can happily declare that this is a good and just thing as per my religion, and thus per God. The fair weather Christians and wolves in sheep’s clothing are doing the opposite and claiming that this is a bad and terrible thing and contrary to God’s teaching.
The insipid arguments of the fair weather Christians can be summed up by this excellent meme:
The other main emotional guilt trip that these fair weather and fake Christians pull is to claim that since Christ was executed in public then all public executions are thus de facto bad and unacceptable. This ignores the fact that for the first 1800 odd years of Christianity public executions were a perfectly normal thing, and it is only in our current modern age that this has been declared to be bad and evil. And let us also keep in mind that the same people claiming that public executions are bad and evil are the same ones who support the greatest mass murder of innocents through abortion in the history of mankind. But the wicked are always hypocrites so I suppose I am beating a dead horse with that one.
Okay, lets start with the claim that Christianity and Christ is all about just being nice to each other. Mark from Non Veni Pacem has helpfully posted the core argument from the Bible about why murderers copping it in the neck is good and proper and just.
Whosoever shall shed man’s blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God.
Christ also taught that we are to respect and obey the earthly authorities that govern us. We render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but this is not just taxes. It is also earthly justice.
Now let us consider the asinine claim that since Christ was subjected to a public execution then nobody can suffer the same fate. For a start, Christ was completely innocent so the comparison is an invalid one. In addition, the accused to be executed is not even remotely Christ. This is more than enough to rebuke that argument, but let us not forget something else.
There were two other people publicly executed at the same time as Christ. One repented of his sins and begged Christ to forgive him.
And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.
But more than that, the repentant thief said the following to his unremorseful companion:
But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil.
Notice the turn of phrase, the due reward. Their public execution was good and right and just for them to answer for their crimes. (And to put it in context, in those times to be a thief was to be a murderer, since due to the precarious nature of existence, to have one’s possessions stolen could mean quite literally starving to death.)
The thieves on the cross hanging next to Jesus Christ received their due reward. Christianity and the Church understood this implicitly for almost two thousand years. It is only in our current dark and unenlightened times that we have largely forgotten this pillar of Christianity. But now we can hope that earthly justice will begin to be handed out once more and that this example will both cause murders to tremble and most importantly for our nations to begin to turn back towards Christ.
You can find Adam Piggott at Substack, and purchase his books here.
