RE: death penalty

["Tom Hansen" <thansen@moscow.com>]

Greetings Visionaires -

 

One simple question to Douglas:  Do you support the death penalty for those who bomb abortion clinics resulting in death to the inhabitants of that clinic?

 

Free to Choose,

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

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Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.

- Author Unknown
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-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas [mailto:dougwils@moscow.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2002 10:36 AM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: death penalty

Dear visionaries,

We have been asked about the contradictory positions taken, not only by absolutists, but by Christian absolutists. The example cited was the death penalty. But the example is poorly drawn. Everyone supports the death penalty. It is another example of "not whether, but which." Do we execute the serial murderer, or do we "execute" his next victim because he is still around to perpetrate such crimes? So I support the death penalty for certain crimes bacause I prefer to have fair trials precede the executions I would support. I oppose the death penalty for five-year-old girls riding their bicycles, East African workers in aspirin factories who gave their lives so that somebody's sex scandal could get off the front page, and children in utero.

But this clash of interpretations between absolutist Christians does not alter my questions that I have posted to this list at all. Rather, it reinforces them. Everyone is in this same position, and everyone has to answer the same questions. Living together in society means that some people will always be the recipients of coercion, up to and including fatal coercion. The only question before the house concerns which category of people they will be, and what "absolutist-enough-to-coerce" standard will be applied to them.