The Death Penalty

The Capital punishment controversy in the U.S.A. is a political rather than a legal issue, with religion thrown in to impose guilt on the supporters. The most vocal anti-death penalty leaders are clerics cum politicians - Pope Francis, former President Jimmy Carter, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, Catholic Sister Helen Prejean - and consequently, the debate cannot, as it should, be separated from religion and politics.

Herman Strating is an atheist, politically independent, and as such, his pro-capital punishment position is purely utilitarian, unencumbered by religion and/or politics. With religion in its death throes, the abolitionists' focus is shifting from the sanctity to the dignity of the life of a murderer. Nonsense! Should God exist, in the Judeo-Christian tradition where we find most abolitionists, life is dirt cheap in his eyes.

The modern, politically correct objection that capital punishment attacks a murderer's dignity is equally ridiculous. A monster who abducts, rapes, tortures, and murders a child has no dignity. The majority of the American public, and more importantly, the vast majority of victims' families, are for the death penalty. It comes down to a clash between the victims' families and their abolitionist tormentors.