The Editor, Sir:

I am deeply saddened whenever I hear calls for the death penalty, especially when these calls come from professing Christian leaders who wield strong influence over thousands of persons, because of the respect these persons have developed for them over time.

In The Gleaner of January 23, 2007, a prominent church leader is reported as making a call for the death penalty to be implemented in the case of 'career murderers'. If we are going to call for the death penalty, please let us not appeal to the Bible as Christians for support, because the death penalty is against the teachings of Christ, the one whom we claim to follow. A case can be made from the Old Testament for the death penalty, but this has serious implications for us if we do not recognise that we are living in a new dispensation.

Playing it safe

If we appeal to the Old Testament to justify our pro-death penalty stance in the case of murder, we should also be calling for the death of those persons who break the Sabbath (Numbers 15:35), commit adultery and incest (Leviticus 20:10, 11), participate in homosexual activity (Leviticus 20:13), and commit fornication (Deuteronomy 20: 13-21), just to name a few. The church leader seems to be playing it safe by speaking about 'habitual murderers' but this is just limiting our forgiveness as Christians. Did Jesus really put a limit on the number of times we should forgive?

Love is the main theme running throughout the Gospel of Christ. Even if we consider murderers our enemies, as Christians we are taught by Christ himself to love our enemies and to do good to them.

I am, etc.,

GARY GARDINER

garyogardiner@yahoo.com

Kingston 3

Via Go-Jamaica