He does what I should have done and situates the Church\u2019s teaching on the death penalty in the context of the rest of its teaching on the fifth commandment in the Catechism<\/a>, making clear that the approach is always \u201chow can we avoid killing if at all humanly possible\u201d and never \u201cwhen do we get to kill?\u201d<\/p>\nI well remember discussions of torture over the past few years that were predicated precisely on \u201cHey! \u00a0We get to kill people in war and torture is less serious than killing, so why don\u2019t we get to torture people?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was \u00a0kind of amazing to talk to people who saw killing as a kind of privilege and who resented being denied the corresponding privilege to torture but I ran into it constantly. \u00a0Killing is something we *have* to do in war, not something we *get* to do. \u00a0And if it can be avoided, we are morally obliged to do so. \u00a0That is why, the instant a combatant becomes a prisoner, killing him is no longer self-defense but murder, because your enemy is still made in the image and likeness of God. \u00a0And for the same reason, a prisoner may not be tortured\u2013because he is in the image and likeness of God.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: \u00a0if wars were fought with phasers instead of gun, we would be morally obliged to set them on stun at all times since that would be sufficient to render an enemy harmless. \u00a0Killing is only something done when absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n
And that logic applies to the death penalty as well.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He does what I should have done and situates the Church\u2019s teaching on the death penalty in the context of the rest of its teaching on the fifth commandment in the Catechism, making clear that the approach is always \u201chow can we avoid killing if at all humanly possible\u201d and never \u201cwhen do we get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[278,7],"class_list":["post-97341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolish-the-death-penalty","tag-doings-on-other-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\n
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