in preparations for one of our new programs with the youth, a podcast of our wednesday night bible studies. i was looking at having a discussion on capital punishment & our faith. seeing that it is in the global news with the hanging of saddam's brothers, and will come up in the local news regularly (atleast it does here in nashville). the plan was to read through some scriptures, articles, the umc's social principles. one of the articles i've just read is by johan maurer a friend out in portland. one of the parts that caught me was this, i'd encourage a full read of the article here.
Almost anyone who talks about Saddam Hussein in the context of peacemaking feels bound to stipulate to his numerous crimes, including mass murder, not to mention summary executions of his political enemies. Where does love fit in? Just as C.S. Lewis advised not tackling the Gestapo as lesson one in learning to forgive, we do not have to lapse into sentimentality in considering how to love a tyrant. But how is this for a start? Resist the ancient temptation to kill him!
