Posted by Cathy Taggart Even in Australia, from what I've heard and read, prisons are overcrowded, violent places where people are treated as if they are barely human. I don't know about elsewhere, but here in South Australia the current public mood seems to be one of "lock 'em up and throw away the key"- and of course politicians are only too eager to jump on the band wagon! When a person who committed a serious crime (e.g., sexual crimes or causing death by dangerous driving) receives a gaol term of say, three or four years, there's invariably a public outcry that this is too lenient. Well, of course, this may not normally be a big slab out of anyone's life, but it is an awfully long time to be deprived of almost everything that makes life worthwhile for most people! Of course, from a moral perspective,imprisonment under any conditions is preferable to the death penalty. However, let's not forget that no matter what some-one has done, they are still a beloved child of God, and they still deserve a chance at repentance. As Jesus showed us, you can best bring people to repentance by letting them experience God's love and mercy, not by treating them as if they were less than human! --Previous Message--
on November 29, 2005, 8:27 am, in reply to "Van Nguyen - I wonder What we all think!"
I totally agree with you, Kevin. However, since the alternative to capital punishment is usually to lock people away for a long time - maybe for most or even all of their lives - I think we also need to be concerned about what sort of a "life" they will be left with when a death sentence is commuted. From what we hear, it seems that conditions in Asian prisons are pretty horrible, and of course foreigners have the added agony of being far from family and friends.
: Today New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark
: had the courage and the compassion to
: confront Singapore's Prime Minister on the
: issue of Van Nguyen's upcoming execution.
: Our own Government has been wringing its
: hands in an impotent kind of impersonation
: of Uriah Heap as it claims that we can do
: nothing.
:
: This is the same mob whose leader only two
: years' ago suggested that we might have a
: discussion on the possibility of
: reintroducing Captial Punishment in
: Australia!
:
: Drug trafficking is of course an awful crime
: and deserves to be punished accordingly.
: Nothing however is worth the deliberate
: taking of another person's life. The trauma
: experienced by the witnesses to the hanging
: of Ronald Ryan in Melbourne's Pentridge Gaol
: in 1967, and the enduring damage done to the
: families of at least one of the judges
: involved in that case, attest to the fact
: that it is not just the excecuted person and
: his or her family who suffer.
:
: The whole of society is demeaned by such
: barbarism, and the existence of a death
: penalty is surely evidence of a society that
: is yet to mature to the point where it can
: deal with serious crime with justice and
: with real wisdom.
:
: Eighty countries, and thirty five U.S.
: States still employ the death penalty, with
: Singapore having the highest per capita rate
: of executions each year.
:
: I pray that we can do better and that our
: leaders can somehow grasp the enormity of
: their mealy-mouthed excuses for not doing
: more to save the life of Van Nguyen.
:
:
:
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