EDITOR, The Tribune.
The Tribune published an article regarding Reverend Harry Bain’s remarks on the death penalty at Christ Church Cathedral last week. According to the article, Rev Bain is quoted as stating that he does not support capital punishment because it is contrary to the New Testament.
I find it deeply troubling that a leading man of the cloth would lend his voice to the anti-capital punishment camp in the midst of a bloodbath. Bain is an Anglican. As a high ranking clergyman within the Anglican Church, Bain should be familiar with the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. This document presents the beliefs and practices of the Anglican Church. It was published in the 16th century. Based on my layman’s interpretation of Article 17, it would appear that the Anglican statements of faith is Calvinistic. This would then mean that the church leans towards the theological system of John Calvin, who was pro-capital punishment. In fact, Article 37 of the Thirty-Nine Articles affirms the death penalty, by stating that the “laws of the Realm (of England) may punish Christian men with death, for heinous and grievous offences”. The founder of the Church of England, King Henry VIII, executed over 57,000 rebels, including two of his wives. It was King Henry who brought the Reformation of Martin Luther to England. Luther, by the way, was also pro-death penalty.
Why am I stating all this church history? Because I want the readership to see that Bain’s views on the death penalty do not align with the Anglican Church’s past history. Furthermore, a cursory reading of the New Testament Book of Romans 13 would show that Bain’s views on capital punishment are not derived from sound hermeneutics.
In verse four of that chapter, saint Paul said that rulers bear not the sword in vain. I find it interesting that Bain chose to mention the New Testament instead of the Old. Bain knows that under Israel’s theocratic system of government, murderers, rapists, idolators, sabbath breakers and those who defame the name of Yahweh were put to death. That is why death penalty opponents hate to mention the Old Testament in their arguments. The Tribune article did not state any particular Bible verse or chapter in support of Bain’s views on the subject. Most anti-capitalist punishment advocates love to quote Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7 and Luke 6.
Whatever commands were given by Jesus in His famous sermon, they were given to the church, not to the state. No civilisation would survive with a government turning the other cheek to murderers, rapists, paedophiles, armed robbers and violent gangsters. If one were to take these people’s Sermon on the Mount argument to its logical conclusion, then the Progressive Liberal Party government should issue a pardon to each inmate housed at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. What God expects of the civil authority and its subjects is elaborated in Romans 13:1-8; Titus 3:1 and 1 Peter 2:13-14. I challenge Bain to produce one New Testament verse that prohibits the death penalty. Just one. In this regard, I do not believe that Bain’s opposition is based on the New Testament.
KEVIN EVANS
Freeport,
Grand Bahama
January 14, 2024.
Comments
moncurcool 3 months, 1 week ago
This letter writer really needs to read what he is writing.
Bain says he does not support capital punishment because of what the New Testament says, not because of the history of the Anglican Church.
Further, in Romans, Paul is not supporting capital punishment, he is just saying what the state does.
empathy 3 months, 1 week ago
Nonsense.
It boggles my mind how folks who claimed to be ‘Christian’, pretty much a New Testament religion, still hold fast to the “an eye for an eye” Old Testament philosophy. The premise of Christianity is ‘forgiveness’ and healing through forgiveness. If religion is not going to help us come together and solve our problems then we need to discard its rhetoric. We should rely on policies that have shown benefit both here and in other countries (evidence not speculation) which I am certain our local experts are cognizant of because they have been studying these problems for decades.
We need to focus our attention on helping our young people, especially our young men, BEFORE they get into trouble or when they have shown a risk of being delinquent. We once had proposals for National Service, that could be explored again, or the conversion of one of our secondary schools into a military academy with input from our National Security agencies Our meager resources, both manpower and financial (including emotional energy) is best ‘spent’ on prevention rather than the endless appeals process of intentionally having someone killed. Given the prolonged timeframe in this judicial system makes you wonder how reliable any evidence is, especially eyewitness testimony and thus the risk of false conviction is potentially increased…people can be exonerated years later, but not once put to death.
I am in favor of preventive efforts and so I will give the present government a chance with their Gang Related efforts, and the Opposition should too…this like many other of our national challenges require bipartisanship. Please PLP and FNM, put party politics to the side and come together to tackle the nation’s problems!
Amen.
hrysippus 3 months, 1 week ago
A little learning is a dangerous thing. People have been selecting and citing carefully chosen passages of the Bible to support their bigotry for centuries now.
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