Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

The Death Penalty, and the Bible Belt

I saw The Life of David Gale the other night, which is a mystery movie about a Reporter(Kate Winslet) who needs to clear a convicted rapist/murderer (Kevin Spacey) in four days before he is set for lethal injection. The climax reveals what you knew all along, but it makes you second guess it a few times. I'm not sure if the movie intended to speak out against lethal injection or just use it as a scenario for a mystery. The Texan Government gets the brunt of the anti-death penalty propaghanda mostly on the grounds of the Religious idea of an eye for an eye. The views of the movie didn't ruin the story which was good, we all know movies that failed at that I'm sure.

As a Christian who is near to completing a Bible Degree, I wanted to lay out the "Eye for an Eye" issue since Christians themselves are divided over it. It really depends upon understanding Theonomy, which is the way in which the Old Testament relates to the present day. Since the Bible was written as Progressive revelation, meaning that God's program was not all laid out at once but was built up over time, how should we today understand and apply the Old Testament and in this case specifically the Torah (First Five Books/Books of Moses). One view is that whatever is said in the Old Testament is to be maintained if it is repeated in the New Testament, another states that it is to be held unless repealed in the New Testament, and another says that it all applies with equal validity. The first is the one held by most Evangelical Christians who are schooled in the Bible, the second is held by most strong conservative churches like the Mennonites and some Presbyterians, and the third is held by all the idiot Christians who tarnish the religion with their protests and misguided causes. The first two views can be well supported Biblically and should probably be united when possible, but the third one will contradict itself endlessly. Since, it is not repeated and is repealed in the New Testament the idea of "An Eye for an Eye" is no longer a Christian Dogma that can be withheld Biblically. Jesus makes it clear several times in the gospels, the most clear example would be where He stops the crowd from stoning the woman who was to be condemned by Jewish law(John 8). Man, I went off on this more than I planned, I just hate the mindless Christians that somehow end up speaking for us all the time in the media.