Abortion: The Death Penalty for the Innocent

The new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, while the archbishop of Buenos Aires, said (in 2007): "We aren't in agreement with the death penalty, but in Argentina we have the death penalty. A child conceived by the rape of a mentally ill or retarded woman can be condemned to death." In our country, it is even worse - an unborn child can receive the dealt penalty for any reason at all. No trial, no appeal, just death at the hand of a merciless executioner.

Now, in Lutheran theology, we would disagree with the new Pope in that the government has been given the power of the sword by God in Roman 13 - but it is the power to defend and protect its citizens, not kill them. But we need good rhetoric like the new Pope used in 2007 to help those who support abortion see the inconsistency and illogicality of their position. Many rail against the death penalty and offer in support the death of those who are innocent and were wrongly convicted. Sometimes it is not until many years later that the error is exposed. What if they had been executed? We should not stand for these wrongful deaths, they say!

Indeed, we should not. Yet that is exactly what is happening hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times each day all around the world. The death sentence is handed down by one person who acts as prosecutor, judge, and jury, and an innocent life is taken. We cannot stand for it. We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and defend the poorest and weakest - and smallest - among us.

Abortion: The Death Penalty for the Innocent. That should be a bumper sticker. And a death penalty all should fight against.

HT: Cranach: The Blog of Veith