Permit me to begin this important Wilderness Voice with an imperative and irrefutable Biblical truth. The Bible teaches capital punishment! In Genesis 9:6, God’s Word definitely declares: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (ESV). This verse, spoken to Noah by God, after the destruction of the prediluvian world, which was “filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11, 13), is much more than what first meets the eye, for it is not only the divine sanctioning of capital punishment, but also the divine ordination of human government. To prevent the earth from once again being filled with violence, God ordained human government to deter it, by giving government the power to wield the sword, so that it can protect the innocent and punish the evildoer (Romans 13:1-7).
Today’s sinners and Bible-bashers often level the felonious charge of hypocrisy against today’s Bible-believing saints for opposing abortion and being in favor of capital punishment. However, both Scriptural stances are taken for the exact same reason; namely, the Biblical doctrine of the sanctity of human life. Christians believe, as the Scripture teaches, that life is sacred. Therefore, it is a gift of God, which no man has the right to take. Consequently, abortion is wrong and opposed by Christians because it is the taking of an innocent life. Contrariwise, capital punishment is right and supported by Christians because it prevents a murderer, who has already taken an innocent life, in total disregard for the sanctity of human life, from ever taking another innocent life.
Unbeknownst to most Americans today, the vast majority of violent crimes committed in our country are committed by repeat offenders, who comprise a very small percentage of our population. In addition, many murders in our country are also committed by repeat offenders. Needless to say, not only would all the innocent victims of repeat violent criminals have been spared from injury if violent criminals were all imprisoned for life, but the innocent lives of additional fatalities of repeat murderers would have also been spared if all murderers were executed.
With these Biblical truths under our belt, let’s consider the violence filled world we now find ourselves living in today, which is frighteningly illustrated by the likes of Lindsay Clancy and Christa Pike. First, when it comes to Lindsay Clancy, she perfectly illustrates a predicted characteristic of the perilous times of the last days, as prophesied by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-3. One of the perils Paul predicted would mark and make the last days most perilous is that people would be void of “natural affection.” What affection is more natural than that of a mother for her children? Yet, Lindsay Clancy proved herself to be totally bereft of natural affection by brutally and inhumanly strangling to death her own three children. Nevertheless, Clancy was not put on trial for her monstrous crime, but for her mental cognizance. Neither is she facing the possibility of execution, but only of exoneration, over extenuating circumstances. In the end, Clancy’s trial does nothing to deter violence in our increasingly violent world, which is becoming increasingly void of natural affection.
If inhuman villains can now be excused for their inhumane villainy over extenuating circumstances, such as postpartum psychosis or psychiatric medications, all mad perpetrators of monstrous crimes are henceforth provided with immunity from prosecution, unless their sanity can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to a jury of their peers. Now, if this is so, I suspect Christa Pike, if she recovers from Wednesday’s botched execution, will soon be released from custody, since she is clearly crazier than a sprayed cockroach. If you don’t believe me, then, consider the following.
In 1995, Christa Pike brutally murdered her roommate Colleen Slemmer. Pike beat Slemmer, cut her throat six times with a box cutter, cut her back with a meat clever, threw asphalt at Slemmer’s head, carved a pentagram on Slemmer’s forehead and chest, and afterward ate breakfast the following morning with a piece of Slemmer’s skull in her pocket as a souvenir of her bloodthirsty slaughter of her Job Corps roommate, Colleen Slemmer.
Although Pike was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death for her cold-blooded and bloodcurdling crime, it took our slow as a snail justice system thirty-five years to finally schedule Pike’s execution. Then, this past Wednesday, Pike’s execution was botched, resulting in her surviving and being taken to an off-site hospital, where she remains in critical condition. Of course, the tab for her current hospital stay, along with her thirty-five year incarceration, is being picked up by Tennessee taxpayers.
It is undoubtedly an absurdity for Pike, a death row inmate, to have been rushed to an off-site hospital after two legally administered lethal injections. The state, which was legally obligated to take Pike’s life, is now supposedly legally obligated to save Pike’s life. In addition to this absurdity we can add another. Anti-death-penalty activists have now seized Pike’s botched execution to excoriate capital punishment and to call for its end once and for all. Never mind that they themselves pushed for capital punishment to be medicalized by lethal injections as a more humane method of executing inhuman homicidal maniacs. If you ask me, it’s time we brought back methods of execution that are more certain and sure, like gas chambers, firing squads, hangings, the electric chair, or even Biblical stoning. Furthermore, if we really want to deter crime, especially out-of-control violent crimes and murders, all executions should be sure, as well as swift. They shouldn’t take years to schedule, but just days.