Posts
 |
| Source: wikipedia.org |
I am certain that everyone is aware of the debacle of the botched attempt to execute Christa Pike in Tennessee on September 30. She somehow survived two doses of pentobarbital, and is now recovering, but still in poor condition, in a rehabilitation center. It seemed like a grotesque caricature of a person being restored or resuscitated to natural life again (Mk. 3:35-43; Lk. 7:11-16; Jn. 11:1-45). According to an article on the Death Penalty Information Center (written by Anne Holsinger): "No prisoner in the modern era of the death penalty has survived the administration of lethal injection of drugs." And now someone has, raising further troubling legal and ethical issues.
We know that Christa Pike committed a horrific crime when she brutally murdered one or her classmates in 1995. She was eighteen years old at the time of the murder. I am not raising the issue of the legitimacy of her death sentence here. Rather, I would like to keep everyone informed of the Orthodox Church's stance on capital punishment. Perhaps many are not aware of that position. Maintaining a consistent "sacredness of life" - or "pro-life" - position, the various autocephalous churches of worldwide Orthodoxy, reject capital punishment as being inconsistent with that strong "pro-life" orientation. Everyone is free to research the more extensive coverage of that position among the various autocephalous Orthodox Churches.
Keeping this closer to home, I am providing a link to a statement made by the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of North America (July 19, 2022). This statement affirms and confirms the sacredness of life, and it acknowledges only God as the One who is able to give or take life. The paragraph on capital punishment can be found embedded in the larger statement. It is rather brief, but it serves to make the Church's position known.
I cannot but ask the following question: Is the state of Tennessee nursing Christa Pike back to a state of reasonable health, with the goal of attempting to execute her a second time?! That does sounds like "cruel and unusual punishment." The legal opinions that I heard are skeptical of her possible attempt to invoke the legal maneuver of "double jeopardy." We will have to wait to see the outcome of this unprecedented case.
Another highly problematic and possible course of action also stands before us. There is actual planning in the highest circles of our administration to live-stream the execution of the mass killer sentenced to die on December 3, in the state of Texas, by a firing squad. This is something jihadists do, but not something that we do in America. This is all shocking, but are we sufficiently shocked? Who would watch such a spectacle? It may prove to be instructive to know that the countries of the world that today hold public executions are: Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Somalia. Is this company that we desire to keep? We are better than this, so I can only hope that saner minds will prevail.
The Church in her wisdom consistently affirms the sacredness of life, and rejects the four state-sponsored means of taking human life: abortion, euthanasia, war, and capital punishment. In today's troubled world, I believe that this is a position worthy of the life-giving and life-affirming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
Fr. Steven
