Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In his confessions, Augustine tells of Alpia, a friend who despised the gladiatorial games because of their barbaric public killings. His friends dragged him to the arena anyway, and though he tried to shield his eyes, the excitement of the event eventually got the better of him.
Soon, Alpia, drunk on the bloodlust, became an enthusiastic fan, returning repeatedly, bringing friends. This tragic story of succumbing to temptation is relevant again, given the recent controversy surrounding the scheduled. December the third, execution of convicted Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan. While Secretary of War Pete Hegseth initially said the death by firing squad would be live streamed so people would know the consequences for such actions, the idea was ultimately rejected. And this uproar about whether or not to live stream an execution in the U.S.
raises interesting questions about the death penalty. In their book *By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed*, scholars Ed Feaser and Joseph Bessett offer. Biblical, historical, and philosophical defense of the death penalty. The book's title comes from Genesis 9:6, that whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. They also discuss Romans 13, which affirms the state's right to bear the sword against a wrongdoer.
In addition to these traditional arguments that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to violent crime and restores the balance of justice, the authors also noted that in 2012, which was the year with the most recent available data for when their book was written, one quarter of the 43 people executed by the state came to believe in God before their execution. For example, one double murderer told his mother before his execution that, and I quote. This is the only way that God could save me. In a nutshell, for Feaser and Besat, the death penalty serves the common good.
However, to live stream an execution certainly raises additional questions. In a culture that seems increasingly drawn to the grotesque and the outlandish, and where liking and sharing are so encouraged as virtuous activities, live streaming an execution simply makes it a spectacle. The Bible addresses this almost directly in a passage in Deuteronomy, and I quote: "If a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he's put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree. You shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance." In other words, even in a lawful execution, the image of God should not be degraded by leering eyes.
Or leaving it to pray. And this command is in sharp contrast to the norms of the ancient world, even where capital punishment was not allowed, but even common for God's people, desecration mattered. And today, a distinction has to be made between an execution being public, which can serve the common good, and it being live-streamed. Reportedly, Hassan's execution will now be viewable for immediate families of the victims, but it will not be streamed around the globe. That's a good thing, as no postman warned decades ago.
And amusing ourselves to death, television and now live streaming revalues basically how we view everything, including human life and dignity, according to its "quote unquote" entertainment value. The church can help the broader culture understand the worldview implications and the soberness of crime and punishment, including the death penalty. Chuck Colson himself wrestled with capital punishment for years, concerned that the justice system was prone to mistakes, which would lead to executing the innocent. His perspective was. Changed when he read C.S.
Lewis's essay "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," in which Lewis argued that it strips man of his dignity as a free moral agent to treat his criminal behavior as only the result of being sick or in need of therapy. Lewis wrote, and I quote: "To be punished, however severely, because we've deserved it, because we ought to have known better, is to be treated as a human person made in God's image." And quote Chuck Colson wrote in response to the essay: "I realized that this went to the heart of a central precept of Judeo-Christian belief." The scriptures teach that people are responsible for their own behavior. The object of justice is to balance the scales of justice, and sometimes the only way to do that is to give the offender his just deserts—capital punishment. By removing the live stream, the dignity of Hassan as a human being is preserved, even as he receives justice for his actions, while shielding others from indulging in their own base desire for bloodlust or vengeance. To be just, the execution of Hassan cannot be about therapy or vengeance or about spectacle.
It has to be about justice and the preservation of human dignity. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Andrew Carico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to Breakpoint.org.
Hey, John Stone Street here. I want to say thanks for listening to Breakpoint, and I want to invite you to the 2027 Colson Center National Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 4th to the 6th, 2027. This year, we're going to talk all about what it means to pursue wisdom. We live in an age of information overload, and it's easy to confuse information or the access to information with wisdom. But as the church, God calls us to pursue with With urgency, and even better, he promises to always provide wisdom when we ask for it.
At the Colson Center National Conference 2027, we're going to be joined by speakers like Dr. Robbie George, Malcolm Gaite, Amy Orr Ewing, Henry Kastner, and more. These folks can equip us on how to apply God's wisdom across our lives and our various spheres of influence, and across the cultural challenges that. Face us in this moment. You don't want to miss it.
Please register before November 30th so you can receive up to 50 off ticket prices. We sold out last year. I'm expecting we will sell out again.
So don't miss this special deal before November 30th. For more details, go to colsonconference.org. That's colsonconference.org.
