White Supremacist Gang Member Executed for Dragging Texas Man — I almost missed this due to the focus on the Georgia execution.  I am glad to see justice done here.

It seems ironic, though, that the crowd allegedly opposing “hate speech / hate crimes” (I say allegedly because they are the biggest haters in my view) typically oppose the death penalty.  Yet I’m for it in cases like this, so I supported a much stronger penalty than they did.

I repeat: For a crime that epitomizes hate and racism, I supported a stronger penalty than the hate speech / hate crime advocates.  They would typically oppose the punishment that I support.

These news items typically bring out the “Christians should oppose the death penalty” lines.  But the death penalty was God’s idea.  And He never apologized for it, and never overturned it.

Christians can oppose it in practice, if they think that it isn’t being fairly applied, but they shouldn’t oppose it in principle.

The Christians who insist you must oppose the death penalty always end up using bad reasoning. I’ve seen them use “turn the other cheek” (uh, it is hard to do that when you are dead) and other out-of-context passages to support their views.  I addressed this more in two posts — ineffective arguments against capital punishment / somewhat effective arguments against capital punishment.