Madam, - I totally disagree with the argument put forward by Denis O'Donoghue that as a Christian leader, President Bush has not the right to administer the death penalty (December 31st).
To argue against the death penalty is to contend with constituted reality, for did not God Himself institute and impose the death penalty, embedding it in the very fabric of natural law? At first, God reserved implementing the death penalty of the murderer Cain to Himself (Gen. 4:15). Seeing man continued to kill one another, He finally told Noah: "Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed for man was made in the image of God."
Here God not only sanctions the death penalty but demands that man imposes it. Other passages in Scripture - such as (Deut. 19:21), (Lev 24:16), (Lev. 21:9). (Deut. 17:7), (Num. 35:33) - demand the same thing.
In the New Testament Christ answers Pilate - who has told Him he has the power of life and death over Him - that this power was "given thee from above" (John 19:11).
Now, whereas Mr O'Donoghue says President Bush should not kill a man because he is "a creature bearing the image of God", this is the very reason, as we see above in God's communication with Moses, why murderers should receive their own death penalty.
As the lawful authority, President Bush has God on his side when administering justly the death penalty under his jurisdiction. No doubt such obedience to God is far too traditional for today's enlightened man-centred Church. - Yours, etc.,
JAMES REDMOND O'HANLON, Braemor Road, Dublin 14.
**********
Madam, - Denis O'Donoghue asks what the sincere Christian says about the words of the Attorney General for Ireland, Thomas O'Hagan, in 1861 describing the death penalty as "the earthly annihilation of a creature bearing the image of God".
As an aspiring sincere Christian, I totally agree.
Unfortunately, I have a pressing interest in this barbaric practice as our family friend of 13 years, Johnny L. Robinson, is due for execution on February 4th in Florida, courtesy of a Christmas present from Governor Jeb Bush, brother of the president. Our family has been enriched over the past 13 years by inspiring letters from Johnny from his six feet by nine feet cell (allowed out twice a week for four hours in total exercise), his home for almost 20 years.
His strong Christian faith and Gospel outlook on life have enabled him to remain sane through the many efforts to dehumanise him. How could you take a perfectly healthy human being and kill him unless you were convinced he was less than human?
The Christian life is not easy, but it is simple. Life is precious from the womb to the tomb and no one has a right to destroy it. It is a strange example from a US preaching democracy and standards of decency when these same standards fall far short at home.
Violence begets violence and, as you stated some time ago in an Editorial, to condemn murder by engaging in that very act is indefensible.
Please, at the start of a New Year, let us all work to promote life at all stages. Murder by the state has no place in a civilised society. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs MARY STEWART, Ardeskin, Donegal Town, Co Donegal.