HQ

"Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man" (Genesis 9:6)  Genesis 9:6 is a standard text used to support the principle of lex talionis (a life for a life). In this case, those who murder shall be killed. Although there is some debate over whether the text indicates that the one who kills is man or God, the principle is clear: those who commit murder deserve death. As Bruce Waltke points out, such a payment is a demand of God: “This is an obligation, not an option… Blood shed through homicide must be dealt with.” [1] Waltke argues that the obligation to punish murderers carries through to the prescriptions for atoning sacrifices in the Old Testament: “If the blood is not compensated by capital punishment or atoned for, it brings the Lord’s judgment on the land (Deut 19:13; 2 Sam 21:1; 1 Kings 2:9, 31-33).” [2] The central demand God makes is for lifeblood and comes in the context of a dietary restriction, namel...

"Lock 'em up!" Punishment, in our culture, conjures up images of a Dickensian, authoritarian and bleak society, one marked by shouting and hitting. While there is no doubt that evil people use punishment as an excuse for cruelty, I'd like to suggest that punishment itself is morally justified. Much as I'd like a world without punishment, I don't think we can have it if that same world has moral evil in it. So, I'd like to go against the grain: punishment is right, not always and not every kind and certainly not with hatred in the heart, but justified in a fundamental way. Actually, I'd like to go a tad further and suggest that punishment is a duty that obliges certain people in certain roles to carry out actions against wrong-doers and that punishment can harm or deprive wrong-doers in certain limited ways. Just ask yourself this: when someone does something wrong, a criminal perhaps, or a naughty child, or a truant student, what is the right re...