PACQUIAO'S FLAWED HERMENEUTICS

SENATOR MANUEL PACQUIAO’S FLAWED HERMENEUTICS

When Senator Manny Pacquiao was reported to have addressed the hallowed Halls of the Senate defending the re-imposition of the Death Penalty in our Justice System, the Champion Boxer but mediocre Solon was helplessly  pummeled by quick lightning jabs and killer uppercuts coming from the mob of netizens who attacked him mercilessly for his argument in favor of Capital Punishment, citing our Lord’s execution by means of the torturous and cruel form of ancient Roman capital punishment, the Crucifixion. As to how the Lord’s crucifixion could possibly support the position of the Pro Death Penalty advocates, simply escapes me. His reasoning is hopelessly misplaced, a non sequitur and the Hermeneutics is confused.

One netizen aptly pointed out that the unjust execution of the Lord on that cross of Calvary is the best argument against the Death Penalty. Quite persuasive.

But then we can’t blame the good Senator. He is neither a Lawyer, Moral, Philosopher, much less a Theologian, but in the ring well, we can’t argue with him. He is the People’s Champ. I like him, though, not only because of his genius in the art of pugilism, but also his avid reading of the Bible, God’s word. But back to the Death Penalty issue. 

The issue of capital punishment or state sanctioned execution as penal retribution, is without question, highly debatable. My personal view, as a Christian, has remained unchanged. I am against the imposition of the death penalty simply because this country, is miserably unprepared and ill equipped in assimilating capital punishment in its criminal justice system. Second, I am biased in favor of the doctrine of God’s Grace.

Does Scripture mandate, prohibit, or permit capital punishment? Christians are divided on this issue. There are of course two opposing schools of thought.

The First School of Thought is that Scripture commands the death penalty. To this school of thought belong Senator Pacquiao, his hardline allies in the Upper House and the Lower House, his religious group, the President himself, and the VACC to mention a few.   

The principal argument is that because life is sacred, those who wrongfully take another human life must lose their own lives. This is a form of restitution; Lex Taliones; a matter of justice— the state purging itself of those who shed innocent blood. Proponents of this position cite three Scriptural arguments:

First. Genesis 9:6 says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." This is part of the larger covenant that God made with Noah after the flood. It not only reflects the great value of human life, but also gives the reason for that value: Man is made in God's image. The absolute language of Genesis 9:6 suggests that all those who kill another human being must be killed. And since this mandate was given long before the Mosaic Law to all who survived the flood, it apparently has universal application.

Second. The Law, as given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, ordained execution for several offenses: murder (but not accidental killings), striking or cursing a parent, kidnapping, adultery, incest, bestiality, sodomy, rape of a betrothed virgin, witchcraft, incorrigible delinquency, breaking the Sabbath, blasphemy, sacrificing to false gods, oppressing the weak, and other transgressions. (See Exod. 21, 22, 35; Lev. 20 & 24; Deut. 21-24.)

Third. While no New Testament passage expressly mandates capital punishment, several imply its appropriateness. For example, in Romans 13:1-7 Paul calls his readers to submit to the authority of civil government, reminding them that "if you do wrong, be afraid, for he [the authority] does not bear the sword for nothing." In its ultimate use, the word “sword” implies execution.

The Second School of Thought is the one adhered to by the Pro-Lifers and Oppositors of Capital Punishment. To this group, the Roman Catholic Church is a very strong and vocal advocate, not to mention her humanist leanings. Proponents of this view cite the following Scriptural support:

No question that the Old Testament Law clearly calls for capital punishment, but the developments of the New Testament era supersede the Old Testament Law.

First. Israel was a Theocracy, a nation ruled directly by God. Therefore, its Law was unique. Executing false teachers and those who sacrificed to false gods are examples of provisions that sprang from Israel's unique position as a nation of God called to be holy. When Israel ceased to exist as a nation, its Law was nullified. Even the execution of murderers stemmed, in part, from God's special relationship to Israel. Numbers 35:33 says that the blood of a murder victim "pollutes the land," a pollution that must be cleansed by the death of the murderer. If the murderer could not be found, an animal was to be sacrificed to God to purge the community of guilt (Deut. 21).

Second. Christ's death on the cross ended the requirement for blood recompense and blood sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, replaced the sacrifice of animals. His death also made it unnecessary to execute murderers to maintain human dignity and value because the crucifixion forever established human value. Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

Third. Christ's teaching emphasizes forgiveness and willingness to suffer evil rather than resist it by force. This may not be definitive on the issue of the state's authority to execute, but it does demonstrate a different approach to responding to evil than that established on Mt. Sinai. Christ's example in not demanding death for the adulteress supports this argument (John 8).

Perhaps the most compelling arguments against capital punishment are the examples of capital criminals who were not executed, such as Cain, Moses, and David. And not only did Jesus refuse to condemn the woman caught in adultery, but He also suggested that only those without sin were qualified to perform the execution.

Having said this, we could not find any Scriptural basis to support the view that God opposes the death penalty in all instances. Christians should never rejoice when the death penalty is employed, but at the same time, Christians should not fight against the government’s right to execute the perpetrators of the most evil of crimes.

The question which could possibly spark heated debates in the proposed passage of the Death Penalty Law, which by the way, already existed in the statute books, and then abandoned and now being considered again, is “Does the Death Penalty prove to be an effective deterrent against crime?”

Professor John Donohue of Stanford University claims there is no clear evidence of deterrence. He wrote,   “So what is the evidence on deterrence? Here the answer is clear: there is not the slightest credible statistical evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of homicide. Whether one compares the similar movements of homicide in Canada and the US when only the latter restored the death penalty, or in American states that have abolished it versus those that retain it, or in Hong Kong and Singapore (the first abolishing the death penalty in the mid-1990s and the second greatly increasing its usage at the same), there is no detectable effect of capital punishment on crime. The best econometric studies reach the same conclusion.”

But then again why talk about bringing back the death penalty when death already stalks the nation?