Posted by Dave on 05/25/07 at 04:54:08 pm
Categories: Capital Punishment, Non-violence

James Loney: "I won't testify against my abductors" [hat tip God's Politics]:

I cannot participate in a judicial process where the prospects of a fair trial are negligible, and more crucially, where the death penalty is a possibility. The death penalty is the legalization of blood vengeance. It is a cruel, degrading and irrevocable judgment. Take away the fancy legal rationale and the dignified court proceedings and what remains is an act of murder, plain and simple, no different than what was done to Tom Fox. Capital punishment is a manifestation of the very violence it claims to deter. Those who kidnapped us and murdered Tom were swept into a vicious cycle of violence and retribution for violence that was put in motion in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq and its continuing occupation.
...
We want to see an end to all killing, regardless of the reason. Capital punishment is simply the legal face of the dead-end cycle of violence and retribution for violence that is destroying Iraq. We want to see something genuinely new and different, a future that begins with the power of forgiveness.

James Loney was one of the four members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) who were kidnapped in Iraq, eventually leading to the murder of Tom Fox.

There are some who will never understand the idea of forgiveness. There are some who will also believe in the myth of redemptive violence. But Loney and his fellow CPT members are a clear example of grace lived out. They are an example of what it means to be "genuinely new and different." They are attempting to show the power of forgiveness.

Death will never redeem. Forgiveness and grace can.

When will the never-ending cycle of violence and retribution end?

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