Anti-Death Penalty Crowd's New Trick

The Northern elitist anti-death penalty crowd is determined to impose its will on the citizens of Southern and Western States with an arrogant disregard for the laws passed by Southern and Western Legislatures. This is an old Yankee trick – using the Federal courts to accomplish what the Northern elitists can never accomplish through the ballot box. With the overwhelming majority of citizens of Southern and Western States, as well as a the majority of citizens in a significant number of Northern States, in favor of capital punishment for murderers and those who commit a small number of other heinous crimes, the Yankee elitists have resorted to using the Federal courts to stop executions in Kentucky, Texas, and other States in recent months by claiming that lethal injection, the preferred method of capital punishment in modern America, is a cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore unconstitutional. What is unconstitutional is Federal meddling in the affairs of a Sovereign State.

The claim that lethal injection causes some momentary pain to the condemned is such a transparent ploy that even the U.S. Supreme Court ought to acknowledge it for what it is – an attack on the right of the people, acting through their elected State Legislatures, to invoke the ultimate penalty, capital punishment, for those who willfully take the life of another human being, or commit such other crimes as are deemed so egregious as to merit the death penalty. For Southerners and Westerners, capital punishment is deeply rooted in their Christian beliefs. Genesis 9:6 states, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” (KJV) The English Standard Version of the Bible, a more recent and improved translation, puts it this way, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Southerners and Westerners understand that a murderous attack on another human being is tantamount to an attack on God Himself, since God made human beings in His own image. To attack the image bearer is to attack the Creator of the image bearer.

Southerners understand that, as Christians, our Savior, Jesus Christ, abolished the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament – it is no longer necessary to offer sacrifices, and keep other ceremonial laws, since Christ Himself was sacrificed on the cross in fulfillment of the Law. However, the moral laws of the Old Testament are still valid, and still apply to us today. The Ten Commandments haven’t become the “ten suggestions”. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:18, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (KJV) Again, the English Standard Version provides us with a more understandable modern translation: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (The ‘jot’ and the ‘tittle’ are the smallest marks used in writing in Hebrew.) What Jesus teaches us is that, while the Gospel frees us from the power of the Law to condemn us to eternal damnation, the Law still provides us with:

1) A check on the behavior of sinners. This is the Christian Doctrine explained by Dr. Martin Luther in the 16th Century, when he spoke of the Kingdom of the Left Hand (the state) and the Kingdom of the Right Hand (the church), both of which have been established by God to rule in the realms He has assigned to them. The sword is given to the State to punish evildoers who violate civil laws, such as the laws against murder. (The sword means any of the sanctions that the State may impose, and enforce by violence, if necessary. This includes warnings, fines, imprisonment, being barred from office, etc.)

2) A mirror to show us how far from God’s standard of perfection our own behavior falls. For only when we see how utterly we fail in meeting God’s standard are we driven to despair of ever winning eternal salvation by our own merits, and we are ready to receive the Gospel and learn that it isn’t by our merits, but by the merit of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, crucified and dead on the cross on Good Friday, but risen and alive on Easter and forevermore, that we are freely given eternal salvation.

3) A guide to show us how we should live out our new found freedom in Christ, by delighting in pleasing God who has not spared even His Only Son, but has done everything necessary for our eternal salvation, out of His boundless love for us and His mercy – none of which we deserve, but which we receive by God’s unfathomable grace. We strive to obey the moral laws that God has established for our good, even though we know that we will often fall short. For by obeying God’s laws, we show our love for God to the sinful world, and so draw others to Christ, as they are moved by the Holy Spirit.

When we, as Christian Southerners or Westerners, through our elected State Legislatures, pass laws that impose the death penalty for murderers, we are acting in accordance with our Christian Faith and in obedience to the Holy Bible, which is the Word of God. As Dr. Luther said, “The prince does not bear the sword for nothing.” In the 21st Century, our individual Sovereign States have taken the place of the prince of the 16th Century. Nevertheless, Dr. Luther’s words are still true – it is not for nothing that our States have been given the power to impose the death penalty.

To oppose the Federal tyranny embodied in the Supreme Court’s interference in purely State matters, we appeal to the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The interference by the Federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, in the right of the Sovereign States to impose capital punishment, under the thin tissue of lies that they are doing so to uphold the constitutional rights of murderers to avoid cruel and inhuman punishment, is a vile and unconscionable action that tramples on the principle that government derives its just power from the consent of the governed. We have given our consent, through our elected State Legislatures, to carry-out the death sentences that our State Courts have imposed. We have given no such consent to the Federal Courts to interfere. Nor have we given our consent for the U.S. Supreme Court to use a transparent subterfuge, in the form of objections to lethal injection, to carry water for the Yankee elitists who oppose capital punishment for their own immoral secular humanist reasons.

Today, the Federal Government is answerable only to itself. It has taken on all the trapping of an imperial tyrannical ruler – little different from the role played by King George III when Thomas Jefferson penned our Declaration of Independence. The Founding Fathers were wary of the tendency toward tyranny inherent in allowing a strong, central government. So when they later adopted the United States Constitution, they left it open to the Sovereign States that acceded to that Constitution to also secede when and if they determined that the actions of the Federal government were inimical to the interests of the citizens of such States. Only when the individual States have the power to secede is there any check on the tendency of the central Federal Government to become tyrannical. Knowing that certain actions will lead to certain States seceding, the Federal Government will be inclined to refrain from such actions. A respect for State Sovereignty and the right of a Sovereign State to secede is the only possible check on Federal Government Tyranny. The Federal Government will become answerable to the people, and seek to regain the consent of the governed as embodied in the acts of the Sovereign States’ Legislatures, only when those Sovereign States once more assert their right to secede from the Union.

In the wake of the Southern defeat in the War for Southern Independence, the Yankee elitists illegally added the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. That Amendment abrogated many of the rights that the Founding Fathers had fought and sometimes died for in the Revolutionary War for American Independence. It is now up to the Governors, Legislatures, and Courts of the Sovereign States to declare the 14th Amendment null and void, and to once more assert their right to secede from the Union, as a check and balance on the growing tyranny of the Federal Government, and the Yankee elitists who maintain a tight grip on the levers of Federal power. Absent such action, we will become increasingly oppressed by taxation, by laws and regulations that interfere with our personal liberty, by activist Federal Courts that trample on State Sovereignty, and by imperial foreign adventurism and entanglements that imperil our safety and our way of life.

Twelve states prohibit the death penalty. All are Northern States, plus Hawaii. Several more Yankee States retain the death penalty, but do not impose it. All of the Southern and Western States have retained the death penalty and continue to impose it when a crime calls for capital punishment. The method of carrying out the death penalty is lethal injection in all but one of the 38 States that impose capital punishment. Nebraska still uses electrocution. The Federal Government’s attack on lethal injection is an attack on State Sovereignty and the consent of the governed. Now is the time for the States to once more assert their Sovereignty by ignoring the illegal orders of Federal Courts, and proceeding with scheduled executions. By doing so, they will be striking a blow to end the growing tyranny of the Federal Government and restore the right of the people to choose for themselves the form of government that they believe most likely to secure their safety and happiness.

Sic Semper Tyrannis!