Grace versus Death Penalty

Someone recently wrote in a post in Facebook: "How can someone claim to be a grace preacher and still be in favor of the death penalty? It's a total contradiction. I believe it's time to make this very clear. If we preach grace, then we need to be consistent. Grace & death are poles apart. Grace and love will always protect, even if it means to distance oneself from the perpetrator or protect what is precious to us. Yes, there will be natural consequences to be accountable. South Africa is currently battling with violent crime. Whenever I hear about another rape or farm murder, it is human to be angry and upset. But there is grace for the criminals, even when they have to serve sentence as part of the consequences for their deeds. But there is no grace in an eye for an eye. I have especially targeted my statement to the so-called grace preaching pastors while simultaneously out of the same mouth they speak death. It does not make any sense."

I agree. Grace is not 'an eye for an eye'. Grace is forgiveness. Grace and love keeps no records of wrongs.

Grace and justice are perfectly compatible because justice is not law or legalism, nor is it about punishment or eternal torture. Justice is setting people free from the law and from condemnation. That's true justice.

Grace changes people from the inside out. Judgment or condemnation doesn't change anyone. It only inflicts guilt and creates more trouble in the society.

There are natural consequences for every action. People can learn from their own mistakes. No one will grow up if they are placed under do's and don'ts, or live under threats of punishment, such as the death penalty.

Grace teaches people to learn to take responsibility for their actions and not depend on outward laws. Under grace, all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial. People will learn to love their neighbour and do things that are beneficial because love does no harm to a neighbour.

Grace is also wisdom. Grace means taking measures to keep a distance from those who are abusive, so as to ensure one's own safety. Grace rules, not death penalty.

Those who receive ABUNDANCE of grace and gift of righteousness (or innocence) will reign in life over sin (or ignorance of God's love and of our true identity in Christ) and death (or condemnation).  

Thoughts on Troy Davis' case

I also agree with Troy Davis' view that true justice is about setting the innocent free from an unfair system. Even if a person has been guilty of a crime, the death penalty is not appropriate since it is equivalent to murder. At the most, imprisonment would prevent the person from carrying out further harm, and at the same time the person will have time to reflect and meditate on one's actions. Everyone deserves a second chance. Law and punishment never transform anyone, but only inflicts guilt and shame, which perpetuate problems in the society. I believe grace is the answer, for unconditional love transforms the heart. Hopefully, with the awareness of Troy Davis' case and his supporters' efforts, the death penalty can be removed from the judicial system one day.

Thoughts on commentary by Kevin Powell - "Troy Davis did not die"

I just read a heart-felt commentary by Kevin Powell, a fellow black man who is an activist, writer and public speaker based in New York. His writing resounded with me, especially the final part of his article, as he is also against death penalty. Like him, as much as I am aghast by the failure of justice in Georgia, I too believe Troy's death is not in vain but has created awareness in the world about the urgent need for reform in America's judicial system and change in people's mindset to overlook differences in skin colour. Love and justice shall prevail as we participate together in the movement with his supporters to end death penalty.

The issue of human dignity

It is about the value of human life, therefore death penalty in any form, whether lethal injection or other methods, can never be justified. I remember reading a news article recently which said that just by causing the person to wait for the lethal injection to be ministered would likely to have caused some psychological trauma. I once watched a movie "Dead Man Walking", which shows the actor Sean Penn who played the role of the condemned experiencing great fear and stress at the thought of dying before the execution. Death penalty is cruel and should be abolished for the sake of human dignity.

Update (24 October 2012)

I've been through my own seasons of disillusionment and cynicism about the lack of action and responsibility by the authorities to do something about the state of the world, and I am finding my own way to see what can be done. It is not easy to find hope, though I do see some small progress, such as the recent move by the local government to revise laws on death penalty, for example. It's thanks to my best friend's sharing with me about Troy Davis' case last year that I was eventually inspired to write to the national newspaper forum to abolish death penalty, and I believe this, together with other collective efforts by other activists, have helped make some positive changes in the laws.

[Book Review] "Jehovah Unmasked" by Nathaniel J. Merritt

I read someone's comments in Facebook mentioning about a book called "Jehovah Unmasked". I googled about it and managed to find an abridged version in PDF format. After printing it out last night, I went to sleep as I was tired. I woke up early in the morning about 5 am plus, still thinking about the topic, and decided to read the PDF book - found that it was quite interesting. The author was involved in Jehovah's witness and mainstream christianity for a number of years, before turning to buddhism for 12 years, and then began to study on christian gnosticism. He concluded the Old Testament god is not the true God, and there was no need for penal substitution, nor is there any eternal torment - and that Jesus came to reveal the true God, our heavenly Father, God of Love to us.

Here's sharing some interesting excerpts from the book:

"There are many such commands to fear Jehovah. I ask again, why would a supposedly omnipotent god be so insecure and egotistical as to command mere humans to fear it? The truth is, the real God makes no such commands. The Supreme Being utterly lacks Jehovah’s monumental ego, insecurity, and barbarism. Jehovah is manifestly a phony. He is the liar and the Father of lies! SATAN! The True God is Perfect Love (1 John 4:8, 1 Corinthians 13), hence no one has anything to fear from the Divine because “There is no fear in Love, because Perfect Love casteth out all fear.” (1 John 4:18) Actually, the entire verse reads: “There is no fear in Love; but Perfect Love casteth out all fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” That is crystal clarity. There is no torment or fear in the God who is Perfect Love.

Religious institutions are all about power and control and money. Your fear of God is what gives them power over you. If there is no fear of God, there is no power over you, no control, and no money. It's as simple as that. "Know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free!" (John 8:32). The True God judges or torments no one."

Yes, I believe the truth sets us free from illusion and ignorance, to know God as Love.

Christ came to set us free of the elohim: “And having disarmed the Archons and authorities, Christ disgraced them publicly, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15 NJMV) Jesus Christ also imparted Gnosis (personal experiential Knowing) of the True God of Love, the Most High God, who dwells within us all, yet is covered over by our own ignorance and delusions. Christ did not come with any nonsense about original sin, “divine” wrath, hellfire or any of the other dark and negative lies attributed to him by the Catholic church under the power of Satan/Jehovah. Jesus did not “die for our sins” for the True God does not hold us responsible for the wretched state in which we were created and born, and is not a rageaholic demanding some sort of sadistic “satisfaction” via the agony and torture of blood sacrifice. All such teachings are the doctrines of devils, of the elohim, of Satan/Jehovah. The True God is unconditional Love. The books of the Nag Hammadi Library discuss these matters in greater detail, so I refer the reader to them. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

Yes, I believe Jesus came to set us free from the false god and his lies, and imparts personal experiential knowledge of the true God of Love, the Most High God, who dwells within all of us. I remember Jesus said that eternal life is knowing the one true God (our heavenly Father, not the Old Testament god), and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

The word "enemy" occurs 96 times, "enemies" 251 times, "wrath" 139 times, "anger" 229 times, "rage" 18 times, "destroy" 230 times, and "kill" 82 times in connection with Jehovah in the Old Testament. I ask you; why would an  all-powerful, all wise, all good Loving God have enemies?

That's true, if the true God who is all powerful, all wise and all good and loving has enemies, why would Jesus pray "Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing"? Instead, Jesus might as well have prayed "O Lord of hosts, may you smite these Roman soldiers who nailed me to the cross and these Pharisees for mocking me". But yea, the fact that Jesus prayed to the Father for forgiveness shows that our heavenly Father is definitely different from the petty and vengeful god of the old testament - our heavenly Father is Love, and Love keeps no records of wrongs. Jesus understood that the Romans and the Jews crucified him out of their ignorance and blindness by the religious Old Testament god.

Hopelessness Leads to New Hope

I think hopelessness is part of the journey when we realise that the past religious notions about God that we have been fed by the institutional church systems are no longer valid or true. I agree with the view that by removing God (which would refer to the religious kind of God that is controlling and petty) gives us the ability to live life, and there is a lot of hope found in life. The analogy of death and resurrection came to mind - for every death, there will be a resurrection. In this case, I think hopelessness is a form of death when people realise that the popular view of God of the Bible turns out to be false or unable to be proven. But through that death, people will then be free from religion, and experience a resurrection of hope, when they realise that the illusionary kind of god with its mythical threats of hell and wrath can no longer bind them with fear and condemnation, and they can live their life freely, lightly and boldly, enjoying friendship, intelligence, rationality, nature, physics, beauty, even things like suffering and tears, which make up the richness and diversity of all that life is.

Similarly, I remember learning about the story of the two disciples who were walking to Emmaus and they met Jesus after His resurrection. Initially, they didn't recognise Him - they were dejected when news spread about Jesus who died like any other man, and it seems like "God" has failed to prove himself. Like them, we experience that hopelessness, when we don't know what to believe anymore, when nothing seems to prove that God exists. It can be a difficult thing to accept. But as the story goes, when the disciples' eyes were later open (spiritually), they realised who Jesus was, and He disappeared. In the same way, I believe through that hopelessness and removal of the religious god concept from our consciousness, we are ripe for understanding God in a new way - one that is not known literally or by the senses, but is known intuitively, subjectively, esoterically.

The author of the book "Conscious Love - Insights from Mystical Christianity" wrote in the Introduction:

"According to esoteric teaching, many of the ideas expressed in Christianity are not and were never meant to be taken as literal truths but refer to states of consciousness 'further in' ourselves. Even the story of Christ is not to be taken at face value; rather it symbolises our own predicament and destiny as humans. The God-man is born on earth; he lives and works and plays his part on the stage of history. He is crucified in wretchness and humiliation on a cross known as time and space. Ultimately, however, it does not matter. He is resurrected in a higher, purer form because what is truly real in him can never die; it can only be transformed.

This is the story of Christ. It is our story as well. Intuitively we know it to be so, and it is a fact, rather than the endless proselytising and self-aggrandisement of the faith's innumerable sects and denominations, that I believe most truly accounts for the enormous success of Christianity around the world. If we have some more conscious glimpse of this truth - and probably we will never have more than glimpses - we will not only know ourselves better but be able to love better. This is the central idea that I hope to explore in this work."

Yea, I think any worthy fruit of any spiritual study, whether of books or people's views, or at least from our own experiences, would be unconditional love. At the end of the day, I think it doesn't really matter whether we have all the right answers about God, because there are also people who are illiterate or have never read a sacred book, being born in a village, for example, and who can demonstrate love, kindness and acceptance. If any teaching about God results in a more loving community, in which people live loved and loving others, then I would say well and good - that teaching would sit well with me.

If there is a God, surely He is big enough to handle all our misgivings and doubts, and continue to love us immensely and infinitely

"A man of peace" - Osho

"A man of peace is not a pacifist; a man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world, he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way, his very way of life is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. Whomsoever he touches, he creates more loving energy. The man of peace is creative." - OSHO 

I agree with the power and purpose of a man (or woman) of peace in being creative and sending positive energy of grace and compassion. As a saying goes, "Still water runs deep." A man or woman of peace is usually one who spends time meditating and contemplating, and in the process is able to process information and come to a better understanding of how things are - "Be still and know I am". We are love, we are grace, we are the infinite. Peace gives us the stability to withstand any storm from the outside. We also see our own reflection (of our true godly nature) the clearest on still, tranquil water.

CON/science

I think the word "CON/science" is a creative play on the spelling and captures the essence of many religious teachings about the human "conscience". Yes, religion majors on the art of pricking people's conscience to the point it becomes a science of conning people to think there is something wrong with them and they need to fast, confess sins and/or do a thousand and one things to appease a displeased deity. It plays on people's guilt and fear of rejection, abandonment and punishment.

The preaching of penal substitution view of the cross doesn't really alleviate guilt either; it only perpetuates the illusion of an imaginary god with anger and ego problems. Hence, I believe when Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, He was saying that the truth will make us free from illusion, guilt, shame, fear and condemnation.

What is truth? 

Some evangelical christians think that telling the truth is telling people they will go to hell if they don't believe in Jesus. That's not truth because truth is synonymous with grace. Truth is about being free from illusion and ignorance. The good news is about God's unconditional love and our true identity in Him.

I also have been thinking about the question Pontius Pilate asked Jesus. After Jesus had told him "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice", Pilate asked "What is truth?" I believe Jesus was saying those whose eyes have been opened to see the kingdom of God within themselves have known the truth, and therefore they hear His voice of love, grace and mercy. Those who were under religion (including the Pharisees) and world system (including the Roman governor) were still living in illusion and ignorance. They neither knew God as unconditional love nor knew their true identity.

When Jesus began preaching the gospel in Israel, He was essentially warning the Jews that in the days to come, there would be no more temple and no more sacrificial system. What then would the Jews do to get right with God (or at least they thoughts so)? They would probably experience a sense of alienation and condemnation when these outward rituals ceased to be. In the same way, today's religions still very much depend on outward rituals, like going to "church" etc, to get in the good books of "god". It's living in illusion. Truth is the antidote to illusion.

Truth is not con/science. Truth says we are already innocent, already blameless, beloved and favoured.