Capital Punishment- Why not?

In my second blog article on capital punishment, I talked about what the Bible says on the issue. My conclusion was that Scripture is more for the retention, and not abolition, of the death penalty. Now, I've turned to the ethical reasons for not having capital punishment. For the most part, I've researched why there should not be capital punishment because the reasons for it are mostly based on a Judeo-Christian basis. The Old and New Testament are clear that if someone takes a life, the state has the permission from God to take the life of the perpetrator in return. Other arguments for the use of the death penalty include it is a deterrent, and it ensures the offender will never harm anyone again. There is also a third argument that I will address in the next blog article. 

Abolitionists look at these arguments and shake their heads for the most part. To them the arguments for the use of capital punishment are more in theory and not reality. Does killing people because they killed people, really deter people from going on to kill more people? Well, in the southern states the answer is a no because they carry out 80% of executions in the country and they are the ones with the highest murder rate. The 12 states that no longer practice capital punishment have the lowest crime rates. If capital punishment was really a deterrent, one would think that it would be the 12 abolitionist states and not the southern states. 

In the mind of 88% of the criminologists, the death penalty is not a deterrence to people committing homicide.  

In the public view, only 2% of the people said that insufficient use of the death penalty was an interference to effective law enforcement, while the top two causes of interference were alcohol and substance abuse, and lack of law enforcement resources.  61% of people opted for alternatives sentences for the death penalty. According to the public, life without parole and restitution is the best punishment for capital crime. Obviously, as Largo64 said in his video on the electric chair, "Capital punishment has never been a deterrent to capital crime." Is there a real deterrent to people committing any crime? A question for another blog article. 

Does the death penalty ensure that the offender will never harm anyone ever again? The obvious answer is yes. Corpses cannot commit capital or any other type of crime unless they are brought back to life, and no one has and no one will try to bring an executed criminal back to life.  Unfortunately the death penalty also removes the hope that an innocent person wrongfully convicted will ever be free. 

Corrupt court officials, lousy defense attorneys, questionable investigation by the police, and/or poor evidence can result in an innocent person being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DIPC) 138 people have been released from death row since 1973 because their innocence was proven.  It also quotes, "There is no way to tell how many of the over 1,000 people executed since 1976 may also have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead. Defense attorneys move on to other cases where clients' lives can still be saved." Innocent people can be let out of jail, but they cannot be brought back from the dead. One example of a potentially innocent woman being executed is Francis Newton:

Video 1: R.I.P Frances Newton - Innocent Woman Executed by Texas

Video 2: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Mrs. Preston

Video 3: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Gloria Rubac

Video 4: Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Kofi Taharka

Other Miscarriages of justice

Another problem with capital punishment that was presented in the videos were the prejudices of the criminal justice system in the USA. First, there are no rich people on death row. The people who committed the worst crime imaginable and be convicted of non-capital murder or lesser charges are the ones with the best defense lawyers in the country. Second, the person has a better chance if their skin is white. According to the DIPC, 42% of death row inmates are black, which is 2% less than white inmates. 35% of executed prisoners were black and 76% of the victims in all cases where the prisoner was executed were white, while only 15% of black victim cases resulted in the execution of the perpetrator. Finally, if you are a woman your luck is a lot better as only 12 women have been executed since 1976 and since April, 2010 they only take up 1.9% of the death row inmates. It's unfortunate that Francis Newton's gender did not save her from being executed. 

It seems that justice in the 38 states that have capital punishment has a racial and gender preference, does it not? The fact of the matter is that it is human beings who are sentencing criminals. The human beings doing the sentencing will never be 100% objective. Often the the prejudices, emotions, and the thirst for vengeance  of the jury will be what seals a defendants doom. 

The above determining factors also affect what methods of execution are used. Currently lethal injection is used in all 38 retention states, along with electrocution, hanging, gas chamber and/or firing squad. All of these methods have been in and still are in heated debates over whether they are considered cruel and unusual punishments. Another method of execution is in debate too but it is not over whether it is too cruel and/or unusual. Not only does it flush out perhaps the real motivations behind the people for the use of capital punishment, but it also questions whether or not capital punishment is justice served or revenge extracted. Here in these two YouTube videos, those questions are answered:

Video 5: Last part of a BBC Documentary Titled How to Kill a Human Being

Video 6: Largo64's Video about a Humane Method of execution that may never be used

As you can see from these videos, executing prisoners maybe more about extracting revenge and not justice being served. What is the criminal justice system really saying to people when it executes a prisoner? Is it saying that killing people is wrong, or that revenge is OK? Is it saying don't commit capital crime because it is morally and legally wrong; or don't commit capital crime if you're male, poor, and/or black because the state will kill you? Does capital punishment correct society's problems or bring them to the surface? 

Good questions and they require another blog post for me to answer them.

Reference List

DPIC. (2011, July 22). Fact Sheet. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf

Largo64. (2009, August 6). Death Penalty Methods Electric Chair. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mZecq-hdzY

Largo64. (2009, December 4). There IS a Humane Method of Execution: And it may never be used. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQPA5Rniodk&feature=related

Moody, N. (Producer), & Portillo, M. (Director). (2009). How to Kill a Human Being Part 5 [Motion Picture].

Preston, M. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Mrs. Preston. (omradiocom, Interviewer)

Rubac, G. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Gloria Rubac. (omradiocom, Interviewer)

Stop Executions. (2009, May 1). R.I.P Frances Newton - Innocent Woman Executed by Texas. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opXktwKAN14&feature=related

Taharka, K. (2005, September 14). Frances Newton - day of Execution - interview Kofi Taharka. (omradiocom, Interviewer)

I'm putting a reference list in because I used a variety of sources and it is time for me to start getting 

back into school mode and when you are at school you source your material!

Response to the Meeting House Road Trip

I love going to the movies with my friends. I love the time spent together. I love the race for tickets and the search for good seats. I love standing and talking as we buy the popcorn and pop and making fun of all the pre-movie stuff on screen. I love anticipation that comes when the "Our Feature Presentation" comes on the screen. I love being able to sit and enjoy the movie and being able to be with people without having to interact or talk. Finally, I love talking about the movie at the end. The movie theater was designed for people, young and old, to socialize and to get away from everyday life. It is a place to have fun, be together, and reflect and be by yourself at  the same time.

Is the movie theater a good place to do church? Can a church benefit from a theater environment? I think so because the theater is a place where personal growth and reflection, and fellowship and  community come together and complement each other perfectly.

The theater environment encourages focusing on the main message/feature presentation, with  room for socializing and thinking before, during (minus socializing), and after. Furthermore, it appeals to the un-churched people because the movie theater does not say church in the traditional sense, it says church in the crazy and outside the norm. Since the norms and impressions that come with traditional church turn-off  a lot of un-churched people, the theater can bring these people into a spiritual environment and an encounter with Jesus Christ that excludes the excess and uneeded baggage.

Last Sunday, LifeSprings Christian Fellowship went on a road trip to The Meeting House church at the Empire Theater at Sportsworld. I thought it was a good experience and I enjoyed it. What's nice about a theater is that it keeps people, like me, focused. When you have aspergers like I do, you can be easily distracted in certain environments and completely focused in others. For me, the theater keeps me focused and helps me concentrate on the service and on the message being presented.  It also allows me to be in a social environment and be comfortable because it's in an environment where I can be social and in my own world at the same time. The Meeting House captured both of those elements and I think they greatly used to their advantage. I also liked that everyone else was focused on the message as soon as the sermon started. I was very comfortable in it.

I think that LifeSprings is making a good choice in moving to the theater. The next road trip is to another LifeChurch campus in Niagara Falls. I look forward to it because a) it's a road trip b) I think it'll be a better example of what Church in a Theatre, LifeSprings style will look like and c) it's always fun to go to Niagara Falls. So, I enjoyed this field trip and I look forward to the next one!

My Life with Aspergers (Revised)

When I was 13 years old I was diagnosed with a mild form of asperger syndrome, which is a high functioning autism. People with aspergers have an average to high IQ, have trouble understanding non-verbal cues and social norms, can be obsessive-compulsive, and can have physical clumsiness and an atypical use of language. People with it are usually very strong introverts, which can get to the point where we can spend hours- even days- without any social contact and not give it a 2nd thought.

Aspergers did not make my grade school career easy because I was certainly not normal. When I first received my diagnosis I hated it because to me it was like I had a disease for which there was no cure. Because I've grown and matured as a young woman and as a Christian, I am comfortable and OK with it. I am even sometimes thankful that God gave me aspergers because it gives  me an independent streak that has gotten me out of sticky situations.

Prior to entering post-secondary education, my social life was null for the most part. I had only 1 friend during high school, and everyone else disregarded me. Everything changed when I started university, because people are much more tolerant and accepting of those who are different in terms of their physical, mental, and social limitations. It also helped that I was blessed to have a mild form of aspergers to the point where there are times when even I forget that I have it! Unfortunately, my memory returns every Sunday because I find that no matter what church I go to, I always get uncomfortable being around all those people.

For me, going to church is hell because it's constant social interaction and I feel very uncomfortable when I am run into the kind of social interaction I get at church. Often this discomfort gets to the point where I want to run out the door. This is in sharp comparison to how I feel when I'm at school and around my peers.  Like church, my school is a strong Christian environment that is designed to foster and encourage spiritual growth as well as academic growth because it is a Bible College. Part of the reason I'd much rather be socializing with my peers is that I have a lot more reasons to do so than just for the sake of socializing.

The majority of people who have aspergers, like me, do not naturally socialize. For example, the first thing I want to do after my last exam before the summer is to go to my room and play my video games alone and not go hang out with my friends. Another example is that as soon as we're done opening Christmas presents, my first impulse is to wander off and look at the things I received by myself instead of hanging around with my family.  I find that my friends at school are more comfortable with me preferring to go off on my own  as than my family is. I've also found that my church family is like my earthly family in that it was more designed for the extroverts and natural socializers as opposed to the introverts and natural loners. This is something I've observed over the years between the different social circles I interact with. This lack of understanding can be frustrating at times, because a lot of the people I interact with on a regular basis have known that I have aspergers for a long time but seem to choose to not acknowledge it.

Going to church, talking with people after class, or going to a family reunion means I have to fight a large part of me that does not want to socialize. It's not those social groups themselves that make me want to run away, but the socializing. What causes me to warm up to socializing a lot more is when the people who I socialize with understand me. My current friends at school do understand me in more ways then 1. First, we all have Jesus Christ in common. What's nice about going to a Bible College like Emmanuel is that almost everybody's first and most important priority is their faith in Jesus Christ (I say almost because there are people who go there, where Jesus Christ is at the bottom of their priorities). Not only does that make them more understanding, I also find that it is what causes them to be more celebrating and more appreciative of differences because they all believe God created people to be different. Second, they understand me because we are a part of the same generation so our interests, values, and experiences within society as a whole are pretty much the same. Third, they are some of the few people I've met that have really tried to understand what it means to have aspergers. I've encountered people, both family and non-family, who've ignored it, tried to explain it away or make it less than what it is, have tried to cure me and make it go away, say they understand it but refuse to make some accommodations for it, fail to see how I can be better than my diagnosis, and/or they pick and choose what parts of it they'll accept and then lose patience or disregard the rest. Not my friends at school.

I have to be honest, about 50% of the stuff in the list has come from my earthly family. This has turned my off interacting with a lot of people in my heavenly/Christian family because if I can't find some degree of tolerance and understanding in my earthly family then why should I expect to find it in my heavenly family? Tolerance and understanding, something that so many people who have a liberal view of things advocate for, yet I've had to fight for and I am still fighting for in my mostly liberal family... and a family that will probably deny this completely when and if they read this but can they really get mad at me for commenting on what I've observed and experienced over the years? Not really. And they should know it's not just them. I've received this kind of treatment from people I've met at church too and from my non-church friends.Furthermore, they have loved in ways that my peers in all walks of my life have fallen short in and they do understand me in ways that my peers don't.

The need for understanding is something that I don't get at church. First, a lot of the people that talk to me are not in my age group. Although, we do have Jesus Christ in common, there is a difference between how Jesus interacts with someone in their mid-life and older as opposed to how He interacts with young adults. God meets people where they are at, and there is a difference between where a 20 year old and 40 year-old are at. Second, I find that a lot of people at church want to get to know me on a more personal level too quickly. This would not be so bad if they didn't automatically ask me really personal questions, like how I came to know the Lord. My faith story is a bit more personal than others, and  it doesn't make sense if I try to leave the more personal parts out. If you combine that with the impression I have that if you don't give them an answer, you are looked down upon.

This is true about your faith story, and even about whether you are completely honest about your week on say the first day of a small group. If I don't want to share, I don't want to share. If I don't want to hug people, I don't want to hug people. At school I have the option to share or hug people, or to not share and hug people. At church, I don't think I really have that choice or I'm frowned upon if I choose to exercise it and keep quiet about my life or refuse to hug someone. No, for people like me, we need time to get to know people more and develop real trust. I will never be comfortable sharing my faith story with someone I've only known for 5 minutes, it's as simple as that.

Another thing that turns me off is hugging. Again, if I've only known you for 5 minutes or a couple of days, I don't want to be hugged by you. Unfortunately, I almost always get the impression that talking and hugging are not optional but required in order to be a a part of the community. When I'm with my friends at school I am allowed to say Please go away or I really don't want to talk right now. People at school know when and how to keep their distance, and  they still welcome me into the community as their friend! Why can't church be like that too? People at church , and a lot of other Christian-specific places never understand that I have boundaries and they never figure it out when they are crossing them. And when they want to hug me, they just hug me! There is no seeing whether I want to accept the invitation or not, they just hug and expect me to hug back. Then I try to figure out on Saturday night why  I want to do church on Sunday morning, because there are plenty of reasons why I do not.

Another thing that really gets me mad is that people will read a blog article like this, see me reject their hug, and/or my refusing to talk and they get all mad and look down upon me even though whether I do or don't do those above things is my choice to make. It was always me who was going to see the guidance counsellor while I was in elementary school, or I was the one who needed to change and learn to ignore people, and not my peers who treated me like I was less than crap every single day. This seems to be true about a lot of things: I'm the one who is always wrong and always has the problem, and never the people I am interacting with. In fact this is true for people who have a disability or a syndrome that affects how we socialize and interact with other people- it's always the person who's an introvert, or the one with aspergers, or the one who's blind, or the one who has autism who always has the problem in any situation and never the people who want to hug us, talk to us, tease us, and/or ignore us.

Ah Saturday night. It's the night where the battle over whether I should make the trek to church occurs every week. Sometimes I'm at church the following morning and sometimes I'm not. It's a battle that only fellow brothers and sisters with aspergers would understand. It gets annoying when people who don't have aspergers try to give me advice about how "fix" my tendencies and help me "win" my Saturday evening battle. I know, at least I think I know, that you all want to help but with all do respect, you don't know what you're talking about. Aspergers is not a disease that is affecting my body and once the disease is removed everything goes back to normal. Aspergers is a part of my being that affects everything, including my relationship with God, and it is something that cannot really be "cured". It is controllable and it can be managed, but all the control and management in the world won't get rid of it completely.

 I just want to say that I have never been hurt by the church. Part of the reason people at church are not more careful and cautious around me is because a lot of people at church don't know that I have it because it is something that I don't share right away. In fact, sometimes I forget I have it because there are times when I am perfectly comfortable with socializing and I act relatively "normal" until I do something that's socially unorthodox. Then I think to myself, Why did I do that...? Oh yeah, I have aspergers- Damn you! In a lot of ways, the church has helped me a lot because God uses it to push me outside of my comfort zone and improve my social skills. It's also one of the few work places that shows more mercy when my aspergers comes out. 

If I could summarize how aspergers has affected my so far 21 years of life, I would use the opening to one of Charles Dickens' greatest works, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."- Opening paragraph of a "Tale of Two Cities".

You are probably noticing that I talk about me and my aspergers like they're separate people. That's because aspergers is a part of me but it is not me. Just like when Paul talks about his or the flesh he is referring to something that is in him and is a part of him, but it is separate from and is not him. The only Person I ever want to be defined by is Jesus Christ. A part from Him nothing, including aspergers, really matters. In Christ, everything falls into balance and aspergers falls into its rightful place.   Finally, it is only by trusting in Christ that I can continually be better than I already am.

As my life continues, I hope to strive to be better than who I am now. This is true in my relationship with God, my relationship with others, and my relationship with my aspergers. I like to consider myself like Captain Picard and the android, Data in Star Trek: Nemesis. In the movie, Data discovers a prototype android, B4, that looks exactly like him and Picard encounters his clone, Shinzon. In many ways B4 and Shinzon are exact replicas of Picard and Data to the point where for Picard and Data to look at Shinzon and B4 in the eye is to look in a mirror. However, they are not them because Picard and Data strive to be better than they were, Shinzon and B4 did not. The one thing, or rather the One Person, that separates me from Picard and Data, is Jesus Christ. I can be better than myself if I remain dependent on Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Data and Picard can only so much better than themselves for two reasons. First, humans beings cannot redeem or improve themselves a part from God and His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. Whoever reads this can argue against what I've just said with me until the cows come home but the first 15 minutes of the news proves me, and the Bible, right. Human history, especially the last 100 years, have proven that humanity in and of itself can only get worse and not better. If anything, Captain Picard and Data are exceptions to the norm. Second, the majority of discouraging comments about self improvement come from human beings, even people one trusts.  Only dependence on the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit will make me successful in my goal to always strive to be better than myself.

If humans don't try to discourage my self-improvement goals,  they try to help me by trying to cure me, which hurts more than it heals. I think there is a way for me to be better than I am that includes my aspergers just like there was a way for Paul to be better than he was that included his "thorn in the flesh" (2Corinthians 12:1-10). If Paul wasn't better with his thorn, God would no have allowed him to have it. In the same way, if God didn't think I could be better than myself with aspergers, I would not have been born with it in the first place.

Life with aspergers is the best of times, it is the worst of times. It is one of the interesting gifts God can choose to give someone, and I am content and sometimes baffled that He chose to entrust it to me. As St. Paul said, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2Corinthians 12:9-10, TNIV).

Capital Punishment in the USA: Day of Execution

In the United States of America 38 states execute prisoners who are guilty of capital murder or murder in the first degree. First Degree Murder is usually charged for aggravated murder or when the murder was combined with another offence, such as sexual assault or robbery. Right now, the methods of execution are lethal injection, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and/or firing squad. The most common method is lethal injection. There are a couple of YouTube videos that take us on a walk through of lethal injection and how it is carried out, which I will be posting below.  The next most common method is the electric chair, which is still practices in a few States, and one of the videos will record some of the botched executions of the two methods.

Execution by Lethal Injection
What Happens on Execution Day:


Brief History and Examples of Botched Executions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kouJWRK-j_U


Movie: Dead Man Walking Execution Scene
  

Execution by the Electric Chair
What happens on Execution Day:
 
 
Brief History and Examples of Botched Executions
 

Does it bring Peace to the victims?
VA Man sees Wife's Killer Executed


Execution Film
Even if a state condemns a person to death, God still holds the keys to life and death. One example of how He intervened is in the life of William (Billy) Neal Moore. He was on death row for 16 years for armed robbery and murder. During his stay, ministers came to him and introduced him to Jesus Christ. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour and was baptized in prison. As the apostle Paul said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2Corinthians 5:17).

He was not executed by the electric chair. Instead the parole board commuted his sentence to a life sentence and then released him in 1992. To them, the other inmates, and even Mother Theresa he was no longer the condemned murder but a saved Christian. Right now he is in Rome, Georgia serving as a pastor. Proof that Jesus Christ can change even the worst members of society.

Video Interviews with Billy Moore
Interview with Billy Moore

Billy Moore's Life Story in Development with Ghost Rider Pictures

Finally, here's a link to an article about him- http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/23/prisonsandprobation. He is also featured in Lee Stroble's Case for Faith, which is the sequel to Case for Christ.

My Life with Aspergers

 When I was 13 years old I was diagnosed with a mild form of asperger syndrome, which is a high functioning autism. People with aspergers have an average to high IQ, have trouble understanding non-verbal cues and social norms, can be obsessive-compulsive, and can have physical clumsiness and an atypical use of language. People with it are usually very strong introverts, which can get to the point where we can spend hours- even days- without any social contact and not give it a 2nd thought.

Aspergers did not make my grade school career easy because I was certainly not normal. When I first received my diagnosis I hated it because to me it was like I had a disease for which there was no cure. Because I've grown and matured as a young woman and as Christian, I am comfortable and OK with it. I am even sometimes thankful that God gave me aspergers because it gives  me an independent streak that has gotten me out of sticky situations.

Prior to entering post-secondary education, my social life was null for the most part. I had only 1 friend during high school, and everyone else disregarded me. Everything changed when I started university, because people are much more tolerant and accepting of those who are different in terms of their physical, mental, and social limitations. It also helped that I was blessed to have a mild form of aspergers to the point where there are times when even I forget that I have it! Unfortunately, my memory returns every Sunday because I find that no matter what church I go to, I always get uncomfortable being around all those people.

For me, going to church is hell because it's constant social interaction and I feel very uncomfortable when I am run into the kind of social interaction I get at church. Often this discomfort gets to the point where I want to run out the door. This is in sharp comparison to how I feel when I'm at school and around my peers.  Like church, my school is a strong Christian environment that is designed to foster and encourage spiritual growth as well as academic growth because it is a Bible College. Part of the reason I'd much rather be socializing with my peers is that I have a lot more reasons to do so than just for the sake of socializing.

The majority of people who have aspergers, like me, do not naturally socialize. For example, the first thing I want to do after my last exam before the summer is to go to my room and play my video games alone and not go hang out with my friends. Another example is that as soon as we're done opening Christmas presents, my first impulse is to wander off and look at the things I received by myself instead of hanging around with my family.  I find that my friends at school are more comfortable with me preferring to go off on my own  as than my family is. I've also found that my church family is like my earthly family in that it was more designed for the extroverts and natural socializers as opposed to the introverts and natural loners. This is something I've observed over the years between the different social circles I interact with. This lack of understanding can be frustrating at times, because a lot of the people I interact with on a regular basis have known that I have aspergers for a long time but seem to choose to not acknowledge it.

Going to church, talking with people after class, or going to a family reunion means I have to fight a large part of me that does not want to socialize. It's not those social groups themselves that make me want to run away, but the socializing. What causes me to warm up to socializing a lot more is when the people who I socialize with understand me. My current friends at school do understand me in more ways then 1. First, we all have Jesus Christ in common. What's nice about going to a Bible College like Emmanuel is that almost everybody's first and most important priority is their faith in Jesus Christ (I say almost because there are people who go there, where Jesus Christ is at the bottom of their priorities). Not only does that make them more understanding, I also find that it is what causes them to be more celebrating and more appreciative of differences because they all believe God created people to be different. Second, they understand me because we are a part of the same generation so our interests, values, and experiences within society as a whole are pretty much the same. Third, they are some of the few people I've met that have really tried to understand what it means to have aspergers. I've encountered people, both family and non-family, who've ignored it, tried to explain it away or make it less than what it is, have tried to cure me and make it go away, say they understand it but refuse to make some accommodations for it, fail to see how I can be better than my diagnosis, and/or they pick and choose what parts of it they'll accept and then lose patience or disregard the rest. Not my friends at school. 

I have to be honest, about 50% of the stuff in the list has come from my earthly family. This has turned my off interacting with a lot of people in my heavenly/Christian family because if I can't find some degree of tolerance and understanding in my earthly family then why should I expect to find it in my heavenly family? Tolerance and understanding, something that so many people who have a liberal view of things advocate for, yet I've had to fight for and I am still fighting for in my mostly liberal family... and a family that will probably deny this completely when and if they read this but can they really get mad at me for commenting on what I've observed and experienced over the years? Not really. And they should know it's not just them. I've received this kind of treatment from people I've met at church too and from my non-church friends.Furthermore, they have loved in ways that my peers in all walks of my life have fallen short in and they do understand me in ways that my peers don't.

The need for understanding is something that I don't get at church. First, a lot of the people that talk to me are not in my age group. Although, we do have Jesus Christ in common, there is a difference between how Jesus interacts with someone in their mid-life and older as opposed to how He interacts with young adults. God meets people where they are at, and there is a difference between where a 20 year old and 40 year-old are at. Second, I find that a lot of people at church want to get to know me on a more personal level too quickly. This would not be so bad if they didn't automatically ask me really personal questions, like how I came to know the Lord. My faith story is a bit more personal than others, and  it doesn't make sense if I try to leave the more personal parts out. If you combine that with the impression I have that if you don't give them an answer, you are looked down upon. 

This is true about your faith story, and even about whether you are completely honest about your week on say the first day of a small group. If I don't want to share, I don't want to share. If I don't want to hug people, I don't want to hug people. At school I have the option to share or hug people, or to not share and hug people. At church, I don't think I really have that choice or I'm frowned upon if I choose to exercise it and keep quiet about my life or refuse to hug someone. No, for people like me, we need time to get to know people more and develop real trust. I will never be comfortable sharing my faith story with someone I've only known for 5 minutes, it's as simple as that.

Another thing that turns me off is hugging. Again, if I've only known you for 5 minutes or a couple of days, I don't want to be hugged by you. Unfortunately, I almost always get the impression that talking and hugging are not optional but required in order to be a a part of the community. When I'm with my friends at school I am allowed to say Please go away or I really don't want to talk right now. People at school know when and how to keep their distance, and  they still welcome me into the community as their friend! Why can't church be like that too? People at church , and a lot of other Christian-specific places never understand that I have boundaries and they never figure it out when they are crossing them. And when they want to hug me, they just hug me! There is no seeing whether I want to accept the invitation or not, they just hug and expect me to hug back. Then I try to figure out on Saturday night why  I want to do church on Sunday morning, because there are plenty of reasons why I do not.

Another thing that really gets me mad is that people will read a blog article like this, see me reject their hug, and/or my refusing to talk and they get all mad and look down upon me even though whether I do or don't do those above things is my choice to make. It was always me who was going to see the guidance counsellor while I was in elementary school, or I was the one who needed to change and learn to ignore people, and not my peers who treated me like I was less than crap every single day. This seems to be true about a lot of things: I'm the one who is always wrong and always has the problem, and never the people I am interacting with. In fact this is true for people who have a disability or a syndrome that affects how we socialize and interact with other people- it's always the person who's an introvert, or the one with aspergers, or the one who's blind, or the one who has autism who always has the problem in any situation and never the people who want to hug us, talk to us, tease us, and/or ignore us.

Ah Saturday night. It's the night where the battle over whether I should make the trek to church occurs every week. Sometimes I'm at church the following morning and sometimes I'm not. It's a battle that only fellow brothers and sisters with aspergers would understand. It gets annoying when people who don't have aspergers try to give me advice about how "fix" my tendencies and help me "win" my Saturday evening battle. I know, at least I think I know, that you all want to help but with all do respect, you don't know what you're talking about. Aspergers is not a disease that is affecting my body and once the disease is removed everything goes back to normal. Aspergers is a part of my being that affects everything, including my relationship with God, and it is something that cannot really be "cured". It is controllable and it can be managed, but all the control and management in the world won't get rid of it completely.

If I could summarize how aspergers has affected my so far 21 years of life, I would use the opening to one of Charles Dickens' greatest works, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."- Opening paragraph of a "Tale of Two Cities".

As my life continues, I hope to strive to be better than who I am now. This is true in my relationship with God, my relationship with others, and my relationship with my aspergers. I like to consider myself like Captain Picard and the android, Data in Star Trek: Nemesis. In the movie, Data discovers a prototype android, B4, that looks exactly like him and Picard encounters his clone, Shinzon. In many ways B4 and Shinzon are exact replicas of Picard and Data to the point where for Picard and Data to look at Shinzon and B4 in the eye is to look in a mirror. However, they are not them because Picard and Data strive to be better than they were, Shinzon and B4 did not. The one thing, or rather the One Person, that separates me from Picard and Data, is Jesus Christ. I can be better than myself if I remain dependent on Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Data and Picard can only so much better than themselves for two reasons. First, humans beings cannot redeem or improve themselves a part from God and His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. Whoever reads this can argue against what I've just said with me until the cows come home but the first 15 minutes of the news proves me, and the Bible, right. Human history, especially the last 100 years, have proven that humanity in and of itself can only get worse and not better. If anything, Captain Picard and Data are exceptions to the norm. Second, the majority of discouraging comments about self improvement come from human beings, even people one trusts.  Only dependence on the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit will make me successful in my goal to always strive to be better than myself.

If humans don't try to discourage my self-improvement goals,  they try to help me by trying to cure me, which hurts more than it heals. I think there is a way for me to be better than I am that includes my aspergers just like there was a way for Paul to be better than he was that included his "thorn in the flesh" (2Corinthians 12:1-10). If Paul wasn't better with his thorn, God would no have allowed him to have it. In the same way, if God didn't think I could be better than myself with aspergers, I would not have been born with it in the first place.

Life with aspergers is the best of times, it is the worst of times. It is one of the interesting gifts God can choose to give someone, and I am content and sometimes baffled that He chose to entrust it to me. As St. Paul said, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2Corinthians 12:9-10, TNIV).

Quiet Time with God in North America

In North American society, the church likes to emphasize the importance of spending quiet time with God. The purpose of this quiet time with God is to experience intimacy with God, and get to know God on a deeper and more personal level. It's supposed to be a part of where the relationship with God grows and flourishes. One thing I've noticed about this time with God is that the Christian Church seems to have a very... focused and narrow view about what a person and God are supposed to do during this time. 

I've found that the general idea behind quiet time with God is that the person is supposed to be alone, have a Bible plus a devotional book hand, and start and/or end the time with prayer. Don't get me wrong, this is a good way to spend time alone with God for some people. When I first became a Christian, I used devotional books and resources during my quiet time to help me understand the Bible more and to grow in my relationship with Christ. These books are good for beginners and do provide excellent insight to the Christian life at times- provided they are written by the right people.

However, I have found that this method has become more of a growing business and marketing scheme about giving good advice from the Bible than about growing a person's relationship with God. The majority of these books are targeted at youth and people in their mid-life who are living in the typical middle-income Canadian and/or American household. I have yet to see devotions for people with homosexual tendencies, people living in low-income situations, or teen mothers.  

My #1 issue with these books, however, is that they have a bad habit of not encouraging maturity of historical, biblical or theological knowledge. They do not really teach people to read a verse in its context, understand the process of biblical interpretation is knowing what it said to the original before bringing it to the 21^st century, and they do not educate people in the importance of knowing and studying theology. This is a problem because for most people, devotional books are all that they use for their quiet times.

This lack of encouragement to grow in biblical and theological knowledge is leading to a lot believers staying at the beginner’s level and not really forming their own faith and their own beliefs. Instead they just regurgitate what they’ve read as solid theological arguments and correct biblical interpretations. Because of this, people do not really know how to share or to defend their faith. Without a proper understanding of the Bible, theology, and Church history, personal witnessing becomes a long string of recited verses that are incorrectly interpreted and the person will not even be able to explain what they mean and the seeker will quickly figure that what they are hearing is really reciting what other people told them to believe. They won’t even know how to address historical issues, like the Crusades, in a convincing manner. 

Have you ever heard of Girlfriends in God devotions or Susie Magazine? What about Sharon Jaynes, Susie Shellenberger, John and Stasi Eldredge, or Gwen Smith? How about the books Wild at Heart or Captivating? These people write devotions and do youth and women's ministry and have reached people all over the world. They teach people Scripture, help women and youth grow closer to God, and have gained an excellent rapport. Unfortunately, these artists and authors fall short on one important issue: They are uneducated in the interpretation and application of the Bible and biblical theology, are uneducated in Church history, and could have had a lot more systematic theological education. They don’t even know the difference between a biblical interpretation and a theological position! While I’m sure God can and is using them, they are still passing on their immature, uneducated, and incorrect views of the Bible without to millions of Christians all over the world. Would you let a person who has no education in medicine and medical practice perform surgery?  Would you trust their diagnosis of you? Then why should we be taught by people who do not have the academic qualifications to teach us about the Bible?  

For example, the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge states that women have these three core desires: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. These traits compliment the Wild at Heart's three core desires to a man's heart: a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. Both these books, and the authors who wrote them, have been criticized for their poor and unorthodox interpretations of the Bible and their too heavy use of interpreting the Bible in light of culture instead of vice versa. This use of culture has lead to their works reinforcing the stereotypes and values the world places on people instead of helping them to become more. 

Remember those core values men and women have? Don’t look for them in the Bible, because you won’t find them. They are found in the fairy tales and modern movies we have seen and heard. The adventure where the woman plays the irreplaceable role and where she unveils beauty is in the man's adventure he wants to live in and be the star of. Captivating and Wild at Heart are two of many examples of books and other resources, written for Quiet Time with God, that reinforce stereotypes that our society has created for its citizens to function. Not only are they VERY North American specific, but they are very poor, improper, and incorrect methods for interpreting the Bible. 

If John and Stasi Eldredge had bothered to really, and correctly, look at the Bible from cover to cover, they would never find the god who encouraged and promoted stereotypes in either Testament. To the contrary, God’s people were always called to be better and higher than the surrounding nations (OT), or the society they lived in (NT). To reinforce and encourage stereotypes and promote an ethnocentric view of North American culture is to be the opposite of what God’s people are called to be and to do. 

By the way, John and Stasi, those above “core desires” are not core desires of a man or woman’s heart. Even if a man had a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue he would STILL not be satisfied or wild at heart. If a woman was romanced, played an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and unveiled beauty there would be still be no satisfaction for her in those things.  The one and only core desire that is at the route of any human being that is placed in everyone’s heart is to have a relationship with the Almighty Triune God of the universe. A person's life is not truly fulfilled and their core desire will never be met until there broken relationship with the Triune God is restored by accepting God’s free offer of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour of the world, who is God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ! 

Do I have any suggestions for my fellow brothers and sisters after the above? Of course I do. I have something to say to the authors of these resources: First, get an education that includes proper biblical interpretation, theology, and church history. Other subjects to add to the list of things you need to get educated in are stop being ethnocentric sociology and cultural anthropology. Perhaps they will teach you to not be so ethnocentric about North American culture and reinforcing stereotypes in your works. Third, encourage your readers to do the same! The readers of these resources need to mature in terms of their knowledge and study of the Bible, their knowledge and understanding of theology, and their knowledge and interpretation of Church history.  At some point you have to move on from milk to solid meat. These resources are milk and it’s time to move on from them!

 

Hebrews 5:11-14, TNIV

 ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

1Corinthians 3:1-3a, TNIV

¹ Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly.

Capital Punishment and the Bible

Does the Bible affirm or condemn the use of capital punishment? I've read a lot of comment responses to YouTube videos about capital punishment that state either/or. For those who believe that the Bible condemns capital punishment they see execution as people trying to steal a right that only God has, which is the right to decide when a person lives and when they die. There other two two arguments is that execution is just returning murder, something the Bible condemns everywhere, with murder; and people are no longer under old covenant law, but new covenant grace; therefore, capital punishment would be a step backwards from God's movement in salvation history.

What I want to say is that the above statements are true. The Bible does condemn murder, God does have the right to give and take a way life, and we are no longer under the old covenant law. However, when these truths are taken within the whole context of the Bible you'll find the Bible does not condemn capital punishment, but sees it as a permissible form of punishment for certain crimes. This can be seen from before the institution of the  Mosaic Covenant at the beginning in Genesis.

Old Testament and Capital Punishment

The one thing Christians for and against capital punishment have in common is that they believe God does have the right to put people to death. The penalty for sin, which is committing a crime against God and breaking His laws,  is death. This is seen in Genesis 2 when "the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.”" (Genesis 2:16-17, TNIV). To sin against the LORD God is to receive capital punishment from God, the Ruler, Judge, and Law Enforcer of creation. Sometimes the sentenced is carried out immediately, such as in Ananias and Sapphira's case in Acts 5, or it is carried out when after a person lives a lifetime of sin and rejection of God's Lordship is sentenced to eternally from God in hell for eternity.

Did God pass this right on to humanity? In Genesis 9:6 God said,

Whoever sheds human blood, 

   by human beings shall their blood be shed; 

for in the image of God 

   has God made humankind.

In other words, yes God did. This is the second time God passed the right to rule and exercise law and order from Himself to humanity, the first was Genesis 1:28,  and in it God gives humanity the right to take a life if a person kills someone else. Note that this privilege is not a free for all. Only the shedding of blood, which in the Bible is taking a life, demands execution as punishment.

In the Mosaic Law this is still in effect with some changes. Under the Old Testament law people capital crimes were murder, idolatry, practising of the occult, and sexual immorality. These sins were more serious than others because they were being practised by the Egyptians and original inhabitants of the Promised Land, and the inhabitants insistence on practising them lead to God sending the Israelites to drive them out. If you want to know what life was like in those nations, read the prophets and 2Kings and 2Chronicles, because the Israelites exactly what the people God drove out of the land did and it was not fun to live there.

Clearly the Old Testament was for capital punishment as it was commanded by God to be used as punishment for certain offences under Mosaic Law. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament Law and its stipulations have been done away with and rendered null and void. Now we have the Gospel of grace where the punishment for all of our sins, including murder, were paid for by Jesus' shed blood at Calvary. Furthermore,  God's people are no longer a physical nation in a specific geographical location under God but scattered all over the world. Given these facts,  does the New Testament support or condemn the death penalty?

The New Testament and Capital Punishment

The New Testament does not come out and say it is bad but it does not say it is acceptable either. However, I do not think the New Testament can be used to voice the abolition of the death penalty wholeheartedly. While it is true that Jesus death paid the price for our sins, including all the murders ever to be committed, there is still the need for a judicial system because not everyone will accept God's offer of salvation. Furthermore there is a difference between turning the other cheek and loving your enemies in an individual believer's life, and ruling a country. The New Testament calls Christians to submit to the governing authorities, else suffer the consequences, because they were put in place to protect us from violent people.

Romans 13:1-5

 ¹ Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

Paul was speaking to a church an empire that practised capital punishment on a regular basis. Therefore, Paul was indirectly affirming that governing authorities do have the right to practice capital punishment. Paul was also talking to a society that persecuted the church quite a bit during its first 300 years of existence. Why would Christians want to submit to a government that seemed to constantly attack them for their faith in Christ?

1Peter 2:13-17, 19-23

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of the foolish. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor...

 ¹⁹ For it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God. ²⁰But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

 ²² “He committed no sin,
   and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
 ²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Submit to the governing authorities so that the only reason the government has for arresting believers is their faith in Jesus Christ and they will be remembered as martyrs, not condemned criminals.

From reading Scripture, I've found that it is God's people who do not have the right to execute people who do wrong. To the contrary, the highest form of discipline/punishment God's people can administer is excommunication. The goal of excommunication is not to rid the church of a criminal but to bring the offender back into the body of believers as a fellow brother or sister redeemed by God. Excommunication can be reversed, execution cannot. 

Summary

While it is true that the Bible does condemn murder and affirms that God has the right to give and take away life because He is the Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe, the Bible does not really argue against the use of capital punishment. Since Genesis 9:6, God has commanded the use of capital punishment for murder and later sexual immorality, idolatry, and the practising of the occult in Mosaic Law. In the New Testament, the highest form of discipline is excommunication from the body of Christ, not capital punishment, in the hopes that the person is eventually brought back. However, if a government chooses to use capital punishment it has permission to do so within reason by God, who put them there. If the governing authority abuses this calling, God will deal with them.

Revelation 6:9-11
 ⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants and brothers and sisters were killed just as they had been.

The New Covenant and Capital Punishment

The death penalty is practised in many countries all over the world including in the country south of mine, the US of A. In Canada, the death penalty was abolished in the 1960s. Not only does Canada not execute prisoners, but it won't deport people to different countries on the threat that they will or they might be executed after they get there. Recently I have been reading internet articles, watching videos, and reading blogs on the death penalty and whether it is right for the state to practice capital punishment. Now, why would I want to read about that? Well, this is a topic that has come up in conversation but I have not been given the chance to dive into it on a more in-depth level and learn about the issues. Do we, as human beings, ever have the right to take a life? Good question, and how I answer it says a lot about me as a person, a Canadian, and a Christian.

For some people, the answer to the above question, specifically in regards to the right to execute criminals, is yes. Criminals who take the lives of innocent people, especially children, should pay for it with their lives. Furthermore, they deserve to suffer and receive the same consideration and thought they gave their victims. Other people disagree mostly based on the argument that the death penalty has been and is being abused in  countries that have it, and if a person is found to be innocent after their execution it cannot be corrected.

In Christianity people fall under various factions and have used the Bible to justify both of their stand points. When I first started looking at execution and the use of lethal injection in the United States, I found a lot of comments that cite the Bible. I found that people who are against the death penalty took various passages outside of their context, that when placed in their context would fail to defend their arguments. In fact, I found the Bible approve, not condemn, the use of capital punishment in many passages. However, I can't really argue from that stand point either because a lot of the verses that call for the use of capital punishment are in the Old Testament. Now that we live in the time after Jesus' death and resurrection, God's people are not under the Old Covenant but lead by the Spirit and the OT Law has been rendered null and void.

The Bible explicitly calls for the use of capital punishment in a covenant that I am no longer under and does not explicitly for or against it in the covenant that I am under. Furthermore,  the arguments for and against capital punishment do have validity.  This has resulted in me not knowing what to think. How can I, a person who is lead by the Spirit a part from the law, speak to capital punishment that agrees with the New Covenant and speaks to the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ?

Another good question to ask and I intend to find answer before the summer is over. I know what you're thinking, "Isn't this a morbid topic to do?" It is, I won't deny that. However, an execution is probably happening right now in some country for some reason, or no reason at times, and I want to know where a believer in Christ should stand. Furthermore, it is obviously an important issue as the Bible does mention it. but we live in a morbid world at times and I want to know where I stand on some of them. I plan to post my findings on my blog during the course of my investigation. Hopefully it will not be in vain.