The Dignity of Human Life in Relation to Political Life and State Violence: War and the Death Penalty - Essay Example

? The Dignity of Human Life in Relation to Political Life and Violence: War and the Death Penalty Religion and violence have a long time relationship particularly in the context of violence and Christianity, the relationship may seem to be highly contentious. Several studies have been conducted on the justice of God on the good and evil occurring on the earth impacting the lives of the human beings. The death of Jesus reflects an inhuman behavior of the religious society, yet forgiveness showed its path in the way. However, the current scenario in the world presents an unfortunate state of injustice where every now and then human beings are killed on the name of God. In the light of justice, the death of Jesus could be analyzed with respect to the interaction between violence and religious faiths as evident in the modern society. Understanding of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in relation with God’s justice: If the death of Jesus is questioned, mostly God would be mentioned as the sole reason emphasizing on the fact that the death was meant for God. Many theorists did not even focus on the issue of a devil’s presence in the act of Jesus’ death. It can be realized that the human beings in general are all responsible in the death of Jesus being parts of the sinful crime that killed him. While Jesus reflected on the supremacy of God, human beings, including the people from Rome and assisted by religious authorities from Jerusalem and many others who cried for his death supported the merciless killing of Jesus. Theorists believe that resurrection is the primacy of God that had the capability to prove conquering over all evil powers of the human forces. Humans have been major participants in the veil power reflected in the death of Jesus, and till date human being could be seen to be parts of militarism, nationalism, racism, sexism, heterosexism and poverty. While human beings have been making use of the evil forces, it is believed that God still loves humans and wants them to follow the rules of God. This implies that God wants human beings to be parts of the liberation and justice process foe developing peacefulness and forgiveness amongst everyone. According to different researchers, if Christians have problems with the violence in which human beings are involved, then they should learn to understand the negative impacts of the classic theology that has great contributions in violent activities (Weaver). In order to understand death penalty in the Biblical way, one might begin with Jesus Christ and his teachings. Matthew 5:21-24 says that Jesus preached, “You shall not Murder” as one of his Ten Commandments but no mention has been made of death as a penalty to the sin of murder. Jesus said, “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment” but that judgment is not mentioned clearly. His teachings are consistent with “sacredness of human life and with initiatives to heal vicious cycles of killing”. For instance he omitted the part “life for life” while quoting the Old Testament and thus avoided any instance of violence. He also preached that revengeful retaliation might cause further deaths or murders and hence “life for life” can be explained by saying that only the killer may be killed but not his family or associates. However Christ himself preaches against revenge and this has been explained by New Testament experts who say that the Vengeance belongs to the Lord (Stassen and Gushee, 197-198). The death of Jesus reflects the inhuman behavior of human beings in the name of religion and theological concepts. However, forgiveness still is significant in the rules of God to bring peace and justice in the world. Although studies have also been conducted on the effect of forgiveness on bringing any change in the minds of the people (Bass, 131), yet Jesus presented his views to God asking for forgiveness even for those who did sins to him. Doubts arise in the minds of many people since forgiveness has often not showed any changes in the criminal participation of people. It is God’s love that incorporates the act of forgiveness among humans. When God forgives, it is believed to heal the lives of people. Jesus had conveyed his views that presented forgiveness as “a way of life where people are drawn into communion with God and one another” (Bass, 131-138). The Current State of Violence Prevailing in the World and its Association with God’s Justice and Injustice: Although it is believed that God wants the human beings to behave towards humanity, love and peacemaking, yet the present scenario in the world reflects different picture where innocent human beings are killed and lives after lives are destroyed in the name of religious virtues. Terrorism, war and violence are prevalent inn every corner of the world. It has been studied that the ethics of Christianity has initiated theories that include either following only war, or following only non-violence or maintaining absolute peace amongst all. Believing in the Christian theology, the principle or the combination of principles are followed that would reflect their truthfulness towards their religion. Jesus had always focused on the peacemaking and forgiveness beliefs unlike the modern world (Stassen & Gushee, 149-150). Both war and death penalty comprise killing by the state. In case of war, the just war theory suggests that justifying the cause is not enough and it is also important to justify the means. The participants of an enemy country may possess their sanctity of life unless they play roles of soldiers in the war and the war’s justice can be explained by the fact that there is no means of engaging in war other than attacking the soldiers who were opposing the just cause. However on surrender, the soldiers might not be killed (Stassen and Gushee 163). If today’s justice system is observed, there is more and more number of deaths occurring each and every day. In most cases the reasons are related to the religion issues, the issues of theology, hatred and believing that violence would satisfy their faiths and principles. The incidence of twin towers blast in the United States is just one instance of several such incidences occurring on a regular basis. People are killing each other to propagate their principles and values in the nation. At times it is highly unfortunate that the cultures of a society and its religion may influence peacemaking possibilities in any country or religion (Scharen & Volf, 81). If the current scenario is studied it would be realized that war and violence have overcome the peacemaking capabilities of the human being. Earlier also, Jesus was killed owing to the human cries not realizing what is true and correct for a religion and what is evil. People are still the same, not forgiving, and not giving any effort on killing the violence rather than killing the people. Their faiths on their religious practices have become their ways of life and impacting the ethics and lives of people. Conclusion: The study has clearly reflected upon the state of violence that had taken the life of Jesus and in the present times the violence of people, their incorrect practices of their religions and their faiths allow them to kill innocent people and propagate their religious beliefs and practices. In the process, people are forgetting how to forgive others, they are losing lives, and even if some majority of people are trying to cooperate and lead the world towards peace and love, some sections who are against such peacemaking and believe that their practice is the ultimate truth, are creating havocs in the lives of common people. In order to overcome this situation, cooperation and understanding of peace in the world needs to be realized by each and every individual living on earth. Reference 1) Bass, Dorothy C. Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2010 2) Scharen, Christian & Miroslav Volf. Faith as a way of life: a vision for pastoral leadership, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008 3) Stassen, Glen Harold & David P. Gushee. Kingdom ethics: following Jesus in contemporary context, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2003 4) Weaver, J. Denny, Violence in Christian Theology, Cross Currents, September 22, 2011 from: http://www.crosscurrents.org/weaver0701.htm Read More