Thank you for David Miller's editorial, "A killing lie" (July). What a
contrast to the letters to the editor on gun control. We need to decide
whom we will worship: a God of life or of death. Most civilized nations
have discovered what we refuse to face--that glorification of violence
and belief in the myth of redemptive violence does, in fact, keep the
upward "spiral of destruction" going. No other first-world country
comes near to wreaking the havoc we do on members of its citizenry.
Jesus taught us that vengeance, retribution and violence are neither
saving nor redemptive, even as he showed us another way: the way of the
cross.
Gary RothNew Bern, N.C.
When we execute a
person before they get to the point of remorse, have we contributed to
the destruction of his/her soul as well? Executions in this country
should be done away with, but we have to be careful about replacing the
death penalty with life in prison without parole. Sister Helen Prejean
includes in a footnote in Dead Man Walking that an individual rarely
repeats the offense of murder and that murderers have the lowest rate
of recidivism of any group of offenders.
A.R. Thies
Mays Landing, N.J.
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