Capital Punishment.

The South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at their Assembly in June, asked Bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl to write a letter to Governor Rounds asking that he choose not to sign the order to put Elijah Page to death. The Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota agreed in their June meeting to also send a letter to the Governor in support of the ELCA's position. All of the Board members present at the meeting said that their churches have made statements against the death penalty.

Governor Rounds has indicated publicly that he will probably let this execution move forward. Most of the arguments favoring the death penalty in this case argue that the crime was particularly cruel, which it was. They also argue that Elijah Page has asked that he be put to death, which he has.

Elijah Page is not the issue here. He was convicted of murder, a crime he does not deny. It may be easier for him to die than to live with the knowledge of what he did, or to live in solitary confinement for many years to come. It may be that he is cruel. It may be that he, too, is a victim of an upbringing that shaped him into someone who either snapped in drug-induced rage or who, without conscience, viciously murdered another human being.

Elijah Page is not the issue here. The issue is whether we are justified in putting him to death.

When I was in the Navy during the Viet Nam war I came to recognize that I had my fingerprints, literally, on the napalm containers that devastated country and people regardless of age, sex or disposition. I didn't drop the bombs, but I helped to make sure they got to the right place. Similarly, my fingerprints are on the needles that kill those we have determined must die.

We justify our killing in many ways. In war we are fighting for religion, for right, for defense, or for "keeping the war over there". Mostly we are just fighting because we are told to. In peace we justify killing as punishment, as retribution for wrongs committed, as justice, as a way to make our lives safer.

We make killing ok to the extent that we make it about "them". The argument is that Elijah Page killed and thus he should be killed. He did kill, and that is on him. Whether we should step into his shoes and do the same thing to him that he did to another is a decision that we must make, as a society. If anything good is to come of this, it must be that we are able to see how wrong it is to kill another person, regardless of the justification.

The question is not whether Elijah Page is a person who deserves to die. It is whether we are to be the people that kill him.

The question is whether we have the right to take the life of another person, even if they ask us to. The State specificly says that we, as individuals, do not have this right, yet the State takes this right unto itself. We, as the State, break our own, and God's, law against murder.

The question is whether we have the right to ask another person to take a life on our behalf. The State specificly states that we, as individuals, do not have this right, yet the State takes this right unto itself. We, as the State, break our own, and God's, law against murder.

In the case of capital punishment, we pay a person a wage to end the life of another. This does not excuse our part in this death, but it saddles that person with the responsibility of carrying out the order.

Our fingerprints are on the instruments of Elijah Page's execution. Let us pray for him, and for us.