{"id":16933,"date":"2021-04-20T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotiontuesday-20th-april-2021"},"modified":"2021-04-20T06:15:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T05:15:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-tuesday-20th-april-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-tuesday-20th-april-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Tuesday 20th April 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 20th April 2021
Does this command preclude Capital Punishment?<\/span>
 <\/p>\n

Exodus 20: 13<\/strong><\/p>\n

You shall not murder<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time of writing the United Kingdom does not accept capital punishment as a punishment for crime. And how worrying it is that the sentence starts \u201cAt the time of writing\u201d… As we look around the world at countries that allow capital punishment a few things become clear – the taking of someone\u2019s life as a legal response to a crime (irrespective of how heinous that crime may be) is almost always more about revenge than justice. <\/p>\n

As Sister Helen Prejean says \u201cThe death penalty is fundamentally a poor person\u2019s issue. Over nearly 40 years of visiting death row facilities across the United States, I have never met a single person with money or resources. Capital punishment means \u201cthose without the capital get the punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital punishment is often justified by the quote \u201cAn eye for an eye\u201d but that is always taken out of context. The full quotation, from the Gospel of Matthew (5:38-39) is \u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\u2019 But I tell you, don\u2019t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital punishment is never a justice response. And God always wants us to act justly and love mercy.<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?<\/p>\n

Lord, give us the strength, compassion, mercy and understanding to be
just and kind on our journey with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 20th April 2021Does this command preclude Capital Punishment?  Exodus 20: 13 You shall not murder Reflection At the time of writing the United Kingdom does not accept capital punishment as a punishment for crime. And how worrying it is that the sentence starts \u201cAt the time of writing\u201d… As we look around the world … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Tuesday 20th April 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}