In a world where Republican Tea Party (GOTP) audiences cheer loudly for capital punishment and for hypothetical patients being allowed to die because they don’t have health insurance, one has to suppose this same generation would have cheered the deaths of three Roman criminals convicted and sentenced to die on Golgotha.
One can almost hear Governor Pontius Pilate giving his justification for so many executions – including that of a Rabbi from Galilee – during his tenure as Roman Governor of Judea.
“In the province of Judea, if you come into our province and you kill one of our children, you kill a Roman soldier, you’re involved in another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the province of Judea, and that is, you will be executed.”
When asked about the cheering at the mere mention of the many executions he has overseen, Pilate probably would’ve replied.
“I think Romans understand justice.”
Well, 235 people have been executed in Texas under Rick Perry, and those were his words during the recent GOTP debate at the Reagan Library (of course province of Judea was used in place of Texas, Roman soldier for police officer and Pilate for Perry), the same debate where the crowd cheered its loudest of the night when the total number of executions was mentioned.
While I support capital punishment, especially for those convicted of murder, I don’t think it’s appropriate to cheer someone’s death/execution.
But such is life in the conservative America of today. These good old American Christians – if that’s what they are – shouldn’t be cheering anyone’s death. We may celebrate heroes who give their lives in the defense – or in the saving – of others; but we don’t cheer.
Those on the right who think it’s appropriate to cheer at the mention of 234 people executed; or who cheer at the imaginary or hypothetical death of someone with no health insurance, aren’t Christians; they’re barbaric animals. They’re not Americans; they’re some kind of historical throwback; a group belonging in the crowds of the gladiatorial games of Pilate’s time. They’re of course the natural evolution of people who’ve been daily fed on a non-stop diet of hate and fear by the uber-conservatives in this country (FOX PAC, Bush/Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity et al).
What’s particularly revealing is not one of the fine and noble candidates on the debate stage said the cheering was wrong; not one of them exhibited the same courage John McCain showed during the 2008 campaign when he corrected people in a crowd shouting lies about his opponent; in not doing so, they proved – once again – that they’re not – in the least respect – presidential.
The Liberty Tree 