Over at First Things, which is no liberal rag, but rather the leading Catholic-leaning neoconservative-ish monthly journal of opinion and commentary, to which all thinking people should subscribe, but will be of special interest to center-right Christians, Joseph Bottum has a very provocative essay against the death penalty. I'm finding it hard to summarize or even to find a single money quote; the analysis is rich and complex, covering a lot of ground in little space. Perhaps it would be best simply to highlight the key question Bottum is seeking to answer:
Under any Christian understanding of political theory, where does the legal system of a modern democracy gain authority to act on this high level?
It's not an approach that had occurred to me, but that makes it today's must read. Please do go read the whole thing. You can subscribe to First Things here. Do it today.
