On Capital Punishment – What Price Vengeance?
Reading & sermon preached by Reverend Carolyn Patierno
February 18, 2007

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’ 2Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’

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Let’s begin this reflection with the headlines that inspired me to bring the topic to this pulpit - headlines apparently written without even remote sensibility of their irony. 
On Saturday, December 30th The Day’s front page headline was the following: Saddam Executed: Former Iraqi Dictator Hanged, Ending ‘Dark Period In Iraqi History.’  The headline was actually quoting an Iraqi television news report.  The television stationplaced this tag line on the screen while they played recordings of national songs. 
Two weeks later the United Nations released a report stating that nearly 35,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the war in 2006 alone. 
The day after the execution, on December 31st, we learned that Saddam’s death further divided Iraq’s religious sects.  Said the news article, “If Shiites saw the hanging as a gift, most Sunnis were revolted that, in what appeared to be a violation of Iraqi law, the execution was scheduled on a holiday of forgiveness.”  The execution took place on Eid, the holiday that celebrates the conclusion of the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
It took one short week for the headlines to radically shift.  On January 6th the front page headline read thusly:  For Arabs, Saddam’s stock soars as a martyr:  Former Iraqi dictator’s execution boosts image.
Well, of course.  Didn’t we know this headline was coming?  In the days leading up to the execution - by hanging, no less – we heard about Saddam’s last words to the Iraqi people.  During his life, the man had been relatively non-religious.  But he was increasingly devout in his last days, communicating the following to the Iraqi people via the Internet, “Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs.” 
Didn’t we know?  In those last days of 2006, as you drove in your car listening to the news and as you read the paper didn’t you know the whole barbaric mess was going to turn this supreme barbarian into a martyr?  A martyr.  Saddam Hussein.  Did you ever think we would say those words in the same breathe? 
“No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,” President Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.  “They turned him into a martyr.” 
Indeed.
One article concluded: 

At the heart of the sudden reversal of opinion was the symbolism of the hasty execution, now framed as an act of sectarian vengeance shrouded in political theater and overseen by the American occupation.

And I thought out loud, “What price vengeance?”  What price to our collective soul?  What political price in the eyes of the wider world? 
Here’s part of that price.  This quote from a teacher in Tikrit, “Saddam will be a hero in our eyes.  I have five kids and I will teach them to take revenge on Americans.” 
And the cycle continues.
Revenge.  It’s so visceral a response to having been wronged or hurt.  (Or even more dramatically, it’s so visceral a response when our loved ones have been wronged or hurt.)  Even devoutly religious people fall into it’s trap.  This prayer was offered up by a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution: “Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done!  He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves.  Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam.”
The whole world knew what Saddam had done, that he’d killed millions of Iraqis in prisons and war.  That mass graves were filled with the blood and bodies of the innocent. 
But what price vengeance?  What did that execution do for those left behind in a war-ravaged Iraq? 
The vast majority of faith traditions oppose the death penalty.  In the aftermath of Saddam’s execution, Samuel Kobia, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said that while leaders must be held accountable for crimes they commit, “each taking of a person’s life is a part of a larger tragedy, and nowhere is this more apparent than in a land of daily killings.”  (As quoted in the January 23, 2007 issue of The Christian Century.)
In 1961, the year the Unitarians and Universalists merged to form a new religious movement, the delegates at the first General Assembly passed a resolution condemning capital punishment.  Among other things, the resolution stated the following:
WHEREAS, respect for the value of every human life must be incorporated into our laws if it is to be observed by our people; and
WHEREAS, modern justice should concern itself with rehabilitation, not retribution; and
WHEREAS, human judgments are not infallible, and no penalty should be used which cannot be revoked in case of error, and
WHEREAS, capital punishment has not always been used impartially among all economic and racial groups in America
Therefore be it resolved: that the UUA urges its churches and fellowships in the US and Canada to exert all reasonable efforts toward the elimination of capital punishment.
Judeo Christian tradition has at the start of scripture a story that illustrates the consequences of rage; jealously and the example of restraint.  The story is that of the brothers Cain and Abel and it’s a bit of a mystery.
Our children learn this story within one of the UUA curriculums used in our Religious Education ministry.  I have wondered about it’s inclusion, to tell you the truth.  In studying its meaning, I came upon one scholar who wrote that this passage is one of the most difficult in the Bible.  Let’s unpack it together.
Two sons are born to a mother.  The elder, Cain, grows to be a farmer; the younger, Abel, a shepherd.  One day, Cain has the idea that God is looking for some booty.  It seems to be Cain’s own perception, however, as God has not requested or demanded sacrifice on God’s behalf.  Still, Cain doesn’t seem to put much thought into the giving as the giving happened “after a time.”  Abel follows suit but conversely he offers the “firstlings” the fat of the sheep.  God is pleased with the latter offering and not so impressed with Cain.  Cain is put off.  However, God addresses Cain and asks him (basically) “Why so glum?”  To quote: “7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’   One scholar put forth the theory that this voice was the one of reason and reassurance.  And yet, God isn’t really saying very much. 
Apparently, Cain needed a bit more in the way of direction.  We all know what happened next.  And God knew, too.  But afterward God takes a more subtle approach to Cain and simply asks about Abel’s whereabouts to which Cain famously responds that he is not his brother’s keeper. 
God is angry.  ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!”
His punishment cuts right to the heart of Cain’s identity and livelihood yet Cain seems to exaggerate God’s intention.  13Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.’
To which God responds, ‘Not so!* Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.’   Interesting choice of words, isn’t it?  But the point is that God puts a mark on Cain’s forehead – not one of shame but one of protection – that no one should harm him despite the grave violence with which he treated his own brother.  Two wrongs and all that …
By the way, I once spoke with an RE teacher and asked what the children got out of this story.  The lesson has the children creating life-sized outlines of the two brothers and dramatizing the story.  Not surprisingly, in acting out the story, the children changed the ending.  In their ending, Cain and Abel “use their words” to talk out their differences. 
As our first principle affirms the inherent worth and dignity of all people, so must we extend this inherent mark of protection.  We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, after all.  And more, we must deeply reflect on the affects of capital punishment on our society as a whole.  Despite the fact that there are very few countries in the world who allow capital punishment (entry into the European Union requires an abandonment of the practice, for example) a majority of Americans support its use.  Yet, there is significant and growing ambivalence centered mostly on discomfort with the method of execution – currently concerning lethal injection.  In an article in last week’s New York Times Magazine entitled The Needle and the Damage Done journalist Elizabeth Weil wrote the following: 
The inability to tolerate a single execution method for very long seems to stem, in part, from the conflicted relationship Americans have with capital punishment.  The majority of people continue to support it.  But as the untoward executions in Iraq have underscored, we don’t want government-sanctioned killings to look like lynchings, nor do we want those killings to be too brutal or bloody.  Further complicating matters, the American public tends to resist engaging with the physical problem of killing people.  Unlike China, which methodically tested lethal-injection vans that drive around the provinces carrying trained teams that execute the condemned, the federal government has never convened a panel to study the practicalities of killing death-row inmates.     

If Americans were made aware of a panel charged with studying these practicalities, there would be a righteous outcry – the type of outcry prohibited in China.    
I take comfort that over 40 faith traditions agree on this matter.  We find common ground on precious few hot button issues.  This one is so egregious; however, that it enjoys the support of a wide range of people of faith.
And so I’ll end with this story.
A close friend, who is a UU minister and was a seminary classmate of mine, is very involved in death penalty abolition work.  To draw attention to the cause, she and a few other determined pilgrims walk from San Francisco to San Quentin penitentiary the day that executions are scheduled. When we were in seminary, there was a run of executions over a relatively short period of time.  I decided to meet her upon her arrival for one of the executions.  I drove with several other seminarians and parked far from the prison gates.   When we arrived there were about 100 people standing together.  The atmosphere was tense.  I was deeply grateful for two dozen or so Buddhists who sat in meditation at the front of the crowd throughout the course of the night.  There were many speakers – most of them secular.  I noticed an unfortunate divide between the secular and religious activists.  I also noticed that with the exception of one rabbi, no one mentioned the victims but instead, activists managed to make  a martyr of the condemned man – who certainly should not have been put to death by the government but neither should he have been made a martyr by those opposed to the government’s actions.
Executions are typically carried out late into the night so as the time for execution drew near; the whole scene was increasingly surreal. I felt my stomach closing into a knot.  I had been standing toward the front of the assembly all night.  Finally at one point I turned around to take in the crowd standing behind me.  When I did, what I saw there was a sight that will be forever burned in my memory, for unbeknownst to me our numbers had tripled with the arrival of a church group.  They all stood in complete silence - all of them holding up wooden crosses.  There was a sea of these simple, white, two feet long, wooden crosses.  The symbolism was stunning.  Sr. Mary Prejean once said that if Jesus had been killed by electrocution, Christians would have been wearing electric chairs around their necks these nearly 2000 years.  Instead, these faithful Christians stood holding the symbol of capital punishment that rests at the heart of their tradition.    We all stood as a cloud of witnesses – Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and our secular brothers and sisters - to this human debacle - this taking of a person’s life as part of a larger tragedy. 
What price vengeance?  A very high price, my friends.
As for us, we need to be ever aware of the damaging human qualities that inspire the use of capital punishment.  In the face of these I would say the following: 
Resist the swift path to rage and revenge. 
We are, in fact, our brothers’ – and sisters’ – keepers.  
When we are broken, another person’s pain and destruction cannot make us whole.
If we are to build the glorious city, we would do well to pay attention to our children who remind us to “use our words.” 

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