This morning, on this first day of May, I’ll start by posting the closing paragraph of this week’s Wake Forest Today column. I hope the ending interests you enough that you’ll click on the link and read the beginning. Here goes:

Back when Jesus was creating rampant unpredictability in the lives of his followers, the Great Teacher asked his friends if they were ready to ditch him and look for some normalcy in their lives. Their response turns out to be the perfect conclusion for today’s column: So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? Only you have the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68). (read more…)

The column is titled, “It’s Not Usually Like This Around Here,” and covers some of the anomalies Rebekah and I have experienced in the past few months. I think you’ll enjoy the read.

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: The other item on my mind today is this week’s “botched” execution in Oklahoma. Clayton Lockett was – by all reports – a brutal man who showed no mercy to his victims. He was convicted of murder, rape, kidnapping, assault and battery, burglary, and robbery.

This “trending” story is on my heart and mind mostly because of the first report I read when the news broke; it was a commentary published by Fox.

The writer suggested that people who are upset about an inhumane execution should, instead, think about the terrible crimes Lockett committed. He also found it surprising that “even some conservatives” were outraged, thereby implying that a good conservative should applaud suffering in an execution.

I believe this is the same conversation we had a few years ago about the torture, degradation, and general mistreatment of enemies and suspected terrorists in the Middle East. Far too many people argued (and continue to argue) that, “they deserve it,” and that any means is justifiable when we need to acquire information that might possibly save lives.

OUR OWN PROTECTION: What these discussions too easily forget is that humane treatment is as much for our own protection (society) as it is for the protection of the accused.

Because any time we devalue any human life then we devalue our own.

Just as bullies do irreparable harm to their own character, we diminish ourselves when we take pleasure in, or try to justify, the infliction of pain or suffering on somebody else – irrespective of who that person is.

My reference point – as always – is my commitment to live as a follower of The Way of Jesus. So I’ll let the following – long – quote from the Sermon on the Mount serve to wrap up today’s post:

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

In the name of “him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing… (Jude 1:24) – DEREK