Reverence for Life

By C. M. Kao

Taiwan Church News, #2572, 17th June 2001 

Translated by David Alexander

The concept of reverence for life is one which the philosophers of the 20th Century have left for us as more than a human rights slogan. We not only want to show concern for life, to reverence it, but to see protection of all life as a mission given to us from God in the creation of the cosmos.

The Lord Jesus said, "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they?" (Matthew 6:26 NRSV). He added, "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life, or what will they give in return for their life?"(Matthew 16:26, NRSV)

Every life is valuable. The most valuable among all forms of life is the human life. God commands us accordingly, "You shall not murder."(Deuteronomy 5:17, NRSV) Jesus told people, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:12-13, NRSV) 

Considering the Death Penalty

Recently Professor Chen Wen-shan published a book about religious aspects of the Death Penalty in Taiwan. She selected, arranged and edited Roman Catholic and Protestant scholarly writings on the question and many topical essays. I hope that everyone who reverences life will read this book and consider what it teaches us relating to the question of capital punishment.

I myself believe that the death penalty should be abolished. I can understand the concept of justice that gives rise to belief in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life," but I still hope Taiwan can move in the direction of the abolition of the death penalty. I have three reasons for this position.

1) Human law and justice are incomplete. Over the past fifty years the erroneous imposition of the death penalty in Taiwan has not been uncommon. It was especially so during the period known as the 2-2-8 and in the White Terror era following. It is estimated that over a thousand of Taiwan's heroes were sentenced to death during these times.

2) Historical instances of erroneous imposition of the death penalty are not few.Socrates was a great philosopher whose entire life was spent striving for truth and goodness, but according to the Greek government of his time and place, he was judged guilty of a capital offense and executed. Jesus Christ, full of grace, love and justice, come to be the savior of the world, was legally put to death according to the Roman court of his time and with the collusion of the leaders of his own people. 

3) The opportunity for a sinner to repent is eliminated when he or she has been executed. Think of the bible story of the robber on the cross beside Jesus, who recognized and confessed his sin, asking that he be remembered. Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43, NRSV)

Stop the Killing in the Name of Christian Love

Some years ago the habitual criminal and multiple murderer Tan Chin-heng (Chen Chin-hsing) while fleeing the police forced his way into the home of the Military Attache from the South African Embassy. He held that family hostage and subjected them to many threats. After he surrendered to the police and was tried and sentenced to death. The witness of that South African family, all of them Christians, moved Mr. Tan's heart. He repented of his sins, confessed faith in Christ and experienced new birth as a new creation. He testified on television that even as great a sinner as himself could be moved by the love of Jesus Christ to confess and be renewed. The state killed him, as the courts had allowed. In human history there are few such cases of repentance. 

I hope that Taiwan can soon abolish the death penalty, converting it over to life sentence without option of parole. I hope that prisons can be converted into places where the love of Jesus Christ changes the hearts of convicts. I hope that a prison so filled with people can become a society of blessing inhabited by people reborn into goodness.