BE GUILTY!-America's Guilt Culture And Justice: The Death Penalty PT2
By Steven Garofalo M.A.A. February 14, 2025
We (America) are a “National of Laws”. If we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless”.
Today, I am going to show you what happens when we fail to enforce the Law due to our guilt culture.
On December 23, 2024, President Biden communed the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. Three men remain on federal death row: Robert Bowers, convicted in the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 worshippers dead; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 people in 2013 and Dylann Roof, convicted of fatally shooting nine people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
So, why did the President treat three differently from the 37? I submit that Biden is an extremely immoral man when compared to biblical norms and standards. As such, he not only rejects biblical standards and mandates, but embraces evil. The psychological term to describe a person who blames another person for which he is guilty of is called “PROJECTION”. Projection is a defense mechanism where an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else. For example, a person who is feeling angry may accuse other of being hostile or aggressive. This in turn often allows the individual to avoid confronting their own feelings or actions by externalizing them. This can and often morphs into narcissism which can be an incredibly challenging and painful ordeal-as the entire country has experienced over the past four years with the Biden administration which was full of such characters. Politics in general are corrupt, but it’s wrong to call all politicians or people equal violators of the law. Equal sinners? Yes, perhaps, but equal violators of the law-NO. This past administration led to lawless criminals being let out of prison, who in turn went out and murdered again. As such, there is culpability on behalf of all prosecutors and politicians involved. This begs the question though as to WHY people don’t support Capital Punishment, or the “Death Penalty”?
DEATH PENALTY AND THE TRUTH ARE 100% CONSISTENT
It seems for political reasons. If you don’t believe in the death penalty, it follows logically that you would be consistent in that belief. Set all that aside, the best way to get to the truth is to discover the “truth”, and in turn, you don’t have to make sense of mankind’s inconsistent moral standings. Man’s morality is always in consistent in relation to money, power, political favors and sinful agendas. God’s morality is 100% consistent. He doesn’t care how much money you have or what you position is. While God is a God of mercy, if you do the crime, you do the time-in other words, there are always consequences. In the case of murder, it cannot be overlooked. Stealing a pack of chewing gum and returning to the store to confess that wrong is less weighty than premeditatively taking the life of an innocent person. This falls under “ethics and morality” in the sense that different crimes differ in their “weightiness”. That’s a discussion for another article. This leads us to ask WHY people don’t support the death penalty and what does God say about the death penalty. I submit that it comes down to malformed cultural understanding of truth and morality. In other words, America’s CULTURE has become unbiblical.
DO DIFFERENT CULTURES SEE PUNISHMENT THE SAME?
Each country has their own cultural leading. Take for example Japan which has a “shame culture” based on “honor”. According to “AI Overview” on Google, A "Japanese Shame Culture" refers to the societal phenomenon where Japanese people are deeply sensitive to the perceptions of others and prioritize maintaining social harmony, often experiencing shame when they fail to live up to societal expectations, leading to a strong focus on outward appearances and avoiding actions that could bring negative judgment upon themselves; this concept is largely attributed to anthropologist Ruth Benedict's work describing Japanese culture as primarily based on shame rather than guilt
If you do something that goes against their cultural, moral and religious norms you are to be shamed.
On the other hand, American has a “shame culture”. This has been born out of an “underdog” mentality which America was founded on, but more so from the politically correct minority mindset starting in the mainly in the 1960’s when instead of helping minorities rise-up, government put non-minorities down to elevate people of color. You cannot elevate someone unfairly without putting someone else down. Simply put, inequality was personified in the name of trying to create equality. Leave it to the government to do more harm than good. The black population are equal humans like everyone else and ought to have been helped to rise-up to their full potential, not allowed opportunities based on the pigmentation of their skin. That is wrong according to the fact that God created all men and women equal. I say all this to illustrate the fact that America has a wrongful guild culture. No other country in world history has done as much good for the world as America-as imperfect as she is, it’s the truth.
AMERICA’S GUILT CULTURE VS. THE BIBLE
A casualty of our “guilt culture” is the inerrancy of the Scriptures. What I mean by that is that people take the parts they want and the parts of the Bible they emotionally feel in disagreement with, they deny in the name of grace and “compassion”. While that nice according to culture, it’s wrong according to God. And this truth is in full-on display in Genesis 9:6 which addresses the death penalty. This is what it says:
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6).
Leviticus 24:17 states, "Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death".
The verb suggests murder, not accidental homicide if the case of killing a human. It’s not speaking to manslaughter or running a red light, causing death. It’s speaking to First Degree, pre-meditated murder. To get the death penalty in America, you have to go through a special hearing (called bi-cameral hearing) to make sure that the case qualifies for the death penalty. This leads us to ask what the God says about the death penalty through His Word, the Bible.
THE BIBLE ON THE DEATH PENALTY
God is clear in Genesis 9:6 in that “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6)
Homicide (which in a sense is always “fratricide” (killing of one’s brother or sister) (v.5): “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man” (Genesis 9:5). As such this demands a punishment that matches the crime. The justification for capital punishment here established is “the nobility of the human life”, FOR GOD MADE MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE”
Hence, murder shows contempt for God as well as for one’s fellow man. Romans 13:4 makes clear where governments have the power to use the death penalty. We are not allowed to take the law into our own hands and murder those who have violated us.
In closing, the United States has become a much less safe place to be. It seems daily that we read about innocent people who are murdered by people who have been convicted in the past for murder. God’s ways are not our ways. When we follow His ways, we live in peace. When we allow our guilt culture and emotions to lead out criminal justice system, innocent people get hurt or die. Let’s not allow our guilt culture override God’s truth. I know this is a touchy subject and there is so much more to be said. I read Genesis 9 this morning and wanted to share in today’s entry. How we apply God’s Word is not politics, it’s God’s ways. How we apply God’s ways is up to us. In the end, it’s still God’s Word. The bottom line is that while we (America) are a “National of Laws”, if we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless” due to our guilt culture. Let’s put a stop to this today and seek God’s Word-His Truth, despite how we feel about His command for Capital Punishment-the Death Penalty.
