J. Daryl Charles, an affiliate scholar of the John Jay Institute and a contributing editor of Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy, is author or editor of twenty-two books, including (most recently) Our Secular Vocation (B&H Academic, 2023) and (with Eric Patterson) Just War and Christian Traditions (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022). He can be reached at dcharles@jjifellows.org.
When it comes to premeditated murder, compensation is not available. As much of human history attests and as the biblical witness affirms, it is the one crime that carries a mandatory death sentence. To suggest or argue that the ultimate human crime should not be met with the ultimate punishment is a moral travesty because it fails to comprehend the nature and meaning of the imago Dei, and thereby undermines the common good.
Date posted: 2023-03-21