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3. More Christian leaders criticize Saddam Hussein execution
You can skim the links below for the most-recent Christian remarks on the hanging. Most are pretty similar to those we noted in our last Weblog. Most focus on the death penalty in general rather than on the specifics of the Hussein case. Brian McLaren, for example, writes, "Taking the human life of a person in the name of human life brings no sense of justice or satisfaction to me. Rather, it brings the opposite. … Whether executions are justified or not, I feel dirty and ashamed whenever I hear of an execution, and Saddam's was no different. I hope I don't ever stop feeling that way."

Jim Wallis suggests that Iraq's executing of Saddam was as bad as the genocide he was executed for. "By taking his life, we sink to his level," he wrote. "If we truly believe that all human life is created in God's image, then no matter how distorted that life may become, we do not have the right to take it."

And here's Shane Claiborne: "For those who believe in hell, executing someone who may not yet know of the love and grace of Christ is doubly offensive. … Grace is hard to communicate with a noose."

Then there are the ongoing condemnations from Catholic leaders. Following remarks from the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace that the execution was "a crime," Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, has labeled the hanging "a denial of natural justice and a sin." What's more, Vithayathil argued that Hussein "was not given an opportunity to be heard."

That Catholic leaders are using the news to reiterate their opposition to capital punishment is about as predictable as Southern Baptist leaders using the news to reiterate their support of it—or at least of the government's right to use it when necessary. But Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is far more critical of Hussein's execution than, say, Mark Tooley or Marty Peretz. "Simple justice demanded Saddam Hussein be found guilty by his countrymen and executed in the manner that befits such a war criminal, by hanging rather than a firing squad," Land told Baptist Press. "The justice that demanded his execution, however, was cheapened by the less-than-dignified manner in which the execution was carried out."

Baptist Press also got a statement from Leith Anderson, interim president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Noting that he's personally against the death penalty, Anderson said, "Governments and people need to make judgments; they need to make decisions. I hope capital punishment is used only in the clearest cases and with the most careful of applications. The execution of Saddam Hussein was done by a government other than the United States. It was, therefore, beyond our jurisdiction politically. I have no doubt he committed crimes worthy of this punishment. However, being pro-life I am always reluctant to see the use of capital punishment."

4. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese dies at 65
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, American history professor at Emory University, convert to Catholicism, and public intellectual, died January 2. She sat on the editorial board of Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture, to which she contributed several articles over the years.

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January (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51