Mercy unstrained
Let me direct the reader to the excellent blog of Maureen Mullarkey, Studio Matters. It is as informative on religion as on art, and often on both in juxtaposition. She wrote, recently, a marvellous piece in defence of capital punishment; specifically the executions ordered by the popes. We live in a time not only very evil, but intensely softhearted and sentimental, such that the prevailing attitude to murderers, terrorists, pirates, &c, is to negotiate, and thus to let them off. The instinct of the intelligent is, however, to be strict rather than accommodating.
By all means, like the popes when they were ruling the papal states, we should pray quite sincerely for the souls of those we are about to hang, decapitate, or draw and quarter. Legal executions are not murder, and never were. And our mercy should apply to all persons, not only to the criminals but also to their victims. Again, all persons of common sense will understand this. (It is unfortunate that Pope John Paul II succumbed to sentimentality on this score.)
Consider, as we must at the moment, Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, &c. I do not agree with New York’s radical mayoral candidate, Zohran Madmani, that “the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim” — I think he exaggerates. But what to do when, for instance, fanatical Muslims are coming to kill you? Most, even without consulting Jesus, will realize that the practical answer is to kill them back — before and not after. I do not think Christ told Christians to make themselves defenceless.
But the gallows, once the criminals are captured, disarmed, charged and convicted, is a merciful thing. It removes the chance of recidivism. It argues that justice transcends biological life. And as David Frum once told me, it is a way to show that the state takes the individual seriously.
However, it need not come to that. A vigorous defence will normally make that unnecessary. It is why we must carry guns through certain neighbourhoods, and why the most merciful thing to do with a pirate or abductor is to blow his brains out, post-haste. This is even more merciful to his victims than to the assailant himself.