Letter-to-the-Editor on "Right-to-Die" Legislation

By David Hobbs 

(Published in the Appeal-Democrat on 6/15/15)

SB 128, the so-called “Right to Die” bill, is sailing through the legislature, revealing once again the schizophrenic nature of our state and nation.

            We’ve been battling 20 years over the lethal-injection method of capital punishment. First the only drug we could use went out of production; so we went to a 3 drug cocktail but had to scrap that because no licensed medical professional could be found to administer it. The court also feared that if it was administered incorrectly, it could cause excruciating pain. My but it has seemed like an impossible task to kill a killer (more death row inmates in Calif. have died from suicide in the last 40 years than by capital punishment [Wikipedia]).

            Contrast that to SB 128: terminally ill people are so easy to kill by comparison that one simple prescription from a pharmacy is all that is needed, and doctors are lining up to issue them. Why it’s so easy the patient can administer it to him/herself. Makes you wonder what all the fuss over the difficulty around capital punishment was all about!

            Also it makes you wonder about our squeamishness over the remote possibility of the killer experiencing pain as he is dying, when every day licensed medical professionals in the U.S. kill over 3000 babies in their mothers’ wombs by tearing them limb from limb, chemically burning them to death with salt, or the even more gruesome partial-birth abortion method.

Listen, the people are speaking: “Let the killing increase” (for everyone except those killers on death row—sorry, we can’t find any way to do that humanely!)

Commentary: The average well-informed citizen in this state thinks he/she has arrived at their opinions on issues of the day by much thought and deliberation of the issues. They would be shocked to know the truth: in spite of the smokescreen of their own deliberations, their opinions are as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. Because they are of the world and the world system, their opinions faithfully reflect the desires of the ruler of that system. Because the world system is a culture of death, they fall into line. That includes abortion and killing the terminally ill,  even glorifying suicide.

But how about capital punishment? Doesn't their opposition to that show that they can be at times anti-death and pro-life depending on the issue? No, because the criteria is not pro-life Vs. pro-death. The real crux is taking stands for or against God and His commandments. People consistently come out against God and His will because that is the position their father, the devil takes. Unknowingly perhaps, still they faithfully represent their father, though they would fiercely resist the notion that they are of the devil! But all of the hot-button societal issues of the day boil down to taking stands directly in opposition to the will of God--adultery, homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, euthanasia, militant feminism--they all oppose God's order and reflect the desire of the god of this world to overthrow and overturn everything God-ordained.

"But Brother Hobbs, Brother Hobbs, how about capital punishment, isn't that ungodly because it's killing another human being and is administered unfairly?"

It is administered unfairly and in its present form is a disgrace. But still capital punishment is commanded by God. It is commanded to society, while it is forbidden for an individual. We cannot avenge ourselves, but society must avenge its citizens, according to the covenant God made with mankind after Noah's flood: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" [Gen. 9:6].

Notice it is not so much to avenge next-of-kin humans for the murder done, but to avenge God against the person or even animal who destroyed a human made in God's image. God gave that responsibility to society to handle as God's agent, and all our mealy-mouthed excuses that we can't find a good way to do it blah blah blah, don't cut it with Him. It can be done, but society must find the will to do it!

"But then doesn't abortion fit in the same category: destroying a person made in God's image?" Exactly right, and think of the tremendous judgment hanging over this nation for the killing of up to 100 million babies! Also killing the terminally ill, the disabled, the child born with defects... it's all the same--destroying a person made in God's image. That's what Satan has always wanted to do. Because he can't get at God, he busies himself destroying humans made in God's image, working through his (mostly clueless) agents in society. And that shows us whose kingdom we are in and who is our father--by which side we are on. 

The average citizen of the world would be greatly offended if you told them they were of their father the devil! (And I was not bold enough to say that in my letter-to-the-editor.) But that's exactly what Jesus said to the citizens of His day (John 8:44). He also said that those who were not for Him were against Him. We each must make that same choice. It's the same now as it was then: there are only two kingdoms. There is no middle ground.