One of the usual arguments against the death penalty is the commandment, "Thou shall not kill." On its face, that would seem to be a valid argument, but it's not.
First of all, the command is given to individuals, not to government. The Bible makes clear that government has certain responsibilities that are not given to individuals, one of which is to punish those who do evil, even to the point of "wielding the sword" if necessary. Domestically, that's accomplished with our justice system when it works properly. When we face a foreign adversary, it is our military.
Taken to its logical conclusion, applying "Thou shall not kill" to the government would require police to disarm - and even soldiers for that matter - for fear that they might kill someone in the line of duty.
There are legitimate elements of debate on the death penalty. But this is not one of them.
For more on the proper role of government, order the print or audio edition of our primer titled Governing by Principle. We'll send a copy at no cost to you. Go to mspolicy.org or call us at Triple8-MSPolicy.
At my church, we sometimes sing a song entitled, "Give thanks with a grateful heart." At first blush, that seemed redundant to me. How can you give thanks without a grateful heart? (more…)
Mississippi’s budget woes would not be nearly as severe if marriage still had the prominence it once did in the state, according to Forest Thigpen, president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy (MCPP). His comments were based on a study released today in Washington, DC, that estimates the cost of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing on federal, state, and local budgets. The landmark study, entitled “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing,” is the first scholarly, peer-reviewed study to ever estimate the cost of “family fragmentation” to federal, state, and local governments. (more…)
Mississippi is known for having some of the strongest laws in the nation regulating abortions. But this year, the state House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal one of the most important of those laws - the law that requires a twenty-four hour waiting period and requires abortion clinics to provide information to women about the procedure itself, the stage of development of their unborn child, and other important information. (more…)
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"State Spending Outpaces Family Income"
Family income in Mississippi has doubled over the past 20 years, with median family income growing from about $23,000 to about $46,000 per year. (more…)
Marriage in Mississippi: One Man / One Woman?
We have sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
This decades-old observation from George Orwell can certainly be applied to the current debate over the definition of marriage.
To hear the arguments of those who seek to redefine marriage, you would think that marriage has, for all recorded history, been recognized as any collection of people who love each other, and that the current effort to amend the Constitution is a recent creation of the "religious right" who seek to impose their morality on everyone else. (more…)