Sixth Word - Part 2 - Exodus 20:13

20:13 – TB notes in his lecture that the Hebrew word used originally is “ratsach” which is more accurately translated as “murder,” meaning “unjust killing and only unjust killing… whether intentional or unintentional… Murder is a very good translation for the word ratsach, and the way the Western world of today things of Murder or manslaughter is exactly as this verse intends.” Of course there has to be a law against murder because it’s horrific and deprives a person of their life, there’s no way to undo that. And as far as I know, Jesus has said that murderers will have to suffer for their own sin, that of murder. Not saying that He can’t or didn’t atone for it because of course He would have had to, but because the sin of murder is so serious, He’s deemed it necessary for the murderer to experience that suffering. I could be wrong, but that’s just what I remember reading.

TB goes on to ask what constituted unjust killing and therefore what constitutes just killing. He spent a lot of his lecture talking about the necessity of the death penalty, noting that wanting to commute a death sentence to something else is not a recent phenomenon but has been going on throughout human history. I personally am against the death penalty in most cases because we just get it wrong so many times. There are so many stories coming out now, especially because we can process DNA evidence, that show that someone was wrongfully executed and once that sentence is carried out, there’s no going back. Very much like The Green Mile, which was based on a true story, or George Stinney. It has for too long been used as a method of terror and oppression on vulnerable communities for us to cling to it now like it’s served a valuable purpose in our society. Nah, not here, not now. Usually. There are exceptions.

Additionally, I will be curious to see just what constitutes murder when we get to the other side. Stalin and Mao for instance, letting tens of millions of their people starve to death because they refused to change their political policies when implementing communism. Are they responsible for those deaths? Is Hitler responsible for the deaths of the Jews and others killed in the concentration camps? What about King Leopold and the horrors that he commanded to be carried out in the Congo? Just how accountable will these people be and what will their punishment be? And what about the people who carried out these atrocities? My ex-husband just sent me a youtube video from a guy who was told from an old firefighter from the 60’s and 70’s that they would leave black families, especially the children in homes that were on fire an left them to burn to death, and they did. Where is that on the murder scale?

I watched an interview from a U.S. operator talking about being in country on a raid of a family’s home at 2am, they kicked down the door, the father went for a gun and the guy shot him. Justified? That’s the question of the day right? The guy accounting the story was distraught and he said, “why did I shoot this guy? Because he went for a gun. Why did he go for a gun? Because I was in his house at 2 in the morning and he didn’t know who I was or what I was doing. Why was I in his house? Because George W. Bush was mad that someone tried to kill his dad and sent us there.” Where’s the accountability? Where does it stop? Is George W. Bush a murderer? Is that operator? I knew from the beginning, when we went to Iraq the first time, that we were only there because George Bush wanted to be a war president, just like his dad. Of course now that I’m older I know that there was a lot more to it than that, none of it good or morally right. I think a lot of us vets feel like that now. Like we were conned, especially after the way stuff ended in Afghanistan.

Fortunately for us, the Book of Mormon is filled with military rules of engagement that run very contrary to modern day warfare tactics. I actually, at some point, want to write a book about The Art of War, Book of Mormon edition, that would cover rules of engagement, prisoners of war, intelligence gathering and implementation, strategy and tactics, etc. I also want to write a book about what to do when to like your government is being taken over by kingmen and it might not be what you think. And that would be based on the Book of Mormon as well.

Anyway, all of this is to say that his life and world is messy and horrific and anyone who’s lived a life of violence, like I have, knows that it’s complicated and that life isn’t worth much, especially if you’re born poor or into certain demographics. But like I said yesterday, just because life isn’t valuable here doesn’t mean that it isn’t incredibly valuable to God and we have to trust that He’s got a good plan and that all will be made good. I always felt like that’s such a wimpy, copout statement, because when you’re suffered violence and oppression and all these other horrific injustices, to just say “it will all be ok,” is just so insulting. But I have to trust and believe that that’s true. That not only will it work out but that it will all be worth it.