I am in favor of the death penalty in general, and for Saddam in particular.

He ought to be dealt with humanely. The image of God must always be honored. But it is precisely because the image of God must be honored that he must die. To deal with him in any way less than death is to dishonor the millions of images of God that he tortured and twisted and broke, including his own.

“He who sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” These words were spoken by God to Noah, as part of what’s often called the Covenant of Preservation. It was the mechanism that God put in place to restrain the wickedness of man, so as to avoid the need for another worldwide flood until God’s redemptive plan was complete. We can see how that mechanism would work when we imagine the effect that hanging Saddam would have on every dictator in the world. It would send a message that there are a few countries in the world that are willing, if you get too far out of line, to invade you and hang you. This would be a wonderfully bracing message in a world where Yasser Arafat wins a Nobel Peace prize and Robert Mugave is treated like an elder statesman instead of the cheap thug that he is.

And I hope that he is tried by the Iraqi people. As long as we could make sure that it wasn’t Saddam loyalists trying him (and that shouldn’t be too hard to ensure), we wouldn’t have to worry about justice being done. Everyone who’s ever lost a loved one to crime wants the perpetrator brought to justice. And the Iraqis have lost millions. So I hope they try him, and I hope they hang him, and I hope they do it all in public.

They say that if God never judged anyone on earth for their crimes, we might not have reason to believe that God judged at all. And if God punished all crimes here on earth, we might not have reason to expect any future judgment. So a lot of people get away with things for a while. Some people get away with it their whole lives, and die in peace (like the elder Kim of North Korea) to go to be judged by the Almighty in eternity. And God in His mercy shows us some people getting judged right here and now, for all to see, that there is a God in the heavens, and He does care what we do to each other. Thank God, and praise Him for this victory.

Yeah, They Caught Him, But It’s Still a Quagmire and Everything Still Sucks and Bush is Still a Liar So Don’t Give Him or the Americans An Inch of Credit For Anything- Reuters Headline

To support this story, Reuters rounds up a half-dozen or so unhappy Iraqis to complain, and then calls it “Iraqi Ire” as if they had just scientifically sampled the mood of the country with a handful of interviews. Well, they are Iraqis, I guess, and they did have some ire.

Let the media and the lefties cry. They know they just lost the 2004 election, and any number of other contests as well.

Saddam Hussein’s been captured!

Read, well, practically anything on it. Instapundit’s got tons, of course. So does Fox News. The Command Post has a great roundup of stories.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to live under the fear of a monster like that for thirty years, so I also can’t imagine what the people of Iraq must be feeling now. But I understand there’s a lot of celebratory gunfire in Baghdad right now.

Good for them.

I was recently asked my feelings about courtship vs. dating. I thought I’d post my response.

I don’t think there’s a set of rules or a program that’s going to work in every case. That’s why the courtship thing rubs me wrong a lot of the time.

But the dating thing isn’t any good. My big problem with it is that two young people make a commitment to each other, to ‘see’ only each other, that lasts only so long as both feel like keeping it. It teaches kids a very bad idea of what commitments are all about, and I believe just sets them up for divorce later. There is a lot of pressure to get physical, as a proof of the validity of the relationship, and then when the relationship fails, and the next one starts, the girl (especially) will say to herself that this relationship is the real one, and validate that by getting more physical than the last time. It’s a bad cycle to get into.

So my feelings on it are this. Young people should be encouraged not to make these bogus commitments to each other. A young girl should not believe she has any special status in any young man’s life until that young man puts a ring on her finger. The girl usually only gets inappropriately physical with a guy to legitimize the relationship; so if she understands there is no commitment until there’s an engagement, then that should help with that kind of pressure. Parents should be involved in this, in helping young people, especially a daughter, select the right mate.

So there’s some of the principles of the courtship movement that I think are right on. I’m just not willing to tell people exactly how it’s supposed to look in their case. The courtship people sometimes are quick in my mind to lay down a system for people, say ‘these are all the things that a courting couple is allowed and not allowed to do’. And I think that’s between the parents and their kids.

Hope this helps!

Matt Powell

I am in favor of this.

No, really. I would very much like to see a billion of these people’s money go to meditation centers. It’s just one step away from them flushing the money down the toilet. Given the sorts of things many of these folks are given to spending their money on (crack, crack whores, UN donations especially to the UN Crack Whore Fund, I’m told), it seems one of the most harmless things they could do with it.

A giggle of pure happiness, indeed.

Despite the apparent attempt by the main American media to block out this story, thanks to the blogosphere, it’s been noticed.

It’s great to be part of the revolution. Finally, the average guy doesn’t have to sit and accept whatever Dan Rather thinks he ought to know. Bloggers, unite! We’ve nothing to lose but our chains.

And it’s the internet that made it all possible. Also, it made this possible, which is almost as cool.

A&F have canceled their kiddie porno catalog, due, they say, to the desire for an exciting new campaign and having nothing to do at all with the boycotts and negative publicity they were getting.

I’m glad to hear it anyway, even if they don’t admit what seems to be the real cause. It shows that when a lot of people become aware of something, change can still happen, and that businesses can be forced to respond to the still mostly centrist ‘bourgeois’ morality of middle America.

If we as a Christian community think that there’s a lot going on in our culture that’s lamentable (and there is), we can make a difference. This proves it. We need to make our opinions known, and vote with our dollar. I’m not saying we’ve got to shut down every company not run by Christians or every company who supports anything we don’t agree with. But surely we can agree that the line’s got to be drawn somewhere, and if we can’t draw it at pornographic product catalogs targeted at youth, then where can we draw it?

This week’s sermon was on Genesis 17 and the Covenant of Circumcision. It’s uploaded. Click on the link on the sidebar to download it.

All you ever wanted to know about Saudi funding of Al Qaeda and terrorist activities is in a report in US News.

Tyler Cowen has a post at the Volokh Conspiracy on a study done on the effect Islam has on economic growth. He’s skeptical of the results. Check it out.