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I'd like to comment on a couple of items in the May-June issue of The Christian Statesman, another fine issue of an excellent publication. Firstly, the letter from Dr. Gary Crampton in response to David Mielke's comments about ectopic pregnancy. Dr. Crampton says taking the life of an infant in the case of ectopic pregnancy would be an act of self-defense, which is biblically permitted.

We know that self-defense isn't an absolute value; Scripture puts limits on its use. For example, Exodus 22:2-3 says: "If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed...." One normally speaks of the use of self-defense in the context of an incident in which somebody is intentionally seeking to do harm to another person, his family, or his property. There is something disconcerting about calling the killing of an innocent unborn human being self-defense. Perhaps it's just a baseless feeling, but I think this line of argument needs more development than the simple assertion of the right to self-defense.

I wanted to direct my second comment to Mr. Ziegler regarding his article, "The Bi-Polar World of Death Penalty Politics." He noted that "while deterrence is certainly a biblical by-product of all sanctions, in application such deterrence is lost through countless appeals...."

Somebody else recently asked me whether there was any empirical evidence about the deterent value of capital punishment. I didn't have any, but then the thought--God-inspired, I believe--came to me that there is one place in American life where I have seen statistics indicating a very strong deterrent effect of "capital punishment." I put capital punishment in quotes because what I am really refering to is self-defense. And the point I am driving at is the comparative statistics for violent crime in jurisdictions that permit the concealed carry of firearms and those that don't. "Concealed carry," of course, increases the risk to a criminal that he might face immediate retribution--potentially ultimate retribution--in response to his actions, and some researchers have produced statistics on crimes such as assault and break and enters which make a very strong case for the deterrent effect of such an environment.

We can--as Mr. Ziegler and the NRA do--emphatically argue that capital punishment does have a strong deterrent effect on capital crimes - or at least would have if the biblical sanction was applied biblically.

Sincerely yours,
Timothy Bloedow
Morewood (near Ottawa), Canada

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