Yesterday was the
'International Day Against Stoning'. As is our way of protesting in this internet
era I ‘liked’ a page on Facebook to show my support. I find any kind of
execution abhorrent – and feel that to do so by stoning must drag humanity to a
very low place. Unfortunately we still need campaigns like these because some
countries still practice this.
But I have a little problem.
We all do as Christians or Jews. Stoning is quite biblical. Indeed according to
the New International Bible Dictionary
stoning is the ‘ordinary form of capital punishment prescribed by Hebrew Law’.
If you blasphemed God you were to be stoned to death (Lev 24:16); if you
worshipped ‘other’ gods and tried to entice others to do so, you were to be
stoned to death (Deut 13:6-10); even if you were caught gathering wood on the
Sabbath you were to be stoned to death (Num 15:32-36).
We can quickly quiet our
conscience by saying that they were harsher in those days and that we have
become far more tolerant, gracious, and/or civilised by today and that we would
never countenance such a punishment. Maybe. The problem is that it isn’t the
human leaders of Israel’s early society that called for stoning but God. In the
wood-gathering story in Numbers 15 when the culprit was caught and brought
before Moses they weren’t quite sure what to do with him. They knew he had done
wrong but they weren’t sure what the proper punishment should have been. So
they asked God and he told them – ‘Stone the guy to death’.
But maybe God was less
tolerant, gracious and/or civilised then.
Any thoughts?
