Cal Thomas: a Reflection of our Worst Nightmare

I wouldn't read Cal Thomas at all if it weren't for the fact that he identifies himself so openly and proudly with the same faith I claim as my own, namely, Christianity. I know pretty much what he'll say about a given issue, and I know that I will nearly always disagree with him politically; and besides that he states his opinions with such a mean-spirited sarcasm that he's depressing to read. But his religious affiliation keeps coming back at me, and I suppose I think I should know what such a prominent spokesperson of the far right is saying, right out loud in front of God and everyone else.

Today's article -- Jury Lets Terrorist Claim Victory -- deserves some comment. He thinks (no surprise here) that Moussaoui should be executed for not divulging information that could have thwarted 9/11. Living under the Old Testament law as he does (and a surprising number of Christian Fundamentalists do) Thomas follows this logic: "If human life has the highest value . . .then the only way to validate its worth is to deprive one who takes it of his or her own life." "An eye for an eye," that is. It would follow that if a person took, say two lives, society in order to be just would have to take two lives . . . the killer's, and perhaps his/her spouse. If three lives, then we could proceed on to a child, or lacking that, a parent.

There are societies, as I understand it, who do in fact practice such a system, with families taking it upon themselves to "settle the score" with an offender -- someone who has "dishonored" the family. Perhaps a "more civilized" approach is to have the State avenge the death or deaths. But I doubt it.

Thomas claims that "America's soft underpinnings" were exposed when the jury sentenced Moussaoui to a mere lifetime of solitary confinement, rather than hang him, or shoot him, or electocute him, or inject him. To the contrary, the mark of a more humane society is that it can refuse to return evil for evil.

I shudder to think what our nation would look like if it were ruled by those who espouse the views of Cal Thomas. We might be more orderly -- for fear of being attacked by the morals police -- but we surely would not be a free society. My worst nightmare is that Christian Fundamentalists have their way with us, inflicting their rules on the rest of us. This is their agenda. And it is an agenda so far from what I see in Jesus that I wonder if my faith and Thomas' faith has anything at all in common, besides the name.