The wide-spread public reaction to the recent executions in Iraq of Saddam Hussein and two of his associates reveals much about the support for capital punishment by people in our country, President Bush included.

People expressed outrage at the indecorous behavior of the men who hanged Saddam Hussein. We are appalled that one his associates was decapitated when he fell to his death. President Bush told a reporter from CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he didn’t watch all of the video of Saddam’s hanging because he didn’t want to actually see him fall through the floor of the gallows.

The outrage here is not some rude behavior. It is not an unintended decapitation. The outrage is that we support and rejoice in state-sanctioned murder. The outrage is that we believe that violence can end violence. The outrage is the hypocrisy of George Bush, who as governor of Texas presided over more than 150 executions in six years, protecting his delicate sensibilities by refusing to watch the complete execution of the man he took our nation to war to depose. Capital punishment is immoral, in every instance, regardless of the crimes of the condemned. A bumper sticker put out by the Church of the Brethren reads: “When Jesus said love your enemies, I think he meant don’t kill them.” Amen.

Rev. Tom Sorenson

Sultan