Earlier this year, the Indiana legislature rejected an effort to allow the Indiana Department of Corrections to carry out executions via firing squad, and that was very disappointing to the state's far-right Christian nationalist pastor and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.
During an appearance on "The Kuyper Files," Beckwith lamented the legislature's failure to adopt the firing squad as a method of execution, insisting that the death penalty is "a blessing" for both society and the condemned, as the latter is being given the opportunity "to be in the presence of Jesus" after they are executed.
"The Bible says in Romans 13 that the government does not bear the sword in vain," Beckwith said. "What has happened is we have become more virtuous than Christ in our thinking. We've said, 'Oh, it's just wrong to kill evildoers or people who have been convicted of capital crimes because we want to be loving to them too.' Well, listen, don't be more virtuous than Christ. You can't be more virtuous than Christ, and Christ himself is the word of God and he says capital punishment is totally appropriate for some situations."
"I would say it's not pro-life if you don't execute people who have been convicted of capital crimes because then what you're doing is you're allowing other murderers to see this, or potential murderers to see this, [and] they will not fear the government," Beckwith continued. "If we don't have capital punishment, then the evildoers basically run amok."
Beckwith went on the complain that carrying out executions via lethal injection is very expensive, whereas "a firing squad [costs] a couple bucks."
"It's humane," he insisted. "It's a quick end to life. We shouldn't torture anyone, absolutely, but put them down."
"Just so people know, if somebody's convicted of a capital crime, that doesn't mean that God doesn't love them," Beckwith added. "God still loves them. And there's still hope for that person on death row too. And we as the government should recognize that and say, 'Hey, you're going to pay for your crime here in this life, you're going to be executed, however, there is life after death. And just like the thief on the right, you can be in paradise when you take your last breath and we would want that for you and Christ would want that for you.'"
"It's not unkind and it's not unloving to carry out the death penalty," Beckwith asserted. "It's unkind, unloving if we don't and we can actually bless both society and even the person on death row. It can be a blessing to them too because they can take their last breath on this Earth, open their eyes and be in the presence of Jesus."
"That's the way to do it justly, to also have mercy, and to do it humbly, just like Micah 6:8 tells us to do in scripture," he said.
The “Kuyper” in the name Kuyper Files refers to Abraham Kuyper, a late 19th and early 20th Century Dutch theologian favored by Christian nationalists who like to quote his statement, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!"
