James Burgess

So the news has arrived that Saddam has been hanged and the human race - once again - disgusts me. On a variety of forums I visit, I’ve seen people making jokes, laughing and throwing mini-parties about it. I can’t quite comprehend how you can actually be happy that someone’s life has been ended by another human (or, in this case, group of humans). Furthermore, how can you justify murder with murder? That’s not justice, it’s a revenge killing. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly appalled by the actions of Saddam Hussein during his reign in Iraq - but what gives any other human the right to kill a fellow human?

Aside from that, if you really wanted to punish the guy - how was ending his life (with him seeing himself as a martyr) ever going to be the best way? He should have been locked up in solitary confinement for the rest of his life, with only bread and water. No social contact, nothing to watch, nothing to do, no way to end his life himself short of starving himself - that’s punishment. And maybe, just maybe, he’d live to regret his choices. What has actually happened is a government has murdered a former dictator who was seen by himself, and countless others, as a martyr - even up until his final moments. Good job.

It’s on days like today that I think the human race has lost it’s humanity.

Edit: for anyone interested, Nick, Ben and I had a bit of a debate about this whole issue from a Biblical context over at Nick’s Blog.

Really, it’s people who write things like this (click) that really do my nut in, and give Christians as a whole a bad name. This person, using a mass of out-of-context Bible quotes and his own “high-and-mighty”, self-righteous attitude rips everyone from Petra to Amy Grant to DC Talk to absolute shreds - disregarding them or their music as “Satanic”. And the cheek of adding a “salvation message” to the end of it really bugs me too… why would anyone ever want to follow Jesus after seeing one of His supposed followers ripping other people to shreds? It’s beyond me.

At the end of the day, I’m not going to get too stressed about it, nor am I going to get too judgemental - but judgement isn’t up to the Christian. Maybe in all of his Bible quoting the guy forgot when Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” (John 8:7).