World Religion and World Politics
The article: Why One Should Forgive One's Neighbour
Why One Should Forgive One's Neighbour
Chapter 1
Legislation and the state in our time
We live in a cultural epoch in which the generally accepted view in certain situations is in effect "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth".
It is this view that is the basis for the authorized murder we call "the death penalty" and indeed for everything connected with the term "punishment".
When one human being has murdered another, many people feel that it is right that the murderer too should be put to death.
Can it be more clearly demonstrated that the law of Moses is being practised here?
Why then be so bitter towards the Jews – as we have seen many are – when one oneself practises sheer Judaism?
While it is true that Denmark has abolished the death penalty we have seen here that Christ's words "Let he that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" are still of immediate importance.