Matthew 11:27 (King James Version)

27) All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Also:

John 5:22 (King James Version)

22) For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

And:

John 14:6 (New King James Version)

6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

So Jesus Christ clearly stated that he passes judgement and he is the only way to the Father.

Which is why Jesus told the one on the cross next to him that repented, that he would join him in paradise, while not granting that same honor to the other who mocked him.

Jesus saved a woman from stoning by a mob acting outside of the government judicial system of that time. Just as we prevent mobs from carrying out justice today and reserve it for the court system. Jesus never stopped a legal trial and never made an effort to free anyone tried and convicted of a crime, even those sentenced to death.

You are not scary, but a sad one sir. You spend plenty of time on your blog attacking Evangelical and Conservative Christians. Then you try to speak of Christ, while denying his true role as God in flesh with the power to save souls and the only means for your salvation.

You may keep your “wisdom” and I will keep the Lord. Your leaving is a good thing, because you seek nothing but discord.

Christ did however, stop the stoning (which usually meant death) of a woman, and told the jeering crowd that the person without sin should cast the first stone.

Christ also said that he who lives by the sword dies by it. He called for us when struck on one side of our face to offer our enemy the other.

In my previous comment I asked for you to “look through the Gospel,” I considered mentioning the Paul is no where in the Gospels, since you “fire and brimstone” theocrats often use him to justify your more cruel and violent beliefs. The Gospel books of the Bible are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

As far as your questions about my personal faith, as far as the fundamentalist brand of Christianity that you seem to subscribe to is concerned, no I am not “born-again.” I do however consider myself a Christian, although to you I might as well be drawing pentagrams, sacrificing goats, and listening to rock records backwards. After all there is no middle ground, so I am either saved or I am under the power of that guy with the horns.

But I will tell you that God has saved my silly little behind, saved me from myself, and led me into a life that I never thought possible.

To me God isn’t a big Dad in the sky that puts certain people in “the corner” of hell for all eternity, while allowing others to play in his garden of heaven. We do that all on our own.

God, my worthy opponent, is something way beyond anything that either of us could ever understand. Yet God is available to whoever wants to be in God’s presence.

So save the digital “saved or condemned” thinking for those Chick comic book tracts, and enjoy the little passion play that you have put yourself in where you and your American Taliban brethren bravely defend the faith against depraved critical thinkers.

I will leave you with a bit of wisdom from Hassan i Sabbah, “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”

Gosh aren’t I scary?

Jesus also asked his disciples to once arm themselves with swords for protection.

Paul also advocated killing a person involved in some serious immorality.

But regardless of how much you agree or disagree with me on the matter of the death penalty or the use of force, I’m going to ask you one last time. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior or are you at all interested?

Look through the Gospel (the actual testament of Jesus) and let me know if Jesus brings up anything like this. I doubt you will since Christ advocated love and forgiveness.

I feel Andrea Yates deserved the death penalty for her actions. Given she has killed 5 children and is a danger to society. But I feel her soul could still be saved from eternal damnation, although her physical body would have been condemned to death. If Andrea Yates honestly repents for her murdering, Jesus will forgive her of her sins. She was already a Christian who accepted Jesus as her Lord and savior.

Despite my views of her earthly body, I feel her soul could be saved and I would meet her in paradise.

Do you believe that Mr. Heyman? And have you accepted Jesus yourself? If not you should consider it, because Jesus loves you and is able to forgive anyone of their sins.

That’s the real topic of this blog and what really matters.

Be that as it may, that debate has no place in our current one. We both accept that the death of the Yates children is murder. Our difference is over if Ms. Yates can be held responsible for her actions. You say yes. I say no.

You are attempting to hold up the fact that I “run a [l]iberal blog” and that I am pro-choice, as proof that my position on the Yates verdict is wrong. And so you are trying to change the topic of this debate.

Mr. McGavock refuses to understand that the insane are incapable of making rational decisions. Saying that Yates had other choices than methodically killing her children is irrelevant if she was legally insane. Of course she had other choices, but she had no rational mind to make them with.

Mr. McGaovock will not address the essential fact irrationality in this case. Instead he wants only to assign blame.

Rusty got the house and had someone there to help when he was not there. She found 1 hour to murder 5 children and was determined to do so despite the family, doctors and drugs. All this talk of her thoughts about killing children because of “Satan” or herself or whatever came after the fact. If she had disclosed such to her doctor or family they would have done something as they were already trying to do.

These were murders of convenience and she should have simply left her family if she felt she could not handle being there. Instead she murdered all 5 of her children and never followed through on killing herself. Somehow whenever she tried to kill herself she just never could do it right, which probably was not by accident, but by design. She was very careful when killing those children, but never devised a plan to kill herself that was successful, although she could have if she really wanted to. She devised an evilly masterful way to kill 5 children in less than one hour. She could have done away with herself in less time if she really wanted to do it.

We don’t agree on this issue and we’re not going to agree.

Andrea’s First Suicide Attempt : On June 16 1999, Andrea called Rusty and begged him to come home. He found her shaking involuntarily and chewing on her fingers. The next day, she was hospitalized after she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She was transferred to the Methodist Hospital psychiatric unit and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. The medical staff described Andrea as evasive in discussing her problems. However, on June 24 she was prescribed an antidepressant and released.
Spiraling Downward: Once home, Andrea did not take the medication and as a result she began to self mutilate and refused to feed her children because she felt they were eating too much. She thought there were video cameras in the ceilings and said that the characters on television were talking to her and the children. She told Rusty about the hallucinations, yet neither of them informed Andrea’s psychiatrist, Dr. Starbranch. On July 20, Andrea put a knife to her neck and begged her husband to let her die.
Warned About the Risks of Having More Babies : Andrea was again hospitalized and stayed in a catatonic state for 10 days. After being treated with an injection of different drugs that included Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug, her condition immediately improved. Rusty was optimistic about the drug therapy because Andrea appeared more like the person he first met. Dr. Starbranch warned the Yates that having another baby might bring on more episodes of psychotic behavior. Andrea was placed on out-patient care and prescribed Haldol.
New Hopes for the Future : Andrea’s family urged Rusty to buy a home instead of returning Andrea to the cramped space of the bus. He purchased a nice home in a peaceful neighborhood. Once in her new home, Andrea’s condition improved to the point that she returned to past activities like swimming, cooking and some socializing. She was also interacting well with her children. She expressed to Rusty that she had strong hopes for the future but still viewed her life on the bus as her failure.

Now we move to the reason why she was taken off Haldol.  Because she had become pregnant, which was done at her husband’s urging.  After the birth of Mary she went back-on Haldol when she was hospital with yet another breakdown following the death of her father.  I will also point-out that this hospitalization was at a different hospital, with a different doctor.  That doctor obviously misdiagnosed her condition.  She should not have been release.You don’t want me to bring your family into this.  Fine.  I’ll bring mine.My father is bipolar (manic-depressive).  He was misdiagnosed for years, and sent home repeatedly only to have more psychotic episodes.  When he was finally properly diagnosed, he was put on lithium, and I got my dad back.  But until he was properly diagnosed, my family suffered greatly.  My father is a good man, I’m proud of him and his recovery.  During the time that he was misdiagnosed, my mother did not leave us in his care.  We were sent to friends,  and relatives when my mother couldn’t be there to make take care of us.  She did not leave us with him, until someone could take care of us.  The Yates children were not so fortunate.While my father was ill, he had elaborate paranoid fantasies and plans.  At times he could sound quite lucid, sane, and rational.  But he was anything but.  At one point he actually was starting to convince distant relatives that it was my mother who was crazy and not him.  He is a very intelligent man, and applied that intelligence to his insanity.In Yates’ mind she was saving her children from going to hell by killing them because they were "not developing correctly."  She had visions of her son becoming a gay prostitute.  In her mind since she had failed her children they were going to grow-up in sin without being saved and thus would go to hell.  She wasn’t, as you suggest Mr. McGavock, saving them from Satan, in her mind she was saving them from herself.The other part of her elaborate psychosis is that she needed to be punished for being a terrible mother.  That was why she called 911 afterward and confessed to the crime.  That is why she plotted to get the kids alone so that she could kill them.  Just because she knew how to plot and plan does not mean that she was rational, or sane.What you refuse to recognize is that sometimes the best that we can do in situation like this is not to be unjust.  Imprisoning Ms. Yates is just that.  That isn’t to say that she isn’t a possible threat to others or herself.  That is why she is being committed to a mental institution.  Sometimes the best that we can do is to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.  Sometimes that requires understanding and compassion rather than judgement and punishment.