Reuters writer Ed Stoddard has written an article titled “Religion and culture behind Texas execution tally”

Great eye-catching headline there, Mr. Stoddard.

Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian, highlighting one key factor in Texas’ enthusiasm for the death penalty that many outsiders find puzzling — the support it gets from conservative evangelical churches.

This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find justification in scripture.

“A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see sanction for that in the Old Testament especially,” said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Yessir, we evangelicals go to church and stand around after hearing the pastor tell us weekly we should kill people on death row and talk about killing more people on death row just because.

Instead of going to a professor of theology or a well-known minister, Reuters goes to a political scientist at SMU to discover Christianity is the cause of all those executions in Texas.

He then goes on to tell us the cultural problems with the death penalty, but for purposes of this post I’m sticking with the religion aspect of what he alleges.

I am an evangelical Christian of the Baptist variety. I am not 100% in favor of the death penalty and wish sometimes we didn’t have one.

Then there are circumstances such as Ted Bundy or the brutal killing of a child that make me feel human justice demands the death penalty because if the perpetrators were ever to escape they would continue with their killing sprees.

I have also said if someone is to be executed we had better be 100% dead certain he is guilty of the crime for which he is being executed, because there is no “oops” possibility here if we are wrong.

I had read several articles yesterday in the Washington Post which had to do with religion, and I had planned to write them in a positive way until I made the mistake of reading the comments on the posts there.

I knew our country was slipping spiritually, but when you read it and see how rampant it is, you really don’t understand it. I guess I’ve just led a sheltered life as far as what I have seen and heard, but to see and read what some of the awful things these people say is just mind-boggling.

In every thread it always got around to politics and beating on Republicans for being Christians. I won’t be writing that post, but I wanted to mention it here.

As for Reuters, well the disrespect for their news coverage I had before is even higher now.