Back from travels...

I took a little unannounced hiatus from blogging for a few days over the Christmas holiday. Emily and I were on the road visiting family in Tennessee and Arkansas, and it was just too much to try to write meaningful posts. But we're back in Durham now, and I am gearing up for the spring semester here at Duke. So I should be back on a more regular schedule.

I've received a couple of responses from the admittedly impassioned post a couple of weeks ago about the death penalty. I am as adamantly against the death penalty as I am against abortion, positions for which I make no apologies. My views on these two issues arise directly out of my faith, and perhaps someday I will write a post on why this is so.

In the mean time, I was interested to read in this morning's New York Times that a legislative commission in New Jersey has recommended that the state wipe its capital punishment laws off the books. That would make it the first state to officially abolish capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in the 1970s. As the article notes, the New Jersey commission's recommendations are following a national trend away from the use of capital punishment as an acceptable part of our penal system. The Times articles notes, "[The commission's] report found 'no compelling evidence' that capital punishment serves a legitimate purpose, and increasing evidence that it 'is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency'."

I say 'amen' to that. You can read the rest of the article here. And as always, I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.