Illinois recently abolished the death penalty.
I posted a comment about that on one off my Facebook friend’s wall about how this action devalued human life. He asked me what I meant and I wrote the following comment which I hope will be useful to you:
In Genesis there is a description of an increase of violence and murder from the time when Cain killed Abel until the flood.
After the flood God established the first “civil government” type law recorded in the Bible. It predates the Mosaic law and was given to the ancestors of all mankind – Noah and his sons and their families.
That law? “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed….”
The reason God gives for that law? “for in the image of God has God made mankind.”
The reason implied by the Biblical context? The death penalty for murder is needed to prevent a complete collapse into violence and murder. The value of each individual human being as made in the image of God needs to be established and preserved by putting murderers to death.
(These quotes are from Genesis 9:5-6: http://bit.ly/gTLPqv.)
So God Himself established that human beings should execute the death penalty for murder and that the reason is because of the value of human beings as the “image of God.”
Therefore, to disregard God on the issue of the death penalty for murder is to devalue human life.
Governor Quinn in Illinois has now cooperated with the legislature in Illinois to devalue human life by abolishing the death penalty for murder.