Matthew Shepard was an acknowledged homosexual.  Two men, appalled by his lifestyle, pistol whipped him into unconsciousness and left him to die, strapped to a fence in the freezing Wyoming temperatures.  

Though we, at Landover, know most so-called Christians are hypocrites, the
majority of Americans claim to be Christian.  And of the remaining heathens, the majority are Jews, claiming to believe in at least the Old Testament. The nation, collectively, was shocked and deeply saddened by the brutal killing of the self proclaimed homosexual.  They believe the torturers and killers should receive the harshest of punishments.  Yet how is what these two young men did to Shepard any different than what God mandated we do to sinners in the Old Testament?

Deuteronomy mandates stoning for a wide variety of sins, ranging from a woman 
have premarital sex, to a child disobeying his parents, to a person eating ostrich.  For each of these sins, and countless others, the sinner is to be placed in the public square, surrounded by townspeople who are to throw large rocks at the sinner's head and limbs and "stone him until he is dead."  Isn't that every bit as brutal as what happened to Shepard?  How in the world can today's so-called Christians reconcile their empathy and sadness for Shepard with God's word?

Now, I know what some will say -- "Jesus repudiated that principle."  That is, of course, utter nonsense, but let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it were true.  Regardless of what Jesus said, for thousands of years, sinners were stoned, at God's command.  Are we to believe that such violence is heart-wrenching and sickening and warrants the death penalty today, but was just and appropriate for all people then?  Furthermore, Jesus NEVER repudiated this principle.  Jesus simply said, "Let ye who is free from sin cast the first stone."  Jesus simply said that the people around Him (and perhaps people everywhere) weren't worthy of being executioner because they were sinners as well.  Presumably, then, if there were someone free from sin, that person would still be under an obligation to stone those who are not.

Am I missing something here, or is the sympathy for Matthew Shepard by people 
claiming to be Christians or Jews the ultimate in hypocrisy?  True Christians believe that every word of the Bible was dictated by God, Himself.  They consequently must believe that God, the Father, ordered that people who ate the wrong food or messed around before marriage should be punished in a way even more brutal than Shepard was killed.  To believe that what happened to Shepard is wrong is to believe that what is prescribed in Deuteronomy is wrong.  You either believe the Bible or you don't.

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