“Let Him Who Is Without Sin Cast the First Stone”

The fate and life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian widow sentenced to be stoned for adultery, hangs in the balance. In July, due to international pressures, Iranian authorities indicated they might not carry out stoning for the time being, but the woman could still face execution by hanging.

Stoning is an inhumane and cruel form of punishment. It is barbaric. The Vatican, in a public statement issued recently, condemned it as a brutal form of punishment. Sajad, the widow’s son, has made appeals to Pope Benedict XVI, and the Vatican is using its diplomatic channels to stop the execution.

Talks about hypocrisy and self-righteousness and unchecked clerical power on the part of Iran’s moral guardians may come across as Western pontificating. So, I’ll turn to prayers instead, hoping that Christ’s teaching on this subject may teach spiritual leaders of other faiths that God’s mercy is as human as it is divine.

1 Jesus went to the mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the middle, 4 They say to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say you? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the oldest, even to the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middle. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those your accusers? has no man condemned you? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more. [John 8:7]