There are two different types of justice that are explained through the Scriptures; passive justice and active justice. In the film Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen, a nun, comforts Matthew, a convicted murderer and rapist, and tension grows between her comforting Matthew over the family's loss of children. Sister Helena opposes the death penalty, while the apostle Paul, in Romans 13, did not oppose the death penalty. The apostle Paul teaches that we are to live with one another by grace, but Paul also clearly states that we are to obey and respect human government. Passive justice and active justice are examined in Dead Man Walking. Passive righteousness refers to the righteousness that God has given us. We were given this righteousness because God loved us enough to send His only begotten Son to die on the cross for us. This justice and the actions produced come out of us. They are the acts that we commit ourselves to perform based on our faith. This refers to the “fruits of the Spirit,” which Paul writes about. Active righteousness is also known as what we know as civil righteousness. This refers to the actions we choose to take on our own. Instead of affecting our relationship with God, they affect our relationships with our neighbors. In this film, Sister Helen believes that there are some human rights that are negotiable, but that there are “fundamental” human rights that cannot be negotiated. For example, two human rights that the government should not control or act upon; the right not to be killed or tortured. He believed that violating these human rights essentially made the government responsible for committing the same act. His belief leads to the question of whether people put...... middle of paper ......r, he should be given the death penalty. Romans 13:1-7 clearly teaches that human government is given and commanded to us by God. We must obey and respect the government because the government does not bear the sword in vain, as we would. God is the same yesterday, he is the same today and he will be forever. His command on the necessity of capital punishment for those who kill others has not changed. What Sister Helen doesn't understand is that God is not gray. It gives commandments that are black and white and are to be followed and not molded into something we would rather choose to do or believe. Murder is not taking life in a situation of defending oneself, or a soldier in the army defending rights. God gave us. Killing, given these examples, is praised in the Bible. We Christians, in obedience to our God, must endure and support the death penalty.