It is against all Christian beleifs and the Pope condemns it. I think life in a cell is much more of a punishment anyway. We are the only Western country that still uses this barbaric practice. It even costs more to execute a person with the average tax payer paying 7 million per execution for all the appeals and lawyers. I prefer life in prison as that is a living Hell. Death is not our decision to make it is Gods. The Evangelical right wingers make a mockery of Christianity when they advocate this.|||You cannot. Evangelicals are wrong about most things anyway...they vote Republican for one which to me is just plain wrong and advocate hate against homosexuals. It is more of a punishment to keep then in a cell forever than to kill them! Evangelicals are also the same people who owned slaves and said it was God's will, they are a joke, false religion and evil if you ask me.|||In the bible, people were stoned for many things, even for being a hooker, but today, the death penalty is usually only given to mass murderers. The pope is not God, nor does he represent God, or Christians. For the small chance that a murderer got out of jail, why not get rid of the person who has shown that they have the capability of killing. Why should criminals be treated better that the small families just trying to get by? Some people prefer to be in prison, because in the outside world there is just too much responsibility. Our legal system, to sum it up, sucks.. Innocent people go to jail, and when they get out are so behind in their bills, that they have to sell pot or whatever just to get by, and that lands them back in jail. This is not a barbaric practice, they are killed by electrocution or lethal injection, they can't even feel it. Imagine how much pain you would be in if you were stoned to death.
Interesting, you are asking Christians, who's laws are based on the bible, to give reasons for supporting the death penalty without bible quotes. If the bible is not to be used, rephrase, how about. " How can you call yourself human, if you support the death penalty" hmmm
note to el guapo, the messiah came not to destroy the old testament, but to fulfill it.|||"It is against all Christian beleifs..." [sic]
Really? Then I guess Romans 13 is void?
"For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." - Romans 13:4
There were Roman soldiers who carried around fasces (See link below). They were used for beating the guilty, or when necessary, beheading a criminal. Paul clearly tells us the the government has a responsibility to inflict the ultimate punishment on the ultimate offenders.
EDIT: No Bible quotes? What else would a Christian use to demonstrate "Christian beliefs?"|||I don't. Death penalty doesn't have anything to do with evangelical christianity. That's just individuals who live in States where you execute people. No Christians anywhere else in the world are calling for the death penalty. Why don't you write to your MP-equivalent if you want the law changed. I would write to my MP if it was happening in UK.|||How can one be a human being and favor the killing of innocent babies.
I make a more basic distinction, mainly why do you even make it a Christian issue...are you saying it is beyond reason to deal with. Killing a baby has got to be wrong. Killing a killer does not. You may say it is God's decision, but we know that He does make it, so it isn't a matter of right or wrong but of authority.|||Tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.And a life for a life.The wages of sin are death.|||Right. Because the Bible is not chock-full of death penalty laws.
No sirree, whenever it says "stone them" it actually means "give them candy".|||No Bible quotes? That's like asking a question about government, then saying "no quoting the Constitution."
I'm therefore going to respectfully ignore that request. It is important, however, to distinguish between the Old Testament and the New Testament:
There are many passages in the Old Testament that support capital punishment, often (as you mention) for relatively mild offenses:
- Adultery (Leviticus 20:10)
- Blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16)
- Breaking the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14 %26amp; 15)
- Disobedient children (Exodus 21:15 %26amp; 17; Leviticus 20:9)
- Homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13)
- Not being a virgin on your wedding night (but only if you're a woman - Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
Some people cite Romans 13:1-7, which states that all governments are sanctioned by God, and if the government dictates something – like capital punishment – then it is God’s will (one could also use this passage to legitimize abortion). However, I have yet to see a coherent reconciliation of this passage with governments like Hitler’s Germany, or Stalin’s Russia, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia, or any of the hundreds of others that were responsible for horrible atrocities throughout history. Governments are run by people, who are – inherently – imperfect. This is why the U.S. has a system of checks and balances, and why our laws are constantly changing (remember, there was a time when slavery was legal, when women couldn’t vote, when there were no child labor laws, etc.). This argument simply does not fly.
The New Testament (starring Jesus) is primarily ANTI-death penalty. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus praises mercy (Matthew 5:7) and rejects “an eye for an eye” (Matthew 5:38-39). James 4:12 says that GOD is the only one who can take a life in the name of justice. In John 8:7, Jesus says, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
There are many, many practical problems with capital punishment (that I won't get into here), but purely from a moral standpoint, it is pretty clear that Jesus did not support it. True CHRISTians shouldn't, either.|||Good question.
From a Catholic point of view:
Jesus, John 8:1-11, spares a women guilty of adultery whom the Mosaic Law said should be stoned to death.
If the guilty person's identity and responsibility has been fully determined then non-lethal means to defend and protect the people's safety from the aggressor are more in keeping with the common good and the dignity of the human person.
The Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives.
However in today's modern society, the capability of rendering the offender incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.
For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 2267: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3s…
With love in Christ.|||I think the key technique is this:
In the OT there are really strict rules about the conduct of trials. There are rules like 'Nothing shall be established except in the mouth of two or more witnesses'. And suppose for example I bring an accusation against someone where, if guilty, they face the death penalty ... well if I'm then shown to have brought a false accusation, I face the death penalty myself. There are laws about bearing false witness.
Now, I'm a Brit, so my knowledge of the US system is limited, but it's clear that, for instance, many people are on death row essentially on the basis of their own confession. That can't happen under OT law. It's equally clear that while you acquit people when they are convicted on false evidence (well, ok, sometimes) you don't automatically then place the relevant prosecuting authorities or witness on capital charges.
In other words, your legal system doesn't come remotely close to the standards that the OT requires. But you ignore it.
That seems to to be more or less the same system that works in other places around the world that use the death penalty, like Singapore for instance.
So you get a kind of conspiracy of silence between a state which is negligent (if not actualy corrupt) and Christians who have actually bought into the revenge and escalation mindset, but like to justify it with spurious biblical arguments.
Of course, all of this is fairly easy to unravel if the Christians are prepared to look at the whole of the Bible, and apply that to the modern world. Forgiving people who commit capital crime is there from Genesis 4 (when God goes out of his way to make sure the murderer Cain is not killed) to Jesus forgiving the woman taken in adultery (who, according to OT law did deserve to die). Sadly, the thinking doesn't seem to get done.
Anyway, if you want to know how they do it, that is it, I think.
Edit for beedi: I think you're indulging in wishful thinking. I have spoken with many evangelicals in the UK who support the death penalty and wish for its return, though they may not make a priority of campaigning for it.
Singapore, which is a highly developed modern state with a substantial evangelical Christian population, has one of the highest execution rates of any developed country over the last decade or so. I know of no evangelical group which has spoken out against it. In fact evangelicals seem remarkably passive about a state which prohibits most forms of political campaigning, even on issues which are primarily moral or ethical in nature. The only group I'm aware of in Singapore who have spoken out against capital punishment are the Catholic Good Shepherd Sisters.
Russia still has capital punishment on the books, with a moratorium due to run out in a couple of years. It also has a very large Christian population, which includes evangelicals. Surveys show that only a tiny proportion of the population are against the death penalty, and the vast majority enthusiastically support it.
It's true, there is a uniquely bizarre evangelical culture in the US, but I'm afraid it's simply not true that evangelicals in the rest of the world have significantly different views on the death penalty. Evangelicals are, in my experience, overwhelmingly in favour of it, and moves to abolish, in those countries where that has happened, have come mainly from secular politics.
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