Christians supporting the death penalty: Please clear up the confusion?
963957
Great question.  We know that the Old Testament preaches "An eye for an eye" but apparantly Jesus made that rule no longer applicable saying to "love thy neighbor as you love yourself" and to "turn the other cheek".  So I find it very contradictory that Christians support the death penalty (among other things but don't get me started).  This is yet another example of Christians who pick and choose which part(s) of the Bible to follow and which part(s) to ignore.  It just depends on what benefits the individual and supports his or her personal opinions.  Not to mention that Christians are supposed to encourage others to get "Saved" before death, so would they not want to reform a person rather than giving them the death penalty?  Would they not want that person to 'let Jesus into their hearts'?  What a tangled web we weave...
541781
I SO flunked a paper in college once on this subject.  I am in favor of capital punishment & my professor wrote that I "failed to make a compelling argument".  All I said was that child rapists/killers should be strung up by their balls & suspended mid-air until they die!!  Am I so wrong?\n\nForgive me, Lord, I was not brought up this way!  These are my own convictions & I stand by them!!
36791
Because most people in the USA believe in punishment, and many believe in the notion of "an eye for an eye" for murder. \n\nEven in the face of some high visibility questioning of the fairness or accuracy of the death penalty, it is still very difficult politically to gain the momentum to end the death penalty.
493925
I'm prolife and I do not support the death penalty.  As you said, it's a form of murder.  No matter what someone has done, death should not be wished/forced upon them--it's very sad how meaningless LIFE (the greatest gift ever) has become.
852944
I think you're on the right track here in pointing out the hypocrisy of the "personal freedom" argument that baby killers use. How is killing an unborn child in support of the CHILD'S freedom? They always come back with "but it's not a child, it's a clump of cells". That's all they have, but I think they do know better in their hearts. They're just in denial, which is really sad.\n\nBTW, it is also not hypocrisy to be anti-abortion but pro-death penalty. Those folks who believe this are making the distinction between the taking of innocent life vs. taking the life of a person guilty of the heinous crime of murder. However, I personally do not support the death penalty either in ANY case. All people were put on earth for a reason and it should be left up to God to work his magic in their lives and help them come to see why their actions were wrong and change their hearts. They should be put in jail for life simply to protect the public from them in case they never change.\n\nEuthanasia is wrong as well. Those who are not inside a person's head to know for sure what they are thinking and what their wishes are should not make a decision to actively or passively take a person's life. Who are they to make the judgment that this person's life is no longer worth living?\n\nAnyway, I like that you are standing up for what you believe in. It's important that we all do that, no matter how persecuted we are by those who would silence us.
307228
Wow...you hit a very old and debated question.\n\nA few thoughts:\nIf no crime deserves the death penalty, then it is hard to see why it was fitting that Christ be put to death for our sins and crucified among thieves.\n\nRomans 13:4:\n"is not without purpose that the ruler carries the sword. He is God’s servant, to inflict his avenging wrath upon the wrongdoer"\n\nMatthew 26:52:\n"...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." -Jesus Christ\n\nActs 25:11:\nPaul states: "If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die."\n\nJohn 19:10,11:\n"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"  Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above..."  \nJesus reminds Pilate that the implementation of the death penalty is a divinely entrusted responsibility that is to be justly implemented.\n\nYou remember when Jesus was on the cross and one of the thieves said "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve."?  Neither God nor Jesus nor the Holy Spirit nor the prophets nor the apostles ever spoke out against the civil authorities use of executions in deserving cases - not even at the very time of Jesus’ own execution when He pardoned the sins of the thief, who was being crucified along side Him. In fact, quite the opposite. Their biblical support for capital punishment is consistent and overwhelming. Furthermore, Jesus never confuses the requirements of civil justice with those of either eternal justice or personal relations.\n\nI think that is enough...
415079
Death Sentence = Capital Punishment
55599
The short answer is that we live in a Democracy and death penalty laws are on the books because people (or their representatives) put them there.  There are usually four distinct groups of people involved and it cuts across party lines.  Large groups favor the death penalty and large groups oppose it for any number of good reasons.  Small groups who have lost someone to murder believe that the death penalty is "too good" for the perpetrator, but are not allowed to take the law into their own hands.  Small groups related to the murderer oppose the death penalty because of shame and the fact that they still love the perpetrator and find good excuses for him/her.\n\nOn top of all that, sensational murders committed by those who expect to escape punishment spur on society to support the death penalty.  Crimes against innocent children are particularly heinous.  And news that someone convicted of murder has been proven (by DNA tests?) to be innocent show the weaknesses in our judicial system.\n\nThe question really is not all that simple.  In New York state, the results of a close Governors race was likely determined on the death penalty issue.  The winner favored the penalty while the incumbent never used it based on personal beliefs.  Changing politics will always be involved.  Many will always feel that a barbaric murderer should know that he/she might face a barbaric fate.  And some feel that might save innocent lives.
816986
not quite the same thing really....although i am in favour of eutahnasia which should be strictly controlled and not  used as an excuse to get rid of people that we feel as a society are no longer able to contribute to our society..i,,m not in favour of the death penalty..you only have to look at the tragic case of Timothy Evans who hanged after being wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and baby daughter..in the end it turned out to be Christie,,what would you do then? you cannot bring back an innocent man from the dead and if this doesn,t convince you then just look at al the miscarriages of justice there have been
598300
Question: "What does the Bible say about the death penalty / capital punishment?"\n\n \n\nAnswer: The Old Testament law commanded the death penalty for various acts: murder (Exodus 21:12), kidnapping (Exodus 21:16), bestiality (Exodus 22:19); adultery (Leviticus 20:10); homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), being a false prophet (Deuteronomy 13:5), prostitution and rape (Deuteronomy 22:4), and several other crimes. However, God often showed mercy when the death penalty was due. David committed adultery and murder, yet God did not demand his life be taken (2 Samuel 11:1-5, 14-17; 2 Samuel 12:13). Ultimately, each and every sin we commit should result in the death penalty (Romans 6:23). Thankfully, God demonstrates His love for us in not condemning us (Romans 5:8).\n\n \n\nWhen the Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and asked Him if she should be stoned, Jesus replied, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). This should not be used to indicate that Jesus rejected capital punishment in all instances. Jesus was simply exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus into breaking the Old Testament Law...they truly did not care about the woman being stoned (where was the man who was caught in adultery?) God was the One who instituted capital punishment: “Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6). Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Therefore, I would say that Jesus would support capital punishment. Jesus also demonstrated grace when capital punishment was due (John 8:1-11). The Apostle Paul definitely recognized the power of the government to institute capital punishment where appropriate (Romans 13:1-5).\n\n \n\nSo, basically, we are back to were we started. Yes, God allows capital punishment. But at the same time, God does not always demand the death penalty when it is due. What should a Christian’s view on the death penalty be, then? First, we must remember that God has instituted capital punishment in His Word; therefore, it would be presumptuous of us to think that we could institute a higher standard than He or be more kind than He. God has the highest standard of any being since He is perfect. This standard applies not only to us but to Himself. Therefore, He loves to an infinite degree, and He has mercy to an infinite degree. We also see that He has wrath to an infinite degree, and it is all maintained in a perfect balance
208658
The premise that capital punishment offers is all good, however the realities are far removed.  As part of my BA in Law and Criminology we covered a module on the death penalty in the U.S. Several facts about the death penalty and it's application are worrying.\n\nFirstly state representation in death penalty cases are usually substandard (Bright 1994).  As a result the mainly poor, black defendents are required to fight a case put together with the full resources of the state with as little as $3000 to fund their case (Paduano and Smith 1991).  The amount of funding required to fund a full defence is, at the most conservative $100,000, rising to £1,700,000 if you take less conservative estimations (Paduano and Smith 1991).\n\nThere is discrimination in the way that the death penalty is applied to ethnic minorities, with the most likely person to be facing the death penalty a indigent black person who has killed a white victim.\n\nThe cost of inflicting death on a person, when considering the costs of appeals, habeous corpus review and other elements of the case means that it is often cheaper to sentence an offender to life without the possibility of parole.\n\nThere is even research to suggest that rather than deter possible offenders the influence of an execution is the opposite, this is termed 'brutalization'.  Basically when the state executes somebody, the state devalues human life which can lead to other people following the example of the state in so much that for wrongs done against them they see the use of deadly violence as legitimate.\n\nOther objections are to do with the use of a paraletic agent in lethal injection so that the condemned is not able to show any pain and therefore any violation of his constitutional right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment cannot be seen.\n\nI also take issue with the irreversability of the death penalty, there have been many incidents of innocent people being put to death, so many infact the Illinois Governor George Ryan has put a moratorium on any exectutions in his state.\n\nPublic opinion is a tricky one.  Some poles show that people are in favour of the death penalty and some not.  This depends on the framing of the question, support for the death penalty greatly reduces when the option of life without parole is included.  In order to abolish the death penalty the federal state needs to lead from the front, once the abolition is in place then public opinion will fall into place as has happened in the UK and western europe.\n\nAs you can probably tell I am against the death penalty, mainly for the above reasons but also because no civilized society should have the need to put people to death, especially people under 18 (although the supreme court did ban this a couple of years ago, at last) and mentally under developed people who cannot understand what they are about to recieve (this is also unconstitutional, but still occcurs).\n\nThe sources below are only a brief list, however the Sarat book just below this is quite excellent and will open your eyes, a must read!\n\nFor more information see the excellent book by Austin Sarat,\n(2001) "When The State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition" Princeton: Princeton University Press, and to find out the experiences of a lawyer working in capital cases see Scott Turow (2003) Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyers Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux\n\nIm just going to leave you with this to think about, as Ghandi said An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, enough said really
759325
Not me. The death penalty is the Hammurabi code in action. If you kill a criminal because he kill a innocent them the government is part of the criminal system. Following this theory, for example, is a drunk driver kill a family in a crash accident I believe the penalty will be killing the drunk driver family.Or not?\nThe EU and other civilized countries banned such practices.
894019
Absolutely. The death penalty should be administered to anyone denying the existence of God.\n\nOnce of course, his existence is proved.\n\nOver to you Heinz!!
1087557
I'd address three topics:\n\n1.Is it justified (eg. eye for an eye, revenge Vs rehabilitation, rights of the victim and their family, risk of miscarriage etc)\n2.Is it effective (eg. is it a deterent, does it make better societies, is it cheaper than permanent incarceration etc)\n3.Is it legal (eg. is it a cruel and unusual punishment, the position of international law, etc)\n\nYou've probably been asked the US/UK part because we are fairly similar societies with a largely common ancestry\nand tradition, but the UK abolished the death penalty whilst much of the US still uses it.  You can go two ways on this - \n1. the US is a much younger society still in a vigourous development phase facing the challenges of it's huge size and diversity so frontier justice is still appropriate (similar claims for China by the way, the other big executor).  when the UK was trying to hold a huge empire together it executed loads of people too.\n2. the existence in the US of a more fundemental christianity gives people a different perspective on life (and death) from the broadly humanist (post christian) views in Europe (including the UK) where morality is more personal and less something learned from religion.  Religious Europe was a very bloody place indeed for hundreds of years.\n\nHope this helps, BTW my opinion is that it is as morally justifiable as war.  I really don't want to have to do it, but sometimes I might have to protect my family and society.  Right now I think both our societies could live without capital punishment, and therefore should - but that could change.
755060
In the real world, no.\n\nSubstitutionary justice is no justice at all...it's sick and it's a cynical way to balance ledgers.  Hell, you see some of that going on in the Middle East with groups killing one another:  Someone looses a child to a rival tribe's assassin, he goes and murders some other member of the rival tribe in revenge, the sibling of the murder victim goes out and machineguns a bus of the first mans' tribe...and it never ends.\n\nThe whole thing started with the notion of blood sacrifice to God to atone for sins...goats, sheep, and so forth.  Did anyone notice that when Cain supposedly offered God some of his hard-grown wheat and Abel offered an animal he had caught, God liked Abel's sacrifice more?  God had a fetish for blood, I guess.  And burning flesh too.  Until Jesus's got spilled, then he suddenly got squeamish about it.  \n\nHe didn't die for anyone's sins:  He was killed because he was politically inconvienent and became a martyr to his own cause.  That's all.  The rest of the nonsense got tacked on later.
338059
If use of the death penalty kills even one innocent person, it is a great evil, and the state has committed cold-blooded murder.  There are groups doing research who claim we kill at least one innocent every year.  There is also the point that the United States was created as a Christian nation.  Read your history.  If you are a Christian, you follow the teachings of Christ.  He demonstrated His feelings about the death penalty when He saved Mary from the charge of adultery.  Just some thoughts.
34205
becasue there are people out there the deserve it. I believe in the death penalty very much. If they are found guilty of what they did and its a bad thing then they deserve to die for it. They have no mercy on what they did so why should we show mercy.