Church Teaching on Death Penalty

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So you agree that it could be a legitimate exegesis, even thought it disagrees with the literal interpretation of most of the Fathers (but remember that it isn’t a matter of faith and morals, only of historiography ) - wich, anyway, was the case, for example, with geocentrism and young-earth creationism (again, not a matter of faith and morals, but, in that case, of natural philosophy )?
 
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Can’t God use human rhetoric, when communicating to humans, if He wants to? Also, would God have given a command but at the same time have prevented the perfect execution of that command?
 
I’m clearly talking about an historical event, no one can doubt that the Book of Joshua and Genesis are, in some forms, historical.
 
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Alright. But I think we have diverted too much into it, so, given the fact that we agree on the most important things (God ordained the killing of some people and killed some people Himself ) we’d better stop here and come back to the main issue.
 
I think he is talking about the Catechism. In a passage about the Seventh Commandment, it is stated that enslaving people is a sin against the dignity of the human person (even thought I think the Catechism is talking about chattel slavery - intendured servitude could be a legitimate last resort in case of extreme poverty, and penal labour is a legitimate form of punishment, given the respect of the dignity of the human person in every case ).
 
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You say…
I say your fundamentalist interpretation of scripture is horrifying and false, and it incompatible with Christ, who is the hermeneutical key to all of Scripture.

What did you think of Pope Benedicts comments in the link I posted?
How about this one from the same document:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedi...ts/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini.html
POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION VERBUM DOMINI OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE WORD OF GOD
IN THE LIFE AND MISSION
OF THE CHURCH
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The “dark” passages of the Bible
  1. In discussing the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments, the Synod also considered those passages in the Bible which, due to the violence and immorality they occasionally contain, prove obscure and difficult. Here it must be remembered first and foremost that biblical revelation is deeply rooted in history . God’s plan is manifested progressively and it is accomplished slowly, in successive stages and despite human resistance. God chose a people and patiently worked to guide and educate them. Revelation is suited to the cultural and moral level of distant times and thus describes facts and customs, such as cheating and trickery, and acts of violence and massacre, without explicitly denouncing the immorality of such things. This can be explained by the historical context, yet it can cause the modern reader to be taken aback, especially if he or she fails to take account of the many “dark” deeds carried out down the centuries, and also in our own day. In the Old Testament, the preaching of the prophets vigorously challenged every kind of injustice and violence, whether collective or individual, and thus became God’s way of training his people in preparation for the Gospel. So it would be a mistake to neglect those passages of Scripture that strike us as problematic. Rather, we should be aware that the correct interpretation of these passages requires a degree of expertise, acquired through a training that interprets the texts in their historical-literary context and within the Christian perspective which has as its ultimate hermeneutical key “the Gospel and the new commandment of Jesus Christ brought about in the paschal mystery”.[140] I encourage scholars and pastors to help all the faithful to approach these passages through an interpretation which enables their meaning to emerge in the light of the mystery of Christ.
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What do you think?
 
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Why do I care how you interpret the bible?
Because this kind of extremist biblical fundamentalism sends people running from Christ, that’s why.
And it makes life easy for atheists, who are just salivating over these kinds of Christian caricatures. It gives them easy punching bags with which to attack Christianity.
 
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goout said:
Because this kind of extremist biblical fundamentalism sends people running from Christ, that’s why.
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I think that in most cases it is used as an excuse for not believing in God, rather than being the cause of disbelief.
 
Do you think it is possible to exaggerate the mercy of God?
Have you looked at a crucifix lately?
Do you know that God’s justice is taken in up God’s love, that justice serves love, and points to it?
Did you know that God is love?
 
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goout said:
I am sorry for your vision of God.
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God is both just and merciful. If He wasn’t, He would be morally defective, but then He wouldn’t be God. A just God doesn’t overlook sin, He punishes it. The whole purpose of the death of Christ is that God offered His Son as a sacrifice in order to atone for our sins, taking our just punishment on Himself. This is Christianity. Deal with it.
 
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LeonardDeNoblac said:
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goout:
I am sorry for your vision of God.
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God is both just and merciful. If He wasn’t, He would be morally defective, but then He wouldn’t be God. A just God doesn’t overlook sin, He punishes it. The whole purpose of the death of Christ is that God offered His Son as a sacrifice in order to atone for our sins. That’s Christianity. Deal with it.
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So what you are saying then is that because the nonviolent Christ went to the cross for our sins, God the Father wills and commands the slaughter of women, children and other innocents, in literalist fashion.

Is that what I hear you saying?
 
Do you even know what love is?
[/quote]

Wow. so that’s the kind of nasty fruit that your vision of Christianity produces.
Very enlightening.
 
Things we know from our Catholic forum:
God punishes sin by commanding warriors to kill innocent people (of course, they weren’t really innocent, right? They might of been children, but GUILTY!)
Christ is not nonviolent because he tossed the money changer’s tables over.
God’s mercy is contained and limited.
 
Death is the wage of sin (Romans 6:23). The consequence of the first human sin ever was that spiritual and natural death entered the world. Yes, that’s how really terrible and horrific sin is, and why should we take it seriously and avoid it.
 
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goout said:
God’s mercy is contained and limited.
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The main sign of God’s mercy is that He sent His Son to share our sufferings and die for us all in order to save us from death. He didn’t have to do so. He would have been perfectly just in letting us all die in our sin. But He loves us so much that He wants to save us all, even if we don’t deserve it because we have betrayed and offended Him in every possible way.
 
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However, I don’t have any problem with the change in the Catechism, because Pope Francis hasn’t declared the death penalty intrinsically wrong. He has only made a prudential judgment about the application of the death penalty under the current circumstances. One may legitimately disagree with him, even thought such a disagreement should be justified.
 
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