What are your views on capital punishment?

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The last time I went to court and saw Jesus on the big chair was…oh never seen it.

To you, Jesus might judge us after death, but before death, your judged by a judge of the U.S. Government, unless you live outside the U.S, then maybe you have no Judge, or maybe you have more then 1, I don’t know. btw, my judge is cooler then them:

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BareKnuckler said:
The last time I went to court and saw Jesus on the big chair was…oh never seen it.

To you, Jesus might judge us after death, but before death, your judged by a judge of the U.S. Government, unless you live outside the U.S, then maybe you have no Judge, or maybe you have more then 1, I don’t know. btw, my judge is cooler then them:

http://www.familycourtchronicles.com/people/doninger/judge-judy.jpg
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Yeah, an earthly judge has a right to prosecute a convicted criminal, but the only one who can rightfully take away life is the one who gave it - God.

If you lived in Italy, you would certainly see Jesus in the courtroom as a Crucifix is displayed.

In the U.S., you probably would’ve also saw the Ten Commandents in the courtroom if it weren’t for those pesky protestors who wanted them removed.
 
Arclight said:
After I added in “major narcotics trafficker” to a list of DP-eligible offenses, you come up with the above comment.

Are you actually trying to say Jesus was a major narcotics trafficker?

Anyone can claim to be the Son of Man, or Son of God, or Son of the Stars under our first amendment.
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No, I am saying that they crucified Jesus for saying he was the son of God. Do you think that you would do likewise to someone today?
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
People who have a lot of money can get excellent lawyers and literally get away with murder, (I won’t mention any names). Poor people get incarcerated unjustly very often.
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so true… Those who made abortion legal are murderers… & yet they are highly respected & highly paid… (Sup Ct, etc.)…

oh well… things will be made right in the next world…

(not that we should forget about this world…& do nothing about injustice… but sometimes it seems there isn’t much we can do…:mad: )
 
I’m against it. What part of “thou shalt not kill” is vague or ambiguous?
 
distracted said:
What religion are you and what are your views on this subject?

Do you think capital punishment is as bad as or almost as bad as abortion?

Do you agree with the Roman Catholic Church’s position?

thanks… 🙂

(Today’s Mass readings seem to address this issue)
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1: I’m Christian. More specifically, y’all would call me “Lutheran”, as my nick also says…

2: A resounding “NO!”. “Abortion” is the willfull murder of an innocent baby, for no other reason (in 99,9% of cases) than the fact that people humped at the wrong time and don’t want a baby at the moment.
Capital Punishment is liberating society of dangerous criminals (supposing that you’re referring to CP as it’s used in the US or Japan, and not China, North Korea, etc, where disagreeing with the regime, or embezzlement, can get you executed), who have forefeited (typo?) their right to live because of their actions.

3: That depends on what it is. From what I understand, the RC church has left the door theoretically open for CP, but in practise closed. I disagree with that.
 
George_C said:
I’m against it. What part of “thou shalt not kill” is vague or ambiguous?
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The context into which it was spoken. Please take note of the fact that there are a number of crimes listed in the Torah that carried the death penalty.

(no, I’m NOT advocating using CP for those crimes! That was not my point!)

Therefore, you cannot use the “thou shalt not kill”-argument here. Unless, of course, you also say that society is bound to honor its father and mother. But that raises another question: Who might that be?

The Decalogue (typo?) is spoken to the tribes of Israel as individuals.
 
Publisher said:
I am a Friend…while the Society of Friends strongly denounce capital punishment as barbaric… against the gospel of Christ…I have my doubts. I firmly believe it is against the gospel of Christ…but in a violent society it may under extreme circumstances be permissible.

I lean more toward Deitrich Bonhoeffer’s stance…while he was convinced that killing was wrong…and a sin…he was “forced” to make a decision and become part of a consipiacy to kill Hitler…he accepted the evil he was going to be a part of by taking another man’s life…he was willing to face God’s judgement on the matter…but Hitler had to be stopped.

The attempt failed…and Bonhoeffer was hanged.

I believe capital punishment is wrong…but I would be willing to face God’s judgement on the matter if I was convinced it had to happen to safegaurd the innocent from any further violence at the hands of a murderer.
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I think I know what you mean…On the one hand, I know that capital punishment is utterly wrong. On the other hand, I know that there have been people in this world that I could quite easily justify killing. (I have argued for decades that the only thing Claus Von Stauffenburg [sp??] did wrong, was that he should stayed with that briefcase)…
O.S.Luke said:
The problem with our government is that it is not a Theocracy (as in the context of Scripture), it is a Republic. That becomes problematic as to ascertain whether or not a government/state is “just.”
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:sad_yes:

I am a United Methodist Christian. I am opposed to capital punishment. My opposition is on possibly un-Methodist grounds: I know perfectly well that, as I said above, there are people that I could all too easily justify killing. And I think of that whenever someone is executed: How easy it is to kill someone; how easy it is to make it seem acceptable. And I worry about what killing people by legal execution is doing to us all.

Abortion is an absolute evil. It exists only to destroy the most innocent among us. It has no place in any society.

There may be places in this world where it is not possible to securely hold prisoners for life (and I mean life–not just a span of years called “life”). I will not stand in judgment on those countries if they execute some criminals.
But I won’t try to justify them, either. Only to try to understand. And pray for an end to all this bloodshed.
 
distracted said:
What religion are you and what are your views on this subject?

Do you think capital punishment is as bad as or almost as bad as abortion?

Do you agree with the Roman Catholic Church’s position?

thanks… 🙂

(Today’s Mass readings seem to address this issue)
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Used to believe it should be on a fast lane or drive through but now agree with the church’s position, hard to be aginst abotion and for cp although differance in guilt level of the participants
 
JPUSC said:
In the U.S., you probably would’ve also saw the Ten Commandents in the courtroom if it weren’t for those pesky protestors who wanted them removed.
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Yes, we all hate Freedom of Speech every now and then, I for one cannot stand anyone protesting near my house, it makes me angry and makes me want to protest their face (punch them), luckily its only happened in a town near me, and we had a little fun with them.
 
Gottle_of_Geer said:

I think CP is absolutely necessary, for crimes such as:​

  • fraud
  • treason
  • rebellion
  • perjury in a capital case
  • child molestation
  • multiple murder
  • etc.,
    Method: a bullet in the back of the head.
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you are obviously not Catholic…
As for abortion - IMO, it attracts far too much attention, as though nothing else mattered. It’s all very well to oppose it, but how is this consistent with dropping napalm; was that ever condemned by the US bishops ?
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do you know that it wasn’t? Just becaues Christians condemn abortion doesn’t mean they think that is the only evil going on in the world… its just one of the absolute worst because of the innocence and helplessness of the victim (and actually there are multiple victims in abortion: parents, siblings, fathers… and the mother herself, who sometimes cannot ever have other children afterwards and nearly always suffers from depression and self-destructive tendencies. Some commit suicide)
And why bring children alive from the womb, if they are going to live in poverty & misery - how is that not a long-drawn out-death ? 😦 🤷
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We have the means to end dire poverty and starvation, but don’t because we are greedy and selfish… (not to mention politics). So what you are saying is: We can’t bring children into the world… might as well kill them because if we don’t kill them now, we will kill them later because we don’t give a rip…
There are, arguably, worse evils even than abortion - the CP is not one of them.
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namely?

i know one worse evil for you (worse than babies you don’t know of being aborted) would have been if you yourself had been aborted…
 
George_C said:
I’m against it. What part of “thou shalt not kill” is vague or ambiguous?
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hmmm… no make sense…

the Bible tells us an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth… (Old Testament)…

which is where you will find “thou shalt not kill”…

Not everything in the OT is supposed to be followed today (homosexuals were stoned to death back then…)… but not everything in the OT is to be summarily thrown out either…

I’m glad i have a Church to do all that sorting out for us…

but even logic (if one didn’t have the Church) would dictate that if someone has killed before for no “good” reason (such as self defense), he is likely to kill again and we have a right to protect the innocent from the not innocent… from murderers…

you protect your loved ones, don’t you?
 
distracted said:
hmmm… no make sense…

the Bible tells us an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth… (Old Testament)…
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I remember my mom saying this when I was a child. I don’t remember what it was in reference to, but i remember her having the idea that if someone does you wrong this ‘eye for an eye’ thing meant you had the right to ‘pay them back’.

I have a very different idea of this now.
I tend to think this putting a limit on retribution, rather than a requirement for retribution.
‘Eye for an eye’ just as well might mean NO MORE THAN an eye for an eye. It would not be just to take the life of the one that took your eye. It would not be just for you to take the lives of the entire family of the one that took the life of your child.

I do not know if this is theologically sound, just my thoughts.

michel
 
cazayoux said:
I remember my mom saying this when I was a child. I don’t remember what it was in reference to, but i remember her having the idea that if someone does you wrong this ‘eye for an eye’ thing meant you had the right to ‘pay them back’.

I have a very different idea of this now.
I tend to think this putting a limit on retribution, rather than a requirement for retribution.
‘Eye for an eye’ just as well might mean NO MORE THAN an eye for an eye. It would not be just to take the life of the one that took your eye. It would not be just for you to take the lives of the entire family of the one that took the life of your child.

I do not know if this is theologically sound, just my thoughts.

michel
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That actually does make sense, never thought of it that way.
 
I agree with “cazayoux”. I have argued with my LCMS classmates and teachers (though I am Roman Catholic). They believe that what I am saying is not true because it is not what their church teaches. I counter with the fact that they believe in Sola Scriptura where anyone can make up their own interpretation of Bible passages as long as they are doctrinally correct and use other Scripture to support your interpretation. I did this quite effectively in class once, and my teacher was not able to respond, but simply said, “Let’s move on” as he quickly moved away from the discussion to avoid “misleading” his LCMS students.**
 
LHN_Apologist said:
I agree with “cazayoux”. I have argued with my LCMS classmates and teachers (though I am Roman Catholic). They believe that what I am saying is not true because it is not what their church teaches. I counter with the fact that they believe in Sola Scriptura where anyone can make up their own interpretation of Bible passages as long as they are doctrinally correct and use other Scripture to support your interpretation. I did this quite effectively in class once, and my teacher was not able to respond, but simply said, “Let’s move on” as he quickly moved away from the discussion to avoid “misleading” his LCMS students.**

what’s Lcms?

as long as they’re doctrinally correct? A lot of non-Catholic religions are NOT…

did you bring that up also?

(not that it would have done any good. When it comes to religion… many pepole’s minds close like a steel trap at the sound of anything contrary…🤷
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LutheranDK said:
1:church has left the door theoretically open for CP, but in practise closed. I disagree with that.
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you can’t disagree with the official teachings of the RCC… it is the Church God established on Earth… to disagree w/ Her is to disagree with Jesus Christ…
 
To reply to “distracted”, LCMS is the abbreviation for the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod.
 
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