Why does the US and so many of its citizens continue to support the death penalty?

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The Roman Catechism of Trent is not the most up-to-date catechism used by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Church is currently opposed to the use of capital punishment.

Also, you just said 2 isn’t a valid justification but then you cited the Catechism of Trent as authoritative. Which is it?
 
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  1. That’s alot of prescribing motive with no evidence.
  2. Your point was abortion and the death penalty were both equally evil because we all have worth. My point is the person trying to kill you has worth too, but you said you see nothing morally wrong with killing him given the circumstances. Doesnt seem very consistent.
 
Also, your baseless racism/xenophobia claim seems to be baseless based on all the studies I’ve seen:
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nfinke said:
My point is the person trying to kill you has worth too, but you said you see nothing morally wrong with killing him given the circumstances. Doesnt seem very consistent.
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But “I” have worth to and Aquinas says we have a greater obligation to protect our own life than that of our aggressor. So if “my” life is at risk, can striking a lethal blow against the aggressor really be compared to the other 2 cases of killing?
 
This is simply not true. This is what the Catechism teaches:
Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
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The death penalty is “inadmissible.” That is pretty clear. The Church need not go back and specifically refute every place that some other formulation was made, why would that be necessary? The teaching is clear. One can dissent from it, but it is not possible to deny that it is what it is.
 
No because CCC 2267 is explicitly directed to “safeguarding the common good” which is the secondary (2) justification in Roman Catechism of Trent, thus doesn’t even discuss , let alone abrogate the primary (1) justification above (retribution)
 
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TMC said:
The Church need not go back and specifically refute every place that some other formulation was made, why would that be necessary?
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Exactly. It’s a completely made-up rule. And besides: it would be the Church’s job to do this if it decided to do it, not laity on the internet.

The current catechism provides teachings for catechesis.
 
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I’m not saying the death penalty is self defense. I am saying because there are obviously situations where killing a person is morally ok, you can’t just say with a blanket statement “unborn children are life, convicted serial murderers are life, killing them is always just as evil” because there are obviously other factors
 
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To let your family die and not protect them in self-defense would be sinful
 
Statistics lie… how many more white people are there than black people in the US… hundreds of thousands… to see a statistic that is only 200 less blacks than whites… that does not follow the amount of more whites than blacks by a ratio. In other words, by percentage of the entire population, blacks are being executed an insane amount more than whites.

Don’t let stats fool you… this is a case of blatant stats are lies
 
do_justly_love_mercy said:
What I am asking is, rather, whether anybody can provide an explanation for why the United States, almost uniquely among comparably developed countries, persists in its use of the death penalty.
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Trying to stay on topic, which it seems has runaway again.

Maybe who tends to favor the death penalty can lend insight into why? How did they come to have this outlook and why are they reluctant to change it?

54% of Americans, among most likely in favor are:
older, white, male, Protestant (secondly Catholic), Republican, less educated

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www.pewresearch.org
 
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So what would you say about the statistic from the DOJ that black Americans commit +50% of the violent crimes while making up about 13% of the population? Is every statistic wrong and only what you say true based on no evidence?
 
The culture of death is more spread by the media than the rarely used death penalty.
 
Dolphin said:
It’s rather disgusting the Republican Party claims to be the “pro-life” party but also firmly supports the death penalty. Not to mention many other anti-life positions but hey, I’m not here to open up a can of worms
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You aren’t? The why post it. Pro life to meme and protection of life in the form of abortions. Putting to death an evil dangerous person is not equal to mutilating a baby.
 
nfinke said:
you can’t just say with a blanket statement “unborn children are life, convicted serial murderers are life, killing them is always just as evil” because there are obviously other factors
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Quite right.
 
While the racism argument may or may not be true, it’s not worth arguing about. It’s not a strong argument against the death penalty; rather, it seems to suggest the death penalty would be completely fine, were it not for discrimination.
The correctness is beside the point; it’s simply not effective.
 
I disagree with the Church on the death penalty. I try not to, but I can’t help it. Maybe someday I will “see the light,” but I kind of doubt it.

Why am I not against capital punishment? Two basic reasons:
  1. There are some crimes that deserve it. Human traffickers, for example, even if no actual murder occurs.
  2. It’s abhorrent that crime victims’ families are required to pay taxes to provide food, clothing, shelter, and medical care for the villains. Even if it’s a scintilla of a cent, it’s morally wrong for the victims’ loved ones to have to provide for the care.
I’m aware this is at odds with the Church and the “developed“ world. I’m ok with that.
 
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