Wondering about Death penalty and Religion?

Question

I was wondering about something: the USA is a Christian Nation, and they beleive in the bible and everything in this country is based on religion. So why is it that they beleive in the death penalty. Isn't writen in the bible that killing is wrong? Isn't say that when someone slap you on the face you should give the person the other Jaw so he can slap you one more time? Where is forgiveness in all of this? Aren't we require to always forgive? By killing those people, Don't you think that we are same as them and that we will be condamned too, by God?This question is for those who beleive that the death penalty is right or wrong and who are christians

Answer 1

Most of the Christians in the US are hypocrites that are against abortion yet are for capital punishment.

I'm an Atheist

Answer 2

This is just a perfect example of why the Bible shouldn't be used to determine what is wrong and right in regards to the law. It can be interpreted in so many different way, and none of it is really consistent. Capital punishment is much more complicated, and can't be answered by reading the Bible.
An eye for an eye, turn the other cheek, thou shalt not cast the first stone, the whole concept of forgiveness...it just doesn't end.
I am personally against the death penalty, but my beliefs have nothing to do with religion; it has to do with all human rights.

Answer 3

Midnite Poets, you da man! I agree with you 100%. A fetus is not a person yet, it's a potential person. The closer it gets to the end of the pregnancy, the more questionable it is to terminate. But don't tell me that when the egg and the sperm have only just met, that that is equal to a full grown human being.

And yes, I believe in the death penalty for: 1) someone who murders or seriously injures someone 2) more than once, and 3) has no remorse and 4) cannot be reasonably expected to be rehabilitated. The criminal in that situation is just plain too dangerous to be allowed back into society - so why continue to keep him/her alive and support him/her with everybody else's tax dollars?

Note, however, that I'm not a Christian. So I'm not bound by anything that the Bible says.

Answer 4

The point of "eye for an eye", historically, was that punishments should not be harsher than the crime. The point of it was to limit the severity of punishments and it represented a step away from barbarity. Religious people and others need to know and think about what is actually going on. They ought to combine knowledge of the facts with moral insights.

I believe that people who support the death penalty do so because of concerns about safety. However, you don't have to condone brutal crimes or want the criminals who commit them to avoid a harsh punishment to ask whether the death penalty prevents or even reduces crime and whether it risks killing innocent people.

What about the risk of executing innocent people?
124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence.

Doesn't DNA keep new cases like these from happening?
DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

Doesn't the death penalty prevent others from committing murder?
No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. To be a deterrent a punishment must be sure and swift. The death penalty is neither. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in states that do not.

So, what are the alternatives?
Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. It is sure and swift and rarely appealed. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty.

But isn't the death penalty cheaper than keeping criminals in prison?
The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process, which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people.

What about the very worst crimes?
The death penalty isn’t reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but rather for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was sentenced to death, let alone executed??

Doesn't the death penalty help families of murder victims?
Not necessarily. Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

So, why don't we speed up the process?
Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. If the process is speeded up we are sure to execute an innocent person.

Answer 5

I have always been undecided about this issue, with thoughts
mainly about unbelieveable insane serial killers, who for some reason are nothing but evil minded to stay, and repeaters of cruel unspeakable child molesters. etc. The
gruesome crimes we know of. what else is there to do? If
there is a shadow of a doubt, or the un intentional, or some mentially ill parent, which we begin to hear of too much lately.
I think that is different.

But to compare this with the abortation issue, I think they are not one and the same issue. This is more of a principle of
making a mock of nature when a mother is not in danger of losing her life. To me people want to deny baby is a baby is a
baby. A seed is planted and you see it grow. I do not believe
in abortion, I do not think it should be funded by the goverment, But it should be a private matter between, patient
doctor and God. Like all other errors of self are, Let God be the judge not me.

Answer 6

I am personally opposed. Don;t see the wisdom in murdering a murderer.

But the US actually has a good record in this regard:

"Since the death penalty was reauthorized in 1976 1029 people have been executed, almost exclusively by the states, with most occurring after 1990."

Not too bad a record for 31 years.

Answer 7

In the Old Testament in the VERY NEXT CHAPTER from the one that says "thou shalt not kill" are a list of COMMANDMENTS to kill criminals for various crimes such as homosexuality, beastiality, murder and the like. What the Bible is really saying is do not MURDER INNOCENTS. There may be many cases where justified homocide is acceptable in cases of executing criminals or in cases of war. David slew Goliath and was highly favored of the Lord for his might faith and valor.

The tricky part is the New Testament. Much of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ and done away. So instead of automatic punishments for sin, repentence and forgiveness are available. However if the SOCIETY has laws that demand execution for crimes the criminal may repent and be forgiven by God, but he still has to face his civil punishment and be executed. Are there crimes worthy of execution in the New Testament era? Seems to be, Paul teaches it in Romans 1 that they are "worthy of death" as well he rebuked the Corinthian church for not dealing with a man having an affair with "his father's wife" and he sent the man away for "the destruction of the flesh". So the death penalty may well be applicable today as a Christian, yet this only applies if the civil laws allow it. I certainly would never support vigilante justice because the Bible teaches justified homocide of criminals. After all we are not Israel under the Law of Moses. Much of that law was specifically for them only, in some ways as a punishment because of their boneheadedness.

Really the death penalty is NOTHING compared to an accountable sinner who dies in their sins and faces an eternity of endless guilt and shame in hell. The death penalty is a tea party compared to that horrible fate.

Answer 8

Actually, punishment for wrongdoing is amongst the first themes in the Bible. Google Adam and Garden. Cain and brother. The list goes on. The concept of forgiveness is not the same as lack of punishment. It is lack of revenge. Too often, people confuse the two.

I see no moral dilemma with the death penalty. My only problem with it is that it costs to much in tax dollars.

Answer 9

The death penalty was also used in Biblical times, mostly by stoning to death. Yes we use the death penalty, but, the states that use it, uses lethal injection. This is a humane way as I see it. In other times they used the electric chair, firing squads, hanging, etc. How would you feel, if your loved ones were murdered? An eye for an eye is just as Biblical..Good Question..Thanks

Answer 10

That is the law enacted by a country, for the punishment of heinous c rimes happening within tht country. You know the purpose of death penalty to once and for all stop and discourage those who are
riminals commtting heinous crimes. To avoid harsh penalty, they should b e stop from doing it.
jtm

Answer 11

If the people of America want to except it or not our judicial laws evolved from what the God Yahweh wrote out for Moses in The Laws of Moses concerning what crimes humans commit that the punishment is death. God does not consider the death penalty as the government committing murder but justice for the victims and their families. God knew that the death penalty would remove the violent person from society and scare the rest of the people into controling their anger and not kill each other. We can blame ourselves not God for the increase in violent crimes for abolishing the death penalty.