Capital Punishment????

[Carmenita]

i want to hear what you have to say about capital punishment with respect to christianity...Right or Wrong???

 

[Myah]

Can you be a bit more specific? As in, do you want to talk about how Christian's feel about Capital Punishment, or something else?

Thanks,
Myah

 

[seebs]

I assume it was on the question of whether or not Christianity should be a capital crime. I'm gonna say "no".

 

[Carmenita]

i want to know how u guys feel about capital punishment( The death penalty).... many christians are going to have completely different perspectives than I do... i m just curious as to whether or not they BELIEVE in capital punishment for criminals...and if so why or why not?..

 

[seebs]

I currently think that capital punishment may be tolerable or justifiable in some cases, mostly in cases where trying to support the condemned would create serious risks; say, when there's not enough resources to feed everyone, or when there's no practical way to keep someone imprisoned. Other than that, I don't think it can really be justified within a Christian moral framework.

 

[Carmenita]

ok...so given certain situations you would say YES to capital punishment?

 

[seebs]

ok...so given certain situations you would say YES to capital punishment?

I don't know that I would, but I wouldn't necessarily condemn it in all cases. I think it should be avoided, but there's some pretty rough special cases out there.

 

[Kasey]

i want to know how u guys feel about capital punishment( The death penalty).... many christians are going to have completely different perspectives than I do... i m just curious as to whether or not they BELIEVE in capital punishment for criminals...and if so why or why not?..

Im all for capital punishment. Murderers have not right to live. They took a life, they must pay with their own. Its justice. Not all crimes call for the death penalty though. A thief who stealls 1000 dollars can pay back double for what they took, they didnt take a life.

Capital punishment for murderers however and for other heinous crimes worthy of death should be enacted, I have no doubts or hesitations about that. If we had that across this country, no one would be quick to murder now would they?

 

[Sors]

Usign the Bible you can come up with arguments to support or go against the death penalty. Which argument is best is up to debate. Philisophically it dang near impossible to justify the death penalty. I think how we feel about the death penalty is as more a result of our emotions and they way they effect us than the result of religious and philisophical views.

 

[Kasey]

Usign the Bible you can come up with arguments to support or go against the death penalty. Which argument is best is up to debate. Philisophically it dang near impossible to justify the death penalty. I think how we feel about the death penalty is as more a result of our emotions and they way they effect us than the result of religious and philisophical views.

I have some questions for you.

1. Do you believe that murder is an evil act?

2. If you do believe it is an evil act, why let that evil continue its wretched existence?

 

[Sors]

I have some questions for you.

1. Do you believe that murder is an evil act?

2. If you do believe it is an evil act, why let that evil continue its wretched existence?

Hey i support the death penalty 100%. I am just saying that it is very very difficult to support it from a purely philisophical standpoint. I could go on quoting Mill and Kant all day, but the original question was adressed to Christians so I will let it be for now.

 

[Kasey]

Hey i support the death penalty 100%. I am just saying that it is very very difficult to support it from a purely philisophical standpoint. I could go on quoting Mill and Kant all day, but the original question was adressed to Christians so I will let it be for now.

I dont see how it could be very difficult from a philosophical stand-point. Murderes are a danger to soceity. It creates unrest, it causes political stagnation and it burns the economy tremendously because someone has to pay for those same murderers expenses while they sit in prison. It creates distrust among the public because if their own government wont crack down on them, how could they trust it and depend on it for other things?

Philisophically and Socialogically, its stagnating to society, it causes more harm than good to leave them alive. It would be better to take measures to end that.

 

[Sors]

I dont see how it could be very difficult from a philosophical stand-point. Murderes are a danger to soceity. It creates unrest, it causes political stagnation and it burns the economy tremendously because someone has to pay for those same murderers expenses while they sit in prison. It creates distrust among the public because if their own government wont crack down on them, how could they trust it and depend on it for other things?

Philisophically and Socialogically, its stagnating to society, it causes more harm than good to leave them alive. It would be better to take measures to end that.

Actually the cost of executing someone is so high and the number of people on death row compared to the number in prison for other crimes is so dramatic that it really saves relatively little money to execute someone. If money is the issue you should adress the high number of prisoners there for minor drug offenses. Talk about a drain on the economy. If you look at the numbers, it is not successful in detering crime either. And if it is sometimes then it is so rare that the statistics do not show it. Emotionally, the death penalty is relatively easy to justify. They kidnapped, raped, and killed a little girl. They dont deserve to live. Lets kill them. I agree with this idea but it is not a philisophical justification. It is an emotional one. Many people would argue that it is not fair to judge someone from emotion. I think it is.

 

[Kasey]

Actually the cost of executing someone is so high and the number of people on death row compared to the number in prison for other crimes is so dramatic that it really saves relatively little money to execute someone. If money is the issue you should adress the high number of prisoners there for minor drug offenses. Talk about a drain on the economy. If you look at the numbers, it is not successful in detering crime either. And if it is sometimes then it is so rare that the statistics do not show it. Emotionally, the death penalty is relatively easy to justify. They kidnapped, raped, and killed a little girl. They dont deserve to live. Lets kill them. I agree with this idea but it is not a philisophical justification. It is an emotional one. Many people would argue that it is not fair to judge someone from emotion. I think it is.

Regardless what the numbers are, in the long run, it will make for a better, more protected society than if you just let everything be the way it is. It will be a hard long road, but the long-term effects are well worth it.

If this governmented executed all those who got drunk and then drove a vehicle and killed someone, people would be a hell of a lot less inclined to drink and drive now would they? Its murder to do something that because you know that if you get behind the wheel of a vehicle when your drunk, there is a very good chance that you might cause the death of an individual be it your own or someone elses. You knew exactly what you were doing but took the chance anyways. If you do indeed kill someone when your drunk and behind the wheel, your a murderer and you should be punished accordingly for it because your not supposed to be such an irresponsible idiot.

I wouldnt think the next hill-billy would drink and drive if all those who did do that and killed someone were executed, wouldnt you? I believe it would be the same for the rest of the slime out there as well. Theives would be less inclined to steal if the penalty for being caught was working to pay off double or triple the ammount that they stole. Child Molesters and Rapists would be on the same boat if all those who did such a henious thing were executed as well.

All in all, I believe it would be a very good thing, but no, lets not do that, thats not humane. Right and the prisons themselves not heaven either. Three meals a day, excersize, games, lifting weights and in some places, TV and video games.

Bah!

 

[Seeking...]

When I was a Christian I was totally opposed to the death penalty - reason being, if you prematurely end the life of someone who is unsaved then you are damning them by denying them the furture opportunities for salvation. I thought that everyone would come to God in their own time we had no right to determine the length of time any person would be allowed. This doesn't mean that I didn't think some criminals deserved to die - but I felt my faith was totally against it.

Now I am no longer a Christian, I say "Give 'em a short drop and a quick stop!".

 

[TScott]

Emotionally I am for the death penalty, but intellectually I am against it.

When I see a security video of someone killing a convenience store clerk with no more thought than if he were to step on a bug, I want that person put to death. That's my emotional response.

When I consider that putting that person to death, I am lowering my own morality in the direction of the murderers, I realize that I too am wrong. That's my intellectual response.

 

[larryicr]

(NASB)

Gen 9:6
Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

Num 35:30,33
If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness...So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

Rom 13:4
for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Without capital punishment we would not have the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for our sins.

 

[Carmenita]

but Jesus came to the world to save sinners... The new testament which is the basis of our faith through Christ tells us to forgive each other. " And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ also forgave you" Ephesians 4:32
Despite how heinous a crime may be, in the end God will judge. He holds the final verdict. The foundations of Christianity is"Christ". His message is love, peace and righteousness. Ultimately I can understand how it would be hard NOT to want to put someone to death after they have taken away a loved one from you, however Jesus addresses our personal desire for vengeance. We as Christians are taught to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savious Jesus Christ. Remember, He paid it all. There is no sin the Lord did not crucify with him in the flesh. Even that of murderers and serial killers. When the time comes, they will be judged accordingly.
However while we live here on earth, we have to try to persue the Gospel, and live as human beings.
The resurection of Christ changed the "an eye for an eye" theory.

In John 8, when the scribes and Pharisees had brought a woman to be judged and stoned to death what did Jesus say?
"He who is without sin among you shall cast the first stone" John 8:7

He makes us aware that we are all children of God whether we do good or bad, we are not perfect. Who gives us the authority to end another man's life when we ourselves are no saints. If Capital Punishment claims a mans life, and I had impacted on that decision, what makes me any better than the murderer itself?

Jesus teaches us about unconditional love. Unconditional love is not based on worthiness or merit to whom it is directed. Repentance for our sins, is what leads us to salvation. Despite how immoral an act is, it can be corrected through Christ who makes anything possible.

BE STRONG IN THE LORD, AND THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT.

 

[TScott]

(NASB)

Without capital punishment we would not have the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for our sins.

Yeah, that is a real good reason to be for capital punishment. Jesus wouldn't have been able to experience all that excruciating pain for us if the Romans didn't have "capital punishment".

He would have probably just have gone on teaching people righteousness for thirty or forty more years.

 

[Philosoft]

Regardless what the numbers are, in the long run, it will make for a better, more protected society than if you just let everything be the way it is. It will be a hard long road, but the long-term effects are well worth it.

Our nation has allowed capital punishment for most of its history. Has it been worth it?