Hi - looking specifically for input from our religious friends here...
I was reading an article on Yahoo! News about the death penalty in Texas and the tone of the comments quickly turned to people using Bible quotes to justify opinions both for and against the death penalty.
If you are religious, could you let me know your views on the death penalty? Do you feel it's something that is wrong or right based on your religious beliefs? Do you create a separation between your religious beliefs and your political beliefs on this issue? Finally, could you also tell me what religion you belong to?
Thank you in advance.
2010-12-07T17:13:23Z
Lots of great answers so far. Thank you to those who have responded already.
Eric mentions "Mosaic Law" and the intended scope of its application - could someone provide more information on the scope of application of Mosaic Law to something such as the death penalty?
thundercatt92010-12-07T17:13:12Z
Favorite Answer
Often we hear the Bible quoted as a justification for capital punishment: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (from Leviticus 24:20; also Exodus 21:24). This follows a more direct passage: "Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death" (Leviticus 24:17).
The well-known "eye for eye" passage was originally intended to limit violence by reducing the escalation of violence. In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus disallows even that limited violence.
There are those who cite the Mosaic Law in defense of capital punishment without acknowledging what the Mosaic Law states about evidence, perjury, etc. The Bible offers no support for capital punishment as implemented in the United States, unless you want to argue such things as Jesus' or Paul's submission to the Roman state's legal judgments against them proves that the Bible is open to capital punishment period (at which rate you'd have to acknowledge that it can execute you for your beliefs).
The Bible has the following requirements, which we don't have:
1) 2 credible eye witnesses
2) Perjury and knowingly filing false charges against someone are punished by the sentence for the crime for which the defendant is accused.
3) Prosecutors, police and judges are fully accountable to the defendant under point #2.
4) The courts had the legal authority to sentence perjurious witnesses on the spot the moment the defense could prove their perjury.
In America:
People can be executed on circumstantial evidence in most states. Witnesses are optional, not the core of the prosecution's case.
Prosecutors are almost completely legally immune for anything they do to a defendant, including withholding exculpatory evidence from their defense counsel. Police are not far behind them.
Perjury is almost never punished, and when it is, the punishment is usually just a felony record and a few years in prison no matter the circumstances of the perjury.
Prosecutors frequently rely on criminal witnesses, especially "jailhouse snitches" who are "witnesses" of such low moral caliber that no normal person in their right mind should believe them.
There you have it. I am totally down with my fellow Christians remaining in support of the death penalty ... provided that they also adopt the Bible's standards for prosecuting serious crimes.
My opinions on the death penalty don't come from my religious beliefs and certainly not from sympathy for criminals. I’m against the death penalty because it isn’t effective in reducing overall crime, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people. I can't understand how people who who describe themselves as religious can ignore the fact that human beings are fallible and human institutions are bound to get it wrong some of the time. The death penalty is certainly no exception and it buries its worst mistakes.
I am a Christian and although I think some people may deserve to die for their crimes (which I assume I feel that way because "the heart of man is desperately wicked" as the Bible says), I think the death penalty is a way to get "vengeance" on someone for what they did or make them suffer for it, which is wrong because the Bible says in Romans 12:19 that vengeance belongs to God and he will repay it. But ofcourse, politically, I think most people would think it's okay -______-
Those death penalty verses are based in the Mosaic law. You know what they used it for? Stuff as minor in a legal sense as mouthing off to your parents or not separating your grains properly.