38 Reasons Followers of Christ Oppose the Death Penalty

[AnnaLouise]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x24641

[Occam Bandage]

1. The Catholic position on the death penalty is, I think, reasonable.

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, nonlethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.

[cosmik debris]

2. Are those the TRUE followers of Christ,

Or the ones who put sugar on their porridge.

[varkam]

3. Those are some wacky reasons:

I'm all about being against the penalty, but...

...

7. Alcohol, , some psychiatric medications and other substances
make lesions in the aura, the electromagnetic field of the body.
Through these, demons can enter and use the body as their weapon.
When the demons depart, their victim is left to accept the
consequences.


...come on

[knitter4democracy]

4. I'm against it because Jesus was against it.

It's that simple.

When they brought a woman caught in adultery (notice the guy's nowhere to be found, even though the Law stated that both were to be stoned), He told them that he who was without sin could cast the first stone.

He hung out with "sinners" and was often called on it, but He never condemned those people. He asked God to make it so He didn't have to die in the Garden of Gethesame, and he pardoned the thief to His right, saying that he'd join Him that day in paradise.

I don't need more reasons than that one.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. I don't think that works.

That Jesus opposed the death penalty for adultery doesn't tell us much about whether he opposed it for serial-killing.

I think there are plenty of good reasons for opposing the death penalty, but I rather doubt if Jesus opposed it in all circumstances, given when and where he lived and what little we know of him.

[knitter4democracy]

7. What we do know, however, points to His being against it.

Whenever He was called on to judge criminals, He wouldn't. The ones he condemned were the powerful and the religious leaders. For all others, He told us not to judge one another but instead to leave judgement up to God.

When all the religious leaders of the day were clamoring for blood and were increasing the strictures on daily life and making everything more difficult for people, Jesus didn't join in. Instead, He simplified things, argued for mercy and love instead of judgement, and tried to make things easier, even for women.

I'm all for locking up dangerous criminals for life, but I'm not okay with the state killing anyone. That kind of judgement should be left up to God.

[Az]

5. You don't need a god to tell you that its a bad idea to give the state the power to kill you

And that is what the death penalty is. The right of the state to kill you (and anyone else) if it can come up with a suitable reason to do so.

There are so many reasons to say no to the death penalty. Self preservation is just the most obvious. The fact that you can't make up for the mistake of executing the wrong person should raise the matter to blatantly obvious degree. Once a criminal is incarcerated the state has down its job of protecting the citizenry. Executing them serves no purpose other than vengeance. And the state is not in the business of serving up vengeance.

So while its fine that there are those that look to religious dogmatic authority to shore up their rejection of the death penalty it simply is not needed. Its just an emotional appeal to our baser emotions.

[knitter4democracy]

8. True. Abolishing the death penalty makes sense on many levels.

Another reason I'm glad to live in Michigan--the first English-speaking government to get rid of the death penalty and to put it in our constitution.