Comments on How Can True Christians, Muslims or Buddhists Support the Death Penalty?

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Wham -
You've got a good point. True would have to be defined, and I would think that not being hypocritical would be key.

posted by sannhet on October 25, 2004 at 8:13 AM | link to this | reply

JustA -
I did read it Mark 9:47 (KJV) and the way I read this series of verses is that one must give up whatever offends (up to and including ego) if one is to reach "God".  It's as if Jesus is saying that there is a lot of "stuff" that is a part of us that has been defiled and must be cast off before entering the "kingdom".

posted by sannhet on October 25, 2004 at 8:12 AM | link to this | reply

west
don't you have a bible that you could go to the Biblical Cyclopedic Index and get that information yourself? No, because that is not your motivation for asking the question of me.

posted by PastorB on October 24, 2004 at 12:32 PM | link to this | reply

First
you have to define TRUE.  Would that be a follower that engages in no acts of religious hypocracy....maybe both of them?

posted by WHAMENATOR on October 24, 2004 at 12:25 PM | link to this | reply

unicorn
could you quote chapter and verse, please, to verify what you are saying?

posted by Xeno-x on October 24, 2004 at 12:14 PM | link to this | reply

unicorn
you know Yeshua did not say anything about meting out capital punishment. There is not a word in the New Testament about such.
Capital Punishment is Old Testament, just as the laws of unclean meats and the Jewish days are. If you espouse one, then you must espouse all.
I contend that those laws in the O.T. also protected the alleged perpetrator better than ours do today -- the trials and such were intended to derail vengeance ("'vengeance is mine,' saith the LORD, 'I will repay.'"), where, in contemporary American society, the law is increasingly becoming an instrument of vengeance rather than protection for the possibly innocent.

posted by Xeno-x on October 24, 2004 at 12:13 PM | link to this | reply

justa
here's my take on that __ check out my SERMON ON THE MOUNT in MY TRANSLATIONS.
it's an attitude, not a reality. More than anything it is discontinuing actions that are as much a part of you as a part of your body. To mutilate the body is really as much of a sin as anything else.

posted by Xeno-x on October 24, 2004 at 12:05 PM | link to this | reply

sann
I could give a rip what Catholics say or 'believe'. What I'm saying is that the Bible points out the cases where killing someone is justified as well as where it is not justified. It also clarifies the meaning of killing, which is not always done as an act against just the physical body. PastorB

posted by PastorB on October 24, 2004 at 9:12 AM | link to this | reply

sannhet

I am not sure, but the point I was trying to get across may have been confused…because I feel that it has little to do with an “eye for eye” (which I also believe Jesus cast doubt upon). As four the quote I used…it shows up three times in the Bible (I think), if you could...try reading it in Mark chapter 9...and then read my comment again…I was looking for your evaluation of “his” point…

Thanks

posted by justAcarpenter on October 23, 2004 at 10:15 PM | link to this | reply

Unicorn -

Thanks for reading. But again, your interpretation of what the Bible says is different than mine and others. Too many Catholic saints and too many early church leaders state that Jesus' message is love, forgiveness, and reaching "God" from within, based on what they read in the Bible, for it to be dismissed.

posted by sannhet on October 23, 2004 at 3:42 PM | link to this | reply

love and forgiveness
are not Jesus' only messages. I already clearly answred the question.

posted by PastorB on October 23, 2004 at 2:05 PM | link to this | reply

JustA -
I read the bit about an eye for an eye as a parable for what one must be willing to give up to reach union with "God". For me, it has nothing to do with "like for like".

posted by sannhet on October 23, 2004 at 8:32 AM | link to this | reply

Unicorn -
Arguments for or against killing can be justified either way based on reading the Bible. The question is, how can one who follows Christ (whose message is love and forgiveness) support the death penalty?

posted by sannhet on October 23, 2004 at 8:13 AM | link to this | reply

I can only speak
from a Christian stand point, and this of course is a 'touchy topic'. But I believe what the Bible says about an eye for an eye. If someone commits a murder, then they deserve the same punishment. That's my opinion based on scripture. I can't remember if it was you or another blogger who wrote the post about killing and murder. But there are more ways to 'kill' someone; for example, when a woman is brutally raped, her soul often times feels dead due to it. I beleive that the punishment should fit the crime.

posted by PastorB on October 23, 2004 at 7:24 AM | link to this | reply

Just thinking big picture here

What do you think Jesus meant when he said:

“And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

Did he mean, if you “look at something offensive” that you should do this…or

Did he mean, if “you are offended…by what you see” then you should do this…?

posted by justAcarpenter on October 22, 2004 at 10:00 PM | link to this | reply

Jolly -
Thanks for stopping by, and you are right. Emotion has a lot to do with it.

posted by sannhet on October 22, 2004 at 8:04 PM | link to this | reply

There is no logic or rationality
It's based on emotion. People are angry about crime and they want revenge. They're too angry to think about the immorality of capital punishment (not to mention it's ineffectiveness)

posted by jollyjeff on October 22, 2004 at 6:15 PM | link to this | reply