Death sentences

[usernamechanged1]

Saw on another thread a couple of “he should hang” type comments in respect to a man who has been convicted of murder. The victim was 9 (Olivia Pratt-Korbel).

I expect it’ll be a resounding no, but does anyone genuinely feel that there should be a death option for certain crimes?

Or are these throwaway comments people tend to make in response to particularly shocking/heinous crimes?

No. I would never support it.

The problem with this is that it goes against the human rights act.

You cannot have human rights for some people and not others.

Also there are different kinds of 'murderers'

No he didnt advise throwing child molesters in to the sea with a millstone around their neck

He said it would be better for them if they had been thrown to sea with a millstone around their neck than to have sinned in the first place aka the suffering they are going to go through for their sin might seem worse than that way of dying.

You can interpret this one of two ways: living with the sin on your conscience will cause such suffering you might wish you were dead

Or not going to heaven after death is such a heavy price to pay for the sin it would have been to have drowned instead of sinned

I think most Christians take the second interpretation, but neither actually calls for us to kill child molesters via drowning.

What about the sword bit?

Jesus told Matthew in the garden of Gethsemene to put away his sword and there is nothing anywhere that suggests Jesus has a physical sword or promotes violence or fighting

The traditional explanation is that, as with many things, Jesus was using imagery and metaphors to explain his meeting. The use of a sword is to sever things and Jesus was aware that his coming would sever some families ties as sons and daughters followed a different religion (Christianity) to their parents (Judaism for example) or their parents followed no religion at all

This is further born out by Lukes version of the story (the sword is in Matthews) where Luke says that Jesus says he brings not peace but division

Jesus is also clear that whilst division may come to Christians, they are to take peace out with them and to spead peace

I don't support the death sentence.

There are some people who do not deserve to live but I don't want to live in a society where killing humans is acceptable.

I remember the Birmingham six being released, they had the majority of their adult lives taken but they were finally released.

I also do not trust the police, I think certain officers might take action to point the finger at people they consider troublesome.

@Bepis
@Oldbutwiser

I have a story for you.

Someone who was invited to your special service on the 4th - obviously not this year bet the same event.

When he was the bread he thought, "Wow I'm going to see a miracle, how can that small amount of bread feed all these people?"

He was quite disappointed.

Mycathatesmecuddling · Today 02:17

I bring not peace, but a sword.

Jesus meant that his ministry and teachings would bring divisions, even with families due to opposition and hatred towards him.

Plenty of people were stoned to death in the Bible though?

Bepis · Today 03:41

I love the way that various religions explain any problematic, illogical, or against the rest of the philosophy with, "Oh, you need to understand that it's an allegory."

The explanation is in the verses below the one you initially quoted. Jesus explained himself what it meant.

Absolutely agree. How the hell can you manage prisons, full of messed up people, if you don't try and impose or encourage some sort of civilised behaviour. To let prisoners know that you don't care if they kill themselves? How about the effect that has on their cell mates & families? How do you stop prisoners murdering each other if the prison service makes it clear we don't value the lives of prisoners? Its a barbaric, and bizarre, way to approach things.

This.

Yea I think we should have it. You know the serial killers who we have no doubts are guilty that will never be released as they are. too dangerous. I don’t think tax payers should pay £48,000 a year to house them.

No - not only for reasons mentioned above but because it would push the costs of running the criminal justice system sky high because there would be no incentive to plead guilty.

A guilty plea not only saves money but means the victims aren't put through the ordeal of giving evidence.

An element of Punishment is revenge.

So hard because the cost of keeping someone in prison is a fortune.

It costs nearly £1million to have someone in prison for 20 years.

But killing people willingly for any reason just seems awful. The whole rehabilitation program becomes useless if they'll never get out though.

Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Only a small element and our justice system weights other things to counterbalance it, such as fairness, rehabilitation, deterrence, community & individual safety, and the evidence of what works to limit crime in the future & promote better behaviour of convicted criminals. A system based on vengeance can't accomodate most of those other things.

Some societies would argue that revenge, an eye for an eye, deals with most of those things you list though. Rehabilitation is the odd one out of course.

Revenge is natural, we see it in the natural world. One could argue for the victim, or the ones closest to the victim who has died or become incapacitated, deserve a greater weighting towards revenge. Who are we, individually, to say rehabilitation and forgiveness trumps their needs? Society may do, but in doing so society is divided as this thread shows.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here, I've already responded to this from your post above

And in the US the death sentence costs significantly more so

1.26 million vs 740,000 for non death row in the US so costs not really a useful factor

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here, I've already responded to this from your post above.

You answered a different quote!

No I didn't

I used the garden part to back up that Jesus didn't mean a physical sword then explained the quote you mentioned