Views on the Death Penalty? (a poll)

[Catholic_Lady]

And it's not odd at all. The Catholic Church has taken a stance against the death penalty and the Pope has spoken against it vehemently.

In times past, the death penalty was endorsed by the church (with direct Papal approval) as appropriate retribution for all sorts of transgressions, like not being a Catholic.

Very true. But likewise, much more recently in history, Americans condoned slavery... and yet none of us would sit here and say "Americans are a-ok with slavery, and the United States promotes slavery."

Just because a group of people did some heinous things centuries ago, does not mean that generations of people many many years down the road can't have completely different views on a specific social issue, even if they fall under the same title of "American" or "Catholic." The Catholic Church and its Pope are huge promoters of life, calling for a respect for all human life from the moment of conception until natural death, being against the death penalty, and having very strict standards on what would constitute as a justifiable war.

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You are a typical xtian. You don't read much of the bible and the parts you do read are either dismissed or cherry picked.

Let's see here, how about some mass murder in the bible that everyone knows about. Does the flood ring a bell? How about all the Egyptian children he killed? You remember the Passover right?

I could go on and on and on.

That's OT... She's catholic.... she doesn't care much for the OT... it's all allegory.
NT doesn't change a word of the law (OT law), but there's not much killing done by the god character - God for kids!

There are several times when Jesus addressed an Old Law specifically and completely contradicted it. Most notably when He said this:

"You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."

^An eye for an eye was an OT law.

And of course, when Jesus stopped people from following the law by stoning an adulteress, and told them that doing so would be wrong.

Those are the more notable ones, but there were many others.

Why do you think so many Jews of the time condemned Jesus and eventually had him sentenced to death? Because they believed Him to be a blasphemer who did not follow the old law and instead brought on new, contradicting ideas.

Hope that clears it up.