For both Christians and Jews, on the back of their stone tablet there appears to be an addendum to the 6th commandment--thou shalt not kill--"with the exception of state sponsored killings." Which side of this do you fall on?
Further, Jesus said, in Matthew, that there were only 2 commandments : “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
The 10 commandments were specifically for the Jews.
I am against the death penalty not because I feel people don't deserve it, because some really do, but since our judicial system is corrupt, inequitable, and about winning and losing not justice, it should be abolished. How many innocent people have been wrongly put death in this country? It is definitely in the hundreds and maybe the thousands. One is too many. If the crime is heinous enough and you have irrefutable proof, keep them in isolation for the rest of their life.
Oh the loopholes abound.
Christians choose to ignore the fact that the ten commandments were specifically written to apply to Israelites, not gentiles. Thoses rules were supposed to set Jews apart from the non-Jews living in the region. So Christians choosing to adopt them is clearly elective. No one in Jesus' disciples group ever even thought about gentiles being bound by the commandments. That didn't percolate into an idwa until Paul came along.
@DavidDuhon I completely agree...on a gut level.
I am against the taking of any life, and that includes state sponsored killings and executions. I’m not in favour of any country killing it’s own citizens, even in the case of someone who has committed murder. Thankfully we in the U.K. abolished the death penalty in 1969 (G.B) and 1973 (N.Ireland). There is absolutely no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, and the risk of miscarriages of justice too great to justify its reintroduction. Repeatedly its reintroduction has been debated and rejected by British MPs over the years since its abolition. There were some in Norway who suggested the death penalty be brought back for Anders Breivik who killed 77 people, mainly teenagers, in 2011, but wisely the Norwegian government resisted, saying it would have handed a victory to the right-wing fascists if they were to change the Norwegian National ethos because of Breivik’s acts. It would also have turned him into a martyr.
The actual term in the old testament is לֹא תִּרְצָח (lo Tis-ahc) a -phrase that is often translated as do no Murder, though it is actually far more specific, it refers only to the killing of a fellow Jew, by a Jew. There is no admonition against killing gentiles and animals in any version of the ten commandments.
In effect the Thous shalt do no murder is over ridden anyway by "a life for a life" Deuteronomy 19:21 a favourite of the advocates of capital punishment.
Very sticky situation, there are some people who are sociopathic killers and definitely guilty. A danger to all, in prison they are dangerous to the inmates and officers not to mention that if they escape the public at large . There is also the fact that guilt should be absolutely proven, our current system is too easily able to convict the innocent so the prosecutor wins not justice. I worked medical in corrections and saw this, innocence project has shown this frequently and in many states there is a racial bias
Our leaders do not like it when we kill each other. What is wanted is a strong cohesive society capable of killing off aliens.
No matter how old, holy or hallowed, things written down in books have to be analyzed and interpreted.
In those belief-systems, god has always reserved the exclusive right to murder, and has always conveniently delegated a good deal of that right to the state. The prohibition on killing never was applied to anyone but Ordinary People who aren't deputized for the job.