Americans who believe in Jesus but support the death penalty, please explain this?

I know it's scary in your country because guns are legal and you need to discourage gun crime but I still don't understand. Jesus wouldn't be happy about the death penalty.

You are not supposed to judge someone till you've walked a mile in their shoes (I might not be quoting it exactly).

When I see New York and LA gangs, yes, it looks pretty scary. And you could move away from the city to be safe (but then your children might grow up insular and simple) or you could try to do better with education and making sure peoples living standards were better (now everyone knows Jesus would approve of this).

You have had the death penalty for years and years, BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL SHOOTING EACH OTHER WHICH SHOWS THE DEATH PENALTY IS NOT A DETERRENT!!

obviously non Christian people can like the death penalty but that means it's only about revenge and not justice.

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PrivateHell · M

Reading your post, i see a lot of misconceptions and it is clear there are things you don't fully understand about American culture, guns and the death penalty in general. I am not saying this to be insulting, argumentative or anything bad, just stating the facts.

First of all, it is a popular misconception that Christians aren't supposed to judge. People read the passage "Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself", and think Jesus is saying not to judge at all. Not true. He is saying that whatever standard you use to judge others, He will hold you to and use to judge you. So, if you are fair in how you judge, He will be too. If you judge without all the facts, you will be treated the same way.

Second, there is murder in every single country on Earth. Feeling safe is a relative term. I feel safer here in America than I would in many many other countries. Some of them banned guns decades ago.

Third, the death penalty has never really been meant as a deterrent. It's main function above all others, is to remove the most dangerous from our society and insure that they can [i]never[/i] harm anyone else again. In this job, it is 100% effective. No one that has ever been executed has ever committed another murder.

Now the one thing you didn't mention but i am sure someone will, the 6th Commandment says "Thou shall not kill." This Commandment is soeaking of murder, which is an illegal act of ending a life. Execution is the legal process of ending a life as punishment. The two are distinct, even within the Bible.

BiasForAction · M

@PrivateHell Jesus also said not to judge unless you are free of sin. Kinda rules out everybody