I was born and raised in Texas. Texas leads the country in executions pretty much every year. The family and friends I have are about 80% Christian. I myself was a die-hard conservative pro-capital punishment kid up until my mid 20s.
If you are shocked by my stating most Christians are pro-capital punishment, I'm with you... you're only shocked because you don't believe it. May I ask where you were born and raised? If in the US, perhaps our states have vastly different cultures, but I think the pro-capital punishment theme is commonplace amongst the majority of Christians throughout all 50 states.
I'll go a step further... I thought the people who were anti-capital punishment were liberal idiots who wanted to protect the most heinous people from a fate they deserve. I will only speak for myself, but I assure you this is fairly common even today. I doubt it's just a Texas thing either as my non-Texan Christian friends have similar sentiments.
A common passage is quoted for Christians who are pro-capital punishment, it's one I used incorrectly to justify it back in the day...
If you are shocked by my stating most Christians are pro-capital punishment, I'm with you... you're only shocked because you don't believe it. May I ask where you were born and raised? If in the US, perhaps our states have vastly different cultures, but I think the pro-capital punishment theme is commonplace amongst the majority of Christians throughout all 50 states.
I'll go a step further... I thought the people who were anti-capital punishment were liberal idiots who wanted to protect the most heinous people from a fate they deserve. I will only speak for myself, but I assure you this is fairly common even today. I doubt it's just a Texas thing either as my non-Texan Christian friends have similar sentiments.
A common passage is quoted for Christians who are pro-capital punishment, it's one I used incorrectly to justify it back in the day...
- Romans 13:1-4, "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil."
I was born and raised in Serbia but I live in the US now. Most of the people in my country of origin would classify their background as Christian, even though an overwhelming majority is secular and not practicing on daily basis, which is what I call a "cultural" Christian. Even so, people generally agree against death sentence, with the argument that one has no right to take away what one has not given. We don't have death sentence, we had but it was abolished.
There has been some renewed vigor for that in the recent years, but I believe this is because the punishments for rapists and child molesters are ridiculous, inadequately low even though they are repeat offenders, and people feel justice isn't served, which it isn't, indeed. Even as a repeat offender, they get a slap on the wrist and rape - often murder as well - someone else, literally as soon as they get out. Meanwhile, sentences for people caught with marijuana are unreasonably high, often higher in comparison than sentences for child molesters. How is smoking, even selling marijuana a worse offense compared to destroying a child's life? Makes you think, are people who create laws pedophiles? And there's a constant interest and will from people to change this, yet it's never challenged. The system is broken.
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