From
reading this blog post it just made me think about the death penalty and if it
is the right thing to do or not. Coming
from a Catholic background I am against the death penalty, you cannot justify
the act of killing another human being in cold blood. God gives us the ability to repent and
forgive our sins, so no matter what we do, God will be the final person to
judge us and decide whether or not we deserve to move on from this life and go
to the next. As these men are being
killed on death row they are losing time God has given them to repent for what
they did and accept God as their savior. God created life and should be the only one to
decide when to take it away.
Also
the death penalty is very hypocritical and not very economical beneficial to
anyone. Most of the people on death row
are serial murders/rapist, but as the United States government kills more and
more of these criminals they are doing the same thing these people are being
punished for. Two wrongs do not make a
right, killing is bad and always will be.
Also it is not cost effective to kill a man, much time in a court room
and proper steps must be taken to kill a man.
All in all killing a man is more expensive for the United States than it
would be to keep him in jail for over 20 years.
Now
Matthew relates all this to what is happening with ISIS and Jordon, what I
think is that neither of these people are correct for killing these men. ISIS killed and videotaped it to create publicity
for themselves, which I think is one of the worst reasons you could have for
killing someone. But because ISIS did
kill these men Jordon had to respond or other countries would not respect
Jordon and things would end up worse for Jordon. I think ISIS is responsible for all of these
deaths even though Jordon did kill the captured terrorist, they wouldn’t have
if not provoked by ISIS to do so.
Thanks for those thoughtful views. It's interesting how you move back and forth between some various different paradigms for understanding and responding to capital punishment. If you were to try to appeal to the religious and non-religious alike--to the broadest audience--how would you structure your appeal?
ReplyDeleteI think Dr. Herron brings up a good point. This is an international issue, and thus naturally falls under governmental and political structures, particularly in the United States. Specifically within the United States, there is at least supposed to be a separation of church and state. Because of that separation, government officials cannot effectively counter capital punishment with "God created life and should be the only one to decide when to take it away." Don't get me wrong--I consider myself to be religious, but I try to pull away from those ideas when analyzing actions of the government.
ReplyDeleteI think that the religious aspect plays a roll into why you view the death penalty as something that should be outlawed, but many do not share the same religious affiliation or views as you yet still are against the death penalty just for different reasons. I think that all sides of the spectrum need to be explored when making an argument for or against the death penalty. I do like how you touched on the economic side of your argument. All the money that is poured into retrials and the like could easily be redirected for better use elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a catholic family too, and I was taught life is beautiful and we should never make someone else's life short. Its sad though that people don't respect other peoples lives. Murder is wrong and sometimes capital punishment is the only solution that makes sense. If someone doesn't have respect for life, why should the public have respect for their life? Murder justifies murder. Also capital punishment makes the families who suffered at the hand of a criminal feel like they got justice for their loved ones.
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