Campaign set against executions

[Yeahman]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/20/campaign_set_against_executions/

Hopefully this will become the next big moral issue to invade American politics. The bishops heavily critisized Kerry for his pro-choice position. Hopefully they will do the same to Bush for this pro-death penalty position. Would devoted Catholic Republicans like Rich Santorum and Jeb Bush break with the Administration when challenged on this issue? I doubt it. If there's one thing I've learned it's that extremists put their political ideologies before their religion. But at least this new campaign will temper the pro-death penalty rhetoric in Washington.

[Faithless]

Check that: Extremists sometimes use their religion to justify their political ideology.

Now, why now with the death penalty issue? I mean, I'm all for a campaign against it. But what's causing the commotion, now?

And, seriously, where do you look in the bible to support an anti-death penalty point of view? Certainly, you have one of the 10 commandments saying "thou shalt not kill", but then you have other parts of the bible that support DP (not that DP, dirty minds!) --

http://www.str.org/free/studies/capipuni.htm

Gen 9:6 Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.

David understood what justice demanded in this case: "As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die." 2 Sam 12:5

Rom 13:3-4 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; 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.

Acts 25:11 If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.

[yoMAMA]

Jeb Bush is catholic?

I thought he's an uber WASP.

[Yeahman]

Now, why now with the death penalty issue? I mean, I'm all for a campaign against it. But what's causing the commotion, now?
As the article states it's because of a number of reasons. The increased public support (the time is ripe), the current pope's unusually strong stance against it, and the recent court rulings that may make it easier.

And, seriously, where do you look in the bible to support an anti-death penalty point of view?
Jesus' intervention in Mary Magdalene's death sentence?

Anyway, the Catholic Church does not deny that the death penalty can be justified in some circumstance but they are saying that in this day and age, in this society, it has become obsolete. It is no longer necessary to ensure the safety of society and its only purpose now is retribution.

Jeb Bush is catholic?

I thought he's an uber WASP.
He is a convert.

[Faithless]

I'll be watching this one with a wary eye, since the arguments the Catholics now waking up to are the same arguments others have been making for a long time.

Anyway, it would seem hard to believe that the religious right would turn-around and rail against the death-penalty when you've got cases like this heading to the courts.

Only the hardest of anti-death penalty advocates would even dare say John Evander Couey's life deserves to be spared.

Father of slain Florida girl says he wants death penalty used against killer (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050322-0152-girlslain.html)

By Mike Branom * ASSOCIATED PRESS *
1:52 a.m. March 22, 2005

INVERNESS, Fla. – The father of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, kidnapped and killed by a man identified as a convicted sex offender, wants the suspect to get the death penalty.

John Evander Couey, 46, was charged with capital murder, battery, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child under the age of 12, according to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office. He was to be arraigned on Tuesday.

"I just want him to die," Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, said of Couey on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"If you commit a heinous crime against a child you should receive the death penalty," Lunsford said.

Officials said Couey confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica. Jessica, a third grader, was last seen the night of Feb. 23 when she went to bed after attending church.

Medical examiners said she was sexually assaulted and died of asphyxiation. Jessica's body was found early Saturday behind a house about 150 yards from her home, more than three weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom.

Couey entered the Lunsford house through an unlocked door and later sexually assaulted her, police said. Detectives might never know how long Jessica was held before she was killed since Couey was under the influence of drugs, officials said.

Lunsford, Jessica's father, said he felt guilty that he was not at home that night. "We have to save our children from people like this," Lunsford said. "It's time to change some of our laws."

Lunsford said he will campaign to get stricter penalties and laws regarding registering sex offenders. Lunsford added that not everyone has a computer to look up list of offenders and the lists should be readily available for all to see.

"They should be tagged, they should be branded," Lunsford said of sex offenders.

Gov. Jeb Bush said earlier that he was wary about such proposals. "We should be cautious about doing something that would expand the net so wide as to not accomplish the desired effect and get into a problem," Bush said.

[Yeahman]

I'll be watching this one with a wary eye, since the arguments the Catholics now waking up to are the same arguments others have been making for a long time.
The pope has been making them for a long time too. It's just that the US bishops have just decided to lauch an all out campaign to end the death penalty in the US now.

Anyway, it would seem hard to believe that the religious right would turn-around and rail against the death-penalty when you've got cases like this heading to the courts.
It'll be a slow progress. The bishops have said they'll be talking to Catholic school textbook publishers and all that. They're trying to reshape the culture to be more pro-life. Ending the death penalty won't be an overnight process.

Only the hardest of anti-death penalty advocates would even dare say John Evander Couey's life deserves to be spared.
He should be spared. I'm not just pro-life when it's convenient and popular.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

I have always been anti-death penalty. I don't see how it accomplishes anything whatsoever, I've heard that it actually costs more to keep someone on death row than to keep them in prison for life, and arguably spending the rest of one's life in jail is worse than the death penalty anyway in the eyes of many people. My point is that even as a tool for retribution, it is a poor method, my religious beliefs not having been taken into account.

[Faithless]

Overall, I think it's a good thing.

But it still turks my nurkle. Here you had this run-up to the last presidential election, and Kerry was saying he was anti-death penalty and against the war and for envronmental protections -- those things that a lot of Catholics side with, yet it was the abortion issue and gay marriage, which swayed catholics to the dark side (Bush).

Whatever. That's done now. I hope the Democrats are smart enough to play-up this as a good wedge issue to divide republicans. Pres. Bush is for the DP, and was the "killinest governor in Texass." He got the support of Catholics for the abortion issue, and now he might lose them over capital punishment. Rich. Very rich.

Can we get the catholics to support social security in its current form, too? :rolleyes: If not, we'll take the catholic support on gay marriage.