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Capital punishment
The sub-wiki re: capital punishment in the bible (re: sins reserved for):
wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_Bible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capita...for%20lesbians).
While our western society was founded upon Judeo-Christian values, for me personally there is an issue. I believe at least some parts of the bible have been mistranslated over time, for whatever reason. Hence I look at the text of it and try to discern what parts may be true with my heart and also (more strongly, perhaps), with an eye on personal spiritual experiences I thought I've had. Anyway, let's assume for now we take the bible at face value. There are apparently parts of the bible that condone capital punishment and parts that don't (e.g. God not killing Cain after he murdered his brother Abel in the Old Testament). Regardless of how the discrepancies might be explained so as to not be incompatible, today most western countries have done away with capital punishment, and I see this as a good thing: A) someone might be wrongly convicted of murder, for example; B) Why not allow God to judge the so-called murderers/serious sinners in the afterlife (or even before) after they may have had other lesser forms of punishment dealt out by society, such as life in prison? Unless the bulk of us have stopped believing in God in our hearts (sadly, may be the bane of our modern society).
Right now in the world there is the the coup in Niger, with the Junta there threatening to kill the duly elected President they have in captivity. It is tempting to say that ECOWAS should declare that if the President is killed (i.e. murdered), the leaders of the Junta will, if overthrown by ECOWAS, be prosecuted for murder, and, if found guilty, face the death penalty. Well, aside from the fact that I see capital punishment as wrong, what if the Junta leaders are not that scared of being executed? What should be done in future similar circumstances that's more drastic as a deterant to usurping power with a coup and then murdering a legit leader? Threaten torture before executing the thugs of a Junta? Assuming [manmade] torture is just wrong under any circumstance (other than maybe for the infernal torture of serious sinners who have gone on to hell at least temporarily in the afterlife, or had a foretaste of that as a warning in a near-death experience), an organization such as ECOWAS would clearly be breaking all principles in their quest for justice. Such is what drove me to think about the topic of this thread this morning, anyway.
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