Death penalty support by religion

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I am a Protestant and I generally oppose the death penalty.  And I can say my faith plays a big part in my reasons for opposing it.  While it's true that it was sanctioned in the Old Testament, Christians are not under the Old Covenant.  Jesus taught us not to repay evil with more evil, but to forgive and show mercy to others.  Worse yet, we are essentially playing the role of God by deciding who is too wicked to be forgiven.  But according to the Bible, nobody is beyond redemption for God, even the worst criminals.  By killing them, we are cutting short their time to repent and be saved.  The death penalty goes completely against Christ's teachings of mercy and forgiveness.  When Jesus was on the cross, He didn't call on the Father to punish the men who had Him executed, but simply said, "Father, forgive them."

That said, there are exceptions where I would support the death penalty, or at least accept it.  I don't think the federal government should intervene either way in existing state practice (either for or against the death penalty), and I strongly support the federal death penalty for terrorism, since most terrorists are unlikely to ever repent of their crimes.