Honest question. How religious people in these states reconcile these two contrasting ideas, the first one being believing in the bible and thus in the 10 Commandments, and the second being allowing people to be executed under their administration?
Like, what exactly is your average, normal pro-life person who happens to also kinda support gun control and kinda oppose the death penalty and maybe even favor universal healthcare supposed to do, in the voting booth? Recall that their belief may be that abortion is equal to or at least very close to baby murder, before answering. Their options come down to voting for a 3rd party that's pro-life but agrees with them on some other positions, which is so close to not voting that they may as well be identical and anyway I'm not sure such a party exists (usually they're more extreme, if anything), voting anti-baby-murder but also against all their other positions, or voting pro-baby-murder but for the other things they like. This is clearly not a great position to be in.
So rather than going around feeling shitty about their own politics all the time, they soften or reverse their opposition to bundled views they wouldn't otherwise agree with.
[EDIT] this was highly visible in the last Presidential election, when a lot of the "WTF happened?" interviews afterward went like "yeah, of course Trump seems like a slimy piece of crap, obviously, I mean have you listened to the guy talk and have we all forgotten how he was, not that long ago, the universal media symbol for highly-successful rich scam artists? But I prayed on it and in the end held my nose and voted for him, because judicial appointments and Roe v. Wade".
At least both sides get to take their turn at the helm. Seems to work okay to me.
I like Dennis Prager's commentary on the 10 commandments[1]
...according to you or the Catholic Church. What other reasons do you have for there not being a death penalty?
The article discusses a member of the clergy who requested information about Alabama’s death penalty protocols to help her “pray on” the issue. The state pushed back, and “why does God need to know this information” was a snarky question asked of the clergy woman by the state’s lawyer. So the religious person and the entity executing people are on opposite sides of the issue. The state’s response could just as easily have come from an atheist.
Christianity is a bit different, generally believing the old law (including those gruesome punishments) to be done away with, but there are still scriptures in support of local governing authorities. The more commonly cited scripture is Paul's letter to the Romans (Chapter 13, verses 1-2):
> Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
There are a few other examples, but at least from a Christian point of view, the guiding principal is to presume that the government is at least partially put in place by the hand of God, and should generally be respected.
(Disclaimer: I am not a religious person, but I grew up in a religious household.)
13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth
Deuteronomy 4:12-18
The 10 commands are a simple summary of OT law. They are a good guide, but the full OT law is (as any set of laws) complex and messy. The full law if you kill someone you will be killed in return, with a very complex set of exceptions for accidental killing.
In any case, the word means murder, not any killing. This is plainly true in that soldiers are not immediately called to abandon their posts.
I'd love to hear something official just to know how best to criticize the hypocrites...