Barrett Duke Quotes
God himself instituted capital punishment as a remedy for certain crimes, at the very least murder…All life is so sacred that anyone who takes it is required to pay the same penalty.
He referred to the Biblical injunction for capital punishment which mandated the death penalty for murder. However the Bible also requires the death penalty for adultery, heresy, blasphemy, homosexuality, and a number of other offenses including a son being disobedient to his father where death was also proscribed. This quotation is an excellent example of a rhetorical political technique where the speaker selectively provides the truth. Taken at its face, this argument would persuade many people, few of whom would still support the argument if they knew that it applied equally to a host of other behaviors many of which are not even regarded as crimes in a modern civilized society.
Barrett Duke, Vice president for public policy and research for the Southern Baptist Convention, Director of the Research Institute of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission,, Mother Jones, December 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is the basis for the practice of Saudi Arabia and a few other nations which are so decried by most nations and religions or the world. Modern Muslims and Muslim nations do not follow this Koranic prescription any more than Christians and Jews follow the Mosaic Law of the Bible regarding punishment that we would today regard as cruel and which has become very unusual.
One of the first actions after the revolution was to abolish the capital punishment used so arbitrarily by the Czars. It was even abolished for the army. Later, when more control over the population was needed, it was reinstated.
Rosemary Barkett, Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, was nominated to the U. S. Court of Appeals. In her previous role she had upheld over 200 death sentences. Nonetheless, Senator Hatch, an advocate of capital punishment, held up her swift confirmation.
Her view was only held by a few British citizens. Capital Punishment was ended in Britain.
