Death Penalty Question

[Spanish Moss]

The death penalty is, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard put it, "barbaric".  We're a civilized and intelligent people, we're better than that.

And as a Christian, I cannot morally back the death penalty.  People who do even the most evil of things have the possibility of repenting and becoming good people (and in that case, usually speaking for others to change as well), and though it is rare it does happen.  To take that possibility away from someone before their last natural breath, to me, is morally criminal.

And then comes the fact that - this hypothetical individual is "convicted beyond a reasonable doubt" of these crimes, you virtually never know 100% for sure whether they did it.  I believe it's something like 1 in 7 victims of the death penalty turn out to be innocent.  Our legal system needs to show that it is truly just, and given the possibility of even one innocent person being put to death unnaturally (whereas otherwise there could be more time to come up with the evidence that they truly are innocent) is against everything the judicial system is supposed to stand for.

I know the Supreme Court upheld murder convicts getting the death penalty of not being "cruel and unusual" - I fail to see how killing someone, ending their existence on this Earth without their consent, is not cruel.

[Spanish Moss]

And as a Christian, I cannot morally back the death penalty.  People who do even the most evil of things have the possibility of repenting and becoming good people (and in that case, usually speaking for others to change as well), and though it is rare it does happen.  To take that possibility away from someone before their last natural breath, to me, is morally criminal.

There is no secular argument of substance against legalizing gay marriage. Even if I didn't have my own personal reasons for supporting it, there is no way I could be opposed. Of course I am in favor.

Exactly (I agree as a Christian).

And if you want to go by "traditional marriage" in the bible, then women who are raped should have to be having their father pay the rapist who will then go forth to marry her.

There is no logical reason to oppose the legalization of same sex marriages.  If your church or institution doesn't want to perform the ceremony, fine, but I have yet to see a logical argument for outlawing it all together.

So why do you advocate considering religious beliefs on one issue but not the other?(For the record I agree with you on one of these two issues but not the other).

What issue is "the other"?