Commandment #6

Commandment #6 - Thou shall not kill.

All of God’s creations kill to survive; even a plant takes from the soil. I believe that this commandment is intended to mean that we shall not murder. If my opinion is valid, then defending yourself or what is yours, an accidental death or killing for food is not wrong. Killing for sport however is. The bible has stories of God putting people to death, e.g., he gave Moses the power to part the Red Sea and drown the Egyptians that followed him and God caused Noah’s floods, to protect and/or identify followers. I believe that every one of us has an opportunity to be an angel of God’s and as such has an obligation to eliminate evil and survive (if we are following the Commandments).

On November 23, 2011 the Oregon Governor ordered a halt to executions as he is morally against the death penalty. I believe that in following the Commandments, we are allowed to protect ourselves from evil. Therefore, we can support a death penalty for those who murder or take life by other means, e.g., rape, molestation. We must stop condoning and excusing evil behavior by giving criminals life with all the amenities except the freedom to roam. I’m not saying not to forgive someone for the crime committed as forgiveness allows us to move on with our lives. I’m saying that the right to show mercy belongs to God as stated in Commandment #2.

By the way, I believe that the verdict of innocent due to insanity is a contradiction. Guilty due to insanity is more appropriate as this would justify the institutionalizing of criminals. Guilty due to insanity would prohibit the devious phonies from being supposedly cured and released back into society. Additionally, it would deter psychiatrics from using their power of persuasion to manipulate the system and reduce an incident to a minor uncontrollable event that further degrades the victims.

Suicide is not condoned by our government as numerous and costly preventative measures are pursued. However, I believe a suicide should be an issue between a person and his/her religion. It’s obvious that suicide is not against all religions as there are many suicide bombers.

The moral question of abortion addresses your belief of whether an embryo is a child or a seed. I’m going to seem hypocritical in this issue but here goes. As we have birthdays on the day a child is born, I lean toward an embryo being a seed. This concept is consistent with the November 9, 2011 Good Morning American report that Mississippi voters rejected a bill that would have defined life at conception. Another consideration would be how the embryo was conceived. Women should not be required to keep an unwanted embryo conceived as the result of a crime. However, I do consider the embryo a child if it is wanted and harmed in a crime. I do not believe that this should be a state issue but a federal one and I believe the government was correct in its decision in Roe versus Wade.

In addition to murder and abortions, I also believe that this commandment covers our destruction of the earth; the elimination of species, trees, etc. as well as using up the earth’s resources due to over population. We should remember that when God said go forth and multiply it was at a time when there were few people on this earth.  

Housing criminals is draining many state budgets. A consensus of 12 people is required to convict. We all know how hard it is to get a few people to agree on anything. With such a requirement and with DNA evidence being used since 1996, when a person is found guilty of a horrific crime, there should be no doubt about using the death penalty and a sentencing hearing should be unnecessary. I believe that forgiveness for a criminal does not give you points with God and should not be used for lesser sentencing (case in point, a bible verse in Deuteronomy 19 calls for an eye for an eye).