Is it unconstitutional to be anti-capital punishment due to religion?

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Thoughts

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Your friend isn't very smart.

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Thoughts?

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1) his argument against you using religion is a double standard, because I bet he would be against certain things because religious people hold them.
2) As long as the country does require Christians to pay for the death penalty there is no constitutional issue.
3) Just to clarify something about Church teaching. The Church doesn't take an official stance on the death penalty, but the latest papal statement appears to be moving in the direction of no more death penalty. BUT there are some Catholic theologians believe that the DP is ok for Catholics to hold (I've seen some argue it on here, I've also wasted hours on a Catholic message board debating this ). there is nothing wrong with your stance I agree with you, but don't drop the the Catholic Church says the DP is not moral, because they actually don't say that.

I honestly did not know the Catholic Church did not have an official position. It is just something I have thought long and hard about and just cannot support...like I say, though, I wish prison was just much harder.

Your friend has the dumb

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I honestly did not know the Catholic Church did not have an official position. It is just something I have thought long and hard about and just cannot support...like I say, though, I wish prison was just much harder.

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The Catholic Church does have an official position. I'm not sure where that came from. The Church seeks to only allow the death penalty in situations when no other means to protect society is available

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The Church seeks to only allow the death penalty in situations when no other means to protect society is available

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This may be a dumb question, but with the prison system, is there ever a time where life in prison does not protect society?

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although I wish prison was harder.

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You seriously don't think Angola is hard enough?

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I told him because of my Catholic faith I am against it, which he said is weakness in politics and shows that I could not think independently. Also, he said people who use religion as a crutch as anti-Constitutionalists who cite religion in decision making.

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A person's morals always informs their politics. I qualify this statement with a) that shouldn't be the only factor and b) the question is where to draw the line between which morals government should enforce and which it should leave be.

EDIT - Also, with top-down religions like the Catholic Church, I would question the degree to which - say, a SCOTUS justice's - morals are uninformed by their own conscience vs. the Church hierarchy.

I'm personally against the death penalty not because I think it is immoral to execute someone for cold blooded murder - but because a) any inequities in the justice system are magnified when death is involved, the penalty is not applied fairly and evenly and I don't think it ever could be b) the justice system does make mistakes, the thought of executing an innocent person is hard to bear. That being said, when a guilty person is executed for a cold blooded murder - I don't lose sleep over it.

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Is it unconstitutional to be anti-capital punishment due to religion?

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I told him because of my Catholic faith I am against it, which he said is weakness in politics and shows that I could not think independently

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Wait....your friend thinks it's unconstitutional to hold a certain belief about something?

Please tell me I'm misunderstanding. If not, your friend is dumb, and you should cease all further communication with him.

Perhaps you could ask him to point out in the Constitution where it endorses the death penalty.

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I believe this thought process is growing among the populous. It is now not a good thing to let your personal doctrines you subscribe to enter into your decision making as far as governing and law. If you hold religious beliefs and let them influence your choices in voting on laws being proposed, you are wrong and it is Unconstitutional to do so.

At some level, religion has always been considered in politics and voting for government positions as President and Congress. Even on local levels, I am sure it has been prevalent.

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Indeed. And I would venture as to say a large majority of our laws are based on some concept of morality that, at some point in time, was rooted in religious doctrine.

I believe the problem stems from continuing government expansion and entanglement in our lives. Every nook and cranny that the government seeps into means religious beliefs must be smashed out in those areas.

Just look at the Hobby Lobby case. It was a win for religious freedom, but it had to be fought tooth and nail to be won.

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He is pro-death penalty.

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debate with a liberal friend

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if he is pro-choice at least he is "some what" consistent. Most Libs are pro-choice and anti-death penalty, which has never made sense to me.