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Phage, your reading of Romans is... Yeah. There is nothing is that passage that implies a death penalty. It implies that outside of God, there is death. In God, there is life and the light of the world.
While i find Imago Dei theology important, i do not follow it in justifying a death penaly. The whole system of sacrificial/substitutionary violence is undone in the Cross. In this case, the revelation of Christ supercedes previous understandings.
I never said go out and break shit, either. I am a law abiding citizen, and i'm in favor of reasoned law enforcement. I believe in community policing, beat cops who know the nieghborhood and who make a difference. i beleive in laws that keep order and promote the public good, and do not uneccesarily imprison folks for private choices. i believe in responsible alligience to my goverment...that i owe it my loyalty, and my loyal dissent when i am in disagreement.
None of those passages authoritatively creates a basis for a Christian endorsement of the death penalty.
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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-John 3:16
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