Some critics of the death penalty have offered the argument that the death penalty is inconsistent with Xian priciples.

I don't believe that to be the case.

The death penalty is the most Xian of dogmas. You see, the Xian god itself believes in the ultimate death penalty, that of eternal damnation, if you choose to swallow that belief.

How much less merciful is it for a human, in the guise of either an individual, or as an individual acting as proxy for a duly constittuted government, to take away a human life, one destined to last less than a century in nearly all cases, as opposed to a Supreme Being, able and willing to condemn that same individual to an eternal death?

As the theology is read, humans only kill the temporal entity, while God condemns the immortal part of entity to an eternal death. The ultimate death penalty.

A Xian could make the argument that the sooner that a criminal is put to death, the better, because that's when the real punishment begins. ;-)

In every flavor of contemporary Xianity the I am cognizent of, there is the common thread that if you are not "saved" by the intervention of Jesus for your sins, you will go to hell. Now, I have heard that hell described by various sects of Xianity as being anything from simple non-existence, to fiendish eternal torture, to all manner of things in between.

I think it safe to say that the existence of hell is absolutely fundamental to the Xian theology. If there was not one, then what on earth (or in heaven) need we be saved from?

Now, as I have mentioned before, whether or not this punishment in hell is to be an eternal one, (hence my likening it to the "death penalty") was a thorny issue in the early church, with much contention before the side that was pimping eternal damnation won out.

Thus my assertion that the Xian god, as described by the Xians, believes in the "death penalty." He uses it on every one of us. Do you not recall that the religion holds out that death came into existence with the sin of Adam and Eve? They ate of the tree of knowledge, and, as a part of their punishment, were doomed to die. The fact that they were not struck down immediately does not alter the fact that they were sentenced to death.

Others argue that the words of Jesus, full of love and mercy, negate the idea of capital punishment.

Again, not so. For example, Matthew 5: 29-30, where Jesus says "And if thy right eye offend thee... and not that thy whole body should be thrown into hell."

Or perhaps Matthew 13: 49-50:

"So it shall be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of the teeth."

If we are to believe the Bible to be a reliable recording of the words of Jesus, (another leap of faith not addressed here) he's pretty much on record as believing it's fitting and just to toss people into hell.

John is chock-full of passages where Jesus refers to himself as the source of "everlasting life," clearly implying that those that chose not to follow him will suffer death.

I could go on with more citations, but I believe the point is made.

Now, as to whether or not Jesus himself thought of death as being an eternal condition, I just don't know. From the context of many of his preachings, it seem likely to me that he did, but on this issue, I'll defer to the professionals. Many of his statements are at odds with one another.

I'm willing to listen to arguments about the death penalty. I'm not against it in principle, but it does seem that the application of it has been flawed. Of course, that can be said of any of the punishments handed out by the judicial system. Too many innocent men have been executed, it seems.

But I don't think this "Xian Compassion" argument holds up against the evidence. Even if I was a Xian. :-)