Steven Garofalo
News • Spirituality/Belief • Education
Steven Garofalo, M.A. Apologetics is president and founder of ReasonForTruth.Org and EquippedAcademy.Com. His mission is to help you not just survive, but to thrive by cutting through the distortion of current events with discernment, wisdom, and the truth of God-to encourage, educate and prepare you for what is, and what is at hand. www.ReasonForTruth.Org www.EquippedAcademy.Com
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MARRIED PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO BE THRIVING

Married People More Likely to Be ‘Thriving’: Gallup Survey
Ben Johnson / @TheRightsWriter / March 25, 2024 (DAILY SIGNAL)

Married couples are more likely to be happy today, anticipate future happiness, and have a “strong and loving” relationship with their children than cohabiting partners.

A new Gallup survey has found that, over more than a decade, one variable has consistently predicted whether people described themselves as “thriving”: marriage. Married couples are more likely to be happy today, anticipate future happiness, and have a “strong and loving” relationship with their children than cohabiting partners.

Gallup classified respondents into one of three groups—“thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering”—based on how they rated their home lives. Surveying data over 14 years, Gallup found that married couples consistently rated their current lives, and their likelihood of future happiness, better than those who lived together outside marriage or had a committed relationship without living together. The happiness differential ran into double digits.

“Within the U.S., it is clear that married adults rate their lives more highly than others and have done so for the past 15 years,” the survey, released last Friday, concluded. “From 2009 to 2023, married adults aged 25 to 50 were more likely to be thriving—by double-digit margins—than adults who have never married. The 16-percentage-point gap between married adults (61%) and those who have never married (45%) in 2023 is within the range of 10 to 24 points recorded since 2009.”

Marriage’s emotional bonus held true “for men and women across all major racial/ethnic groups” and “is not explained by other demographic characteristics—such as age, race/ethnicity or education.”

Gallup researchers found wedded couples less prone to communication breakdowns in their relationships. Married couples were half as likely (26%) to say they experienced two or more days in the last month where they or their partner felt so angry they could not speak to each other than those living together (46%) or dating exclusive (41%). Interestingly, living together outside marriage made people 12% more likely to argue than dating exclusively while living separately.

Lawfully wedded husbands and wives also experienced greater closeness with their children: 83% of married couples with children between the ages of three and 19 say they have a “strong and loving” relationship with their kids, compared with 69% in a domestic partnership, and 61% in a “non-domestic exclusive relationship.”

Marriage is also linked to another predictor of happiness: having children. “Marriage also increases the likelihood of having children and is associated with better relationships with those children,” write Gallup researchers, pointing to the group’s 2023 Familial and Adolescent Health Survey.

Married parents, and even divorced parents, say they have more affectionate relationships with their own children than those who were never married, the report discovered, in addition to finding that “married parents are significantly less likely than divorced or never-married parents to report that their child is frequently out of control.”

“Finally, ideologically conservative parents report higher-quality and more harmonious relationships with their children compared with liberal or moderate parents,” Gallup’s team noted.

The new Gallup research report speculates the likelihood of entering a permanent, lifelong, and (in Christianity) unbreakable union must “encourage greater partner selection, as well as greater investments and effort to develop and maintain a high-quality relationship.”

Although married people report higher levels of happiness regardless of their religious status, “[m]arried people are also more likely to practice a religion, and religious practice is also positively correlated with subjective wellbeing.”

Gallup’s research reinforces numerous other studies showing married people, parents, and Christians who actively practice their faith enjoy greater happiness, contentment, and quality of life than unmarried couples, agnostics, atheists, and “Nones”:

“Americans who have never married, are not religious, and have lower levels of formal education feel their lives have meaning less often than other Americans do,” according to the November 2023 American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life. “Overall, religious Americans tend to believe their life is meaningful more often than do those who are not religious.”
Americans who believe in God and value marriage are more likely to be “very happy” than non-believers and single people, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken last March.
Parents “with two children had a risk of suicide 70% less than their childless peers,” wrote Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and a fellow at the Institute of Family Studies, summarizing a Scandinavian study.
Americans who attended religious services regularly were 44% more likely to say they were “very happy” than those who never or rarely attended, found a 2019 Pew Research Center study.
Christians who read the Bible regularly rated a higher score on the Human Flourishing Index than non-practicing Christians or the religiously unaffiliated, found a American Bible Society report last June. Active Christians and non-Christians diverged the most when it came to whether they felt their lives had “meaning & purpose.”
A Harvard study found childhood religious activities, such as prayer, paid great dividends later in life, even if the children subsequently left the faith. “[P]eople who attended weekly religious services or practiced daily prayer or meditation in their youth reported greater life satisfaction and positivity in their 20s—and were less likely to subsequently have depressive symptoms, smoke, use illicit drugs, or have a sexually transmitted infection—than people raised with less regular spiritual habits,” according to a summary of a 2018 study conducted by researchers from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The “Handbook of Religion and Health” has “reviewed 326 articles on the relationship between health and measures of “religiosity and subjective well-being, happiness, or life satisfaction,” finding that 79% of those studies reported that religious people were happier, while only 1% reported that they were less happy (the rest found no or mixed findings),” reported Stephen Cranney, a nonresident fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for the Studies of Religion who teaches at The Catholic University of America.
Despite these robust findings, Americans are less likely to believe marriage and an active Christian life make people happy.

“The General Social Survey documented a decline between 1988 and 2012 in the percentage of U.S. adults who agreed that married people are generally happier than unmarried people,” Gallup notes in Friday’s survey.

Similarly, a Pew Research Center poll last September found 71% of Americans say a fulfilling job makes for a good life, while only 23% say being married (and 26% say having children) are “extremely important in order for people to live a fulfilling life.”

Instead, culture celebrates the LGBTQ movement, despite the well-attested links between transgenderism/same-sex sexual behavior and poor mental health outcomes:

“Female students, LGBQ+ students, and students who had any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to experience poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” said a February 2023 report from the Biden administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teenagers who identified as LGBTQ were twice as likely to report “poor mental health” as those who identified as heterosexual, three times as likely to have “seriously considered attempting suicide” or “made a suicide plan,” and 366.6% more likely to have attempted suicide, the CDC found.
“A higher prevalence of substance use and mental health issues has been well-documented among people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (also referred to as sexual minorities) than among those who identify as heterosexual or straight,” noted a 2023 report from the Biden administration’s U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Women who have sex with members of both sexes (bisexuals) were six times as likely to have attempted suicide within the last year as women who identify as straight, and three times as likely to abuse opioid drugs. Bisexual men were three times as likely to have had a serious mental illness in the last year, SAMHSA found.
Two-thirds (67%) of Americans who identify as bisexual, and half (48%) of self-identified gays, said they felt “uncertain about who they were supposed to be” in the last year, as compared to about 1 out of 4 (29%) of those who identify as straight, the American Enterprise Institute’s survey found.
Originally published by The Washington Stand

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A REMINDER FROM MIAMI
00:01:41
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I often think about all that is going on in the worse. My cousin isnin Antartica on an expedition trip…he sent this video and it reminds me …. Just how GOOD we actually have it despite all of our challenges!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thank you all for being part of my community. This year is very special as a season of LOVE and HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please enjoy a small sliver from the CalvaryChurch.Com Christmas concert I pre-recorded. I pray it blesses you as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In His service…Steven

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WHEN GOD REWARDS OUR GIVING

Jesus addresses when God rewards us for our good deeds. To be more specific, Christ discusses three pharisaic practices of piety. They include: 1) GIVING 2) PRAYER and 3) FASTING. Today, we are going to look at the first of these, which is when God rewards or does not reward our “GIVING”.

WHEN GOD REWARDS OUR GIVING
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RADIO INTERVIEW-LOOKING BACK-Religious Freedom in 04-09-15

With the United States and world at a moral cross roads, today, we are looking back to an interview from 2015 whereby Steven was interviewed regarding "Religious Freedom". This is not a critique of any specific issues-but is a look back almost ten years (a full decade) to see where we came from. WHY? Becuase heading into 2026 we can look back to see where we are going. Again, the issue is not a critique on sexual orientation, but about religious freedom. People are people-and all people are sinners. Let's make sure to be compassionate with non-Christians in an effort to reach them for Christ while standing without compromise on the orthodox Word of God. Is that difficult. Yes it is.

GOD BLESS YOU!

RADIO INTERVIEW-LOOKING BACK-Religious Freedom in 04-09-15
Live Chat
CHRISTMAS=Equals=LOVE

Christmas IS or EQUALS LOVE. Merry Christmas to our COMMUNITY. May God continue to bless you, protect you, provide for you and give you great joy beyond understanding....Merry Christmas Eve-Steven

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A NICE TRIP WITH MAMA
I WANT TO BE THAT RARE CHRISTIAN

“There are rare Christians whose very presence incites others to be better Christians. I want to be that rare Christian.” A.W. Tozer

SOME THINGS IN LIFE COST NOTHING

“For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (John 3:11)

A BIBLICAL SUMMARY OF THE DEATH PENALTY (PT3)
By Steven Garofalo, February 17, 2025

PT3-A BIBLICAL SUMMARY OF THE DEATH PENALTY

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, refers to the execution by the state of those guilty of certain crimes involving First Degree Murder. Today, I am going to break down in greater detail what exactly Bible says about Capital Punishment-or the Death Penalty. This is part three of our three part serious on the death penalty, so let’s just jump right in.

Though some have opposed capital punishment for ideological or out of emotional reasons, it’s important to note that God mandated it’s use in the Bible. Now that we have seen Part 1 and 2 of this series, let’s jump in with both feet to look at God’s mandate for the death penalty, and break down what the Bible actually says about capital punishment or “the death penalty”.

THE BIBLICAL GOD GIVEN MANDATE FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

Most people don’t know or don’t realize that the Bible actually mandates the death penalty for crimes or in certain instances. According to the Merriam-webster.com dictionary, the word “MANDATE” is defined as “a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one”; an authorization to act given to a representative.”[i] In other words, “a formal order” disallows for that order to be disobeyed. To disobey an order by the police can get you arrested, shot or killed. To disobey an order in the military can get you punishment, including court marshalled. Let’s break down what the Bible means when it speaks to the Bible mandating the death penalty.

1)    The divine, Scriptural and divine mandate occurs FIRST-immediately after the Noahic Flood. God instructed Noah and his sons, saying: “Whoever sheds man’s blood by man his blood shall be shed” (Gen. 9:6 NASB).

2)    Human beings are created in the IMAGE OF GOD (Gen. 9:6). No other creature, great or small can say this. Only humans have logical minds able to think, process, understand and communicated as compared to all other creatures that exist only through instinct and natural mechanisms. As such, ALL human life is sacred, justifying a penalty as severe as death for crime of murder.

3)    Capital Punishment (the Death Penalty) is reserved for the state (government) not the individual. There is no place for personal revenge or retribution outside the bounds of the law: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, VENGENCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). This is the state’s responsibility, as God’s civil servant on earth, to protect its citizens and to punish those who harm them (Rom. 14:4,6). This begs the question as to what we are to do when the state turns evil and persecutes good for evil and makes evil appear good for their own sinful advancement? “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). The answer is too complex to address in full here because bleeds into “ethics and morality” which involves civil disobedience and dealing with the natural growth of such sinful governmental policies which grow into anarchy (as we saw in the early 2020’s), extreme patriotism, and possibly revolution. Suffice it to say that we are to sit back and rest on “civil disobedience” which is a refusal to do evil, even when the state mandates it as a first step.

4)    HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? Capital punishment provides the state the means to apply the appropriate punishment for murder: “Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19:21 ESV).

ISN’T STATE (GOVERNMENT) VIOLATING THE SIX COMMANDMENT “YOU SHALL NOT MURDER” (Exodus 20:13)?

The state and only the state possesses the power of death to punish evil (Romans13:4; 1 Peter 2:13-14). This begs the question as to “WHAT” or “WHO” is EVIL. Evil are those acts identified by God as evil justify the use of Capital Punishment

God is the STANDARD for defining what is GOOD and what is EVIL. If this were not true, there would no abuse in what Nazi Germany did in killing millions of Jews.

The state does not violate the sixth commandment, saying, “You shall not murder” by it is proper executive and application of capital punishment. The Hebrew word “ratsach”, translated “kill” in some translations, refers to acts of murder or homicide. A different word, “harag”, often translated “kill” occurs more often in the Old Testament. Rather than violating the six commandments by capital punishment, the state supports the commandment by executing those who murder. The good news is that God provided us specific guidelines for those who would qualify for the death penalty. Let’s investigate further.

1)    The accused person must have committed a crime for which death is appropriate punishment. God sates: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19:21).

2)    Clear evidence of guilt must be provided by two or more witnesses (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6).

3)    Those charged with crimes must be treated in a uniform and impartial manner, regardless of the “status” (Deut. 1:17) or “class” (Lev. 19:15) of the offender. Our society, business, and especially our governmental-political system favors some people and discriminates against others because of class or status, or deprives some of adequate defense, intentionally or through neglect, diminishes its integrity and creates serious doubts about its administration of justice (Leviticus 24:22).

CONCLUSION

God instituted capital punishment as a legitimate option for every state. Its institution predates Israel’s birth as a nation and Moses’ divinely inspired directions for its governance, eliminating the possibility that it was mandated soley for Israel if you were wondering. God issued His guidance on capital punishment to ALL of earth’s only surviving people (Gen. 7:20-24). God’s instructions to them provided the foundation for all subsequence governments there forward. Because God mandates capital punishment prior to Israel’s establishment, at the very least, it is a legitimate response to murder in other societies.


[i] Meriam Dictionary, Definition of word mandate, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandate

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AMERICA’S GUILT CULTURE AND THE DEATH PENALTY PT2
By Steven Garofalo, February 14, 2025 (Copyright 2025)

BE GUILTY!-America's Guilt Culture And The Death Penalty PT2

By Steven Garofalo M.A.A.  February 14, 2025

We (America) are a “National of Laws”. If we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless”.

Today, I am going to show you what happens when we fail to enforce the Law due to our guilt culture.

On December 23, 2024, President Biden communed the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.  Three men remain on federal death row: Robert Bowers, convicted in the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 worshippers dead; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 people in 2013 and Dylann Roof, convicted of fatally shooting nine people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

So, why did the President treat three differently from the 37? I submit that Biden is an extremely immoral man when compared to biblical norms and standards. As such, he not only rejects biblical standards and mandates, but embraces evil. The psychological term to describe a person who blames another person for which he is guilty of is called “PROJECTION”. Projection is a defense mechanism where an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else. For example, a person who is feeling angry may accuse other of being hostile or aggressive. This in turn often allows the individual to avoid confronting their own feelings or actions by externalizing them. This can and often morphs into narcissism which can be an incredibly challenging and painful ordeal-as the entire country has experienced over the past four years with the Biden administration which was full of such characters. Politics in general are corrupt, but it’s wrong to call all politicians or people equal violators of the law. Equal sinners? Yes, perhaps, but equal violators of the law-NO. This past administration led to lawless criminals being let out of prison, who in turn went out and murdered again. As such, there is culpability on behalf of all prosecutors and politicians involved. This begs the question though as to WHY people don’t support Capital Punishment, or the “Death Penalty”?

DEATH PENALTY AND THE TRUTH ARE 100% CONSISTENT

It seems for political reasons. If you don’t believe in the death penalty, it follows logically that you would be consistent in that belief. Set all that aside, the best way to get to the truth is to discover the “truth”, and in turn, you don’t have to make sense of mankind’s inconsistent moral standings. Man’s morality is always inconsistent in relation to money, power, political favors and sinful agendas. God’s morality is 100% consistent. He doesn’t care how much money you have or what you position is. While God is a God of mercy, if you do the crime, you do the time-in other words, there are always consequences. In the case of murder, it cannot be overlooked. Stealing a pack of chewing gum and returning to the store to confess that wrong is less weighty than premeditatively taking the life of an innocent person. This falls under “ethics and morality” in the sense that different crimes differ in their “weightiness”. That’s a discussion for another article. This leads us to ask WHY people don’t support the death penalty and what does God say about the death penalty. I submit that it comes down to malformed cultural understanding of truth and morality. In other words, America’s CULTURE has become unbiblical.

DO DIFFERENT CULTURES SEE PUNISHMENT THE SAME?

Each country has their own cultural leading. Take for example Japan which has a “shame culture” based on “honor”. According to “AI Overview” on Google, A "Japanese Shame Culture" refers to the societal phenomenon where Japanese people are deeply sensitive to the perceptions of others and prioritize maintaining social harmony, often experiencing shame when they fail to live up to societal expectations, leading to a strong focus on outward appearances and avoiding actions that could bring negative judgment upon themselves; this concept is largely attributed to anthropologist Ruth Benedict's work describing Japanese culture as primarily based on shame rather than guilt

If you do something that goes against their cultural, moral and religious norms you are to be shamed.

On the other hand, American has a “guilt culture.” This has been born out of an “underdog” mentality which America was founded on, but more so from the politically correct minority mindset starting mainly in the 1960’s when instead of helping minorities rise-up, government put non-minorities down to elevate people of color. You cannot elevate someone unfairly without putting someone else down. Simply put, inequality was personified in the name of trying to create equality. Leave it to the government to do more harm than good. The black population is equal to all humans and ought to have been helped to rise-up to their full potential, not allowed opportunities based on the pigmentation of their skin. That is wrong, based upon the fact that God created all men and women equal. I say all this to illustrate the fact that America has a wrongful guilt culture. No other country in world history has done as much good for the world as America-as imperfect as she is.

AMERICA’S GUILT CULTURE VS. THE BIBLE

A casualty of our “guilt culture” is the inerrancy of the Scriptures. What I mean by that, is that people take the parts they want. The parts of the Bible they emotionally feel in disagreement with, they deny in the name of grace and “compassion.”! And this truth is on full display in Genesis 9:6 which addresses the death penalty. This is what it says:

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6).

Leviticus 24:17 states, "Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death"

The verb suggests murder, not accidental homicide in the case of killing a human. It’s not speaking to manslaughter or running a red light, causing death. It’s speaking to First Degree, pre-meditated murder. To get the death penalty in America, you have to go through a special hearing (called bi-cameral hearing) to make sure that the case qualifies for the death penalty. This leads us to ask what the God says about the death penalty through His Word, the Bible.

THE BIBLE ON THE DEATH PENALTY

God is clear in Genesis 9:6 in that “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6)

Homicide (which in a sense is always “fratricide” (killing of one’s brother or sister) (v.5): “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man” (Genesis 9:5). As such this demands a punishment that matches the crime. The justification for capital punishment here established is “the nobility of the human life”, FOR GOD MADE MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE”

Hence, murder shows contempt for God as well as for one’s fellow man. Romans 13:4 makes clear where governments have the power to use the death penalty. We are not allowed to take the law into our own hands and murder those who have violated us.

In closing, the United States has become a much less safe place to be. It seems daily that we read about innocent people who are murdered by people who have been convicted in the past for murder. God’s ways are not our ways. When we follow His ways, we live in peace. When we allow our guilt culture and emotions to lead out criminal justice system, innocent people get hurt or die. Let’s not allow our guilt culture override God’s truth. I know this is a touchy subject and there is so much more to be said. I read Genesis 9 this morning and wanted to share in today’s entry. How we apply God’s Word is not politics, it’s God’s ways. How we apply God’s ways is up to us. In the end, it’s still God’s Word. The bottom line is that while we (America) are a “National of Laws”, if we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless” due to our guilt culture. Let’s put a stop to this today and seek God’s Word-His Truth, despite how we feel about His command for Capital Punishment-the Death Penalty.

Read full Article
AMERICA’S GUILT CULTURE AND JUSTICE PT2
By Steven Garofalo, February 14, 2025 (Copyright 2025)

BE GUILTY!-America's Guilt Culture And Justice: The Death Penalty PT2

By Steven Garofalo M.A.A.  February 14, 2025

We (America) are a “National of Laws”. If we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless”.

Today, I am going to show you what happens when we fail to enforce the Law due to our guilt culture.

On December 23, 2024, President Biden communed the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.  Three men remain on federal death row: Robert Bowers, convicted in the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 worshippers dead; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 people in 2013 and Dylann Roof, convicted of fatally shooting nine people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

So, why did the President treat three differently from the 37? I submit that Biden is an extremely immoral man when compared to biblical norms and standards. As such, he not only rejects biblical standards and mandates, but embraces evil. The psychological term to describe a person who blames another person for which he is guilty of is called “PROJECTION”. Projection is a defense mechanism where an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else. For example, a person who is feeling angry may accuse other of being hostile or aggressive. This in turn often allows the individual to avoid confronting their own feelings or actions by externalizing them. This can and often morphs into narcissism which can be an incredibly challenging and painful ordeal-as the entire country has experienced over the past four years with the Biden administration which was full of such characters. Politics in general are corrupt, but it’s wrong to call all politicians or people equal violators of the law. Equal sinners? Yes, perhaps, but equal violators of the law-NO. This past administration led to lawless criminals being let out of prison, who in turn went out and murdered again. As such, there is culpability on behalf of all prosecutors and politicians involved. This begs the question though as to WHY people don’t support Capital Punishment, or the “Death Penalty”?

DEATH PENALTY AND THE TRUTH ARE 100% CONSISTENT

It seems for political reasons. If you don’t believe in the death penalty, it follows logically that you would be consistent in that belief. Set all that aside, the best way to get to the truth is to discover the “truth”, and in turn, you don’t have to make sense of mankind’s inconsistent moral standings. Man’s morality is always in consistent in relation to money, power, political favors and sinful agendas. God’s morality is 100% consistent. He doesn’t care how much money you have or what you position is. While God is a God of mercy, if you do the crime, you do the time-in other words, there are always consequences. In the case of murder, it cannot be overlooked. Stealing a pack of chewing gum and returning to the store to confess that wrong is less weighty than premeditatively taking the life of an innocent person. This falls under “ethics and morality” in the sense that different crimes differ in their “weightiness”. That’s a discussion for another article. This leads us to ask WHY people don’t support the death penalty and what does God say about the death penalty. I submit that it comes down to malformed cultural understanding of truth and morality. In other words, America’s CULTURE has become unbiblical.

DO DIFFERENT CULTURES SEE PUNISHMENT THE SAME?

Each country has their own cultural leading. Take for example Japan which has a “shame culture” based on “honor”. According to “AI Overview” on Google, A "Japanese Shame Culture" refers to the societal phenomenon where Japanese people are deeply sensitive to the perceptions of others and prioritize maintaining social harmony, often experiencing shame when they fail to live up to societal expectations, leading to a strong focus on outward appearances and avoiding actions that could bring negative judgment upon themselves; this concept is largely attributed to anthropologist Ruth Benedict's work describing Japanese culture as primarily based on shame rather than guilt

If you do something that goes against their cultural, moral and religious norms you are to be shamed.

On the other hand, American has a “shame culture”. This has been born out of an “underdog” mentality which America was founded on, but more so from the politically correct minority mindset starting in the mainly in the 1960’s when instead of helping minorities rise-up, government put non-minorities down to elevate people of color. You cannot elevate someone unfairly without putting someone else down. Simply put, inequality was personified in the name of trying to create equality. Leave it to the government to do more harm than good. The black population are equal humans like everyone else and ought to have been helped to rise-up to their full potential, not allowed opportunities based on the pigmentation of their skin. That is wrong according to the fact that God created all men and women equal. I say all this to illustrate the fact that America has a wrongful guild culture. No other country in world history has done as much good for the world as America-as imperfect as she is, it’s the truth.

AMERICA’S GUILT CULTURE VS. THE BIBLE

A casualty of our “guilt culture” is the inerrancy of the Scriptures. What I mean by that is that people take the parts they want and the parts of the Bible they emotionally feel in disagreement with, they deny in the name of grace and “compassion”. While that nice according to culture, it’s wrong according to God. And this truth is in full-on display in Genesis 9:6 which addresses the death penalty. This is what it says:

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6).

Leviticus 24:17 states, "Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death"

The verb suggests murder, not accidental homicide if the case of killing a human. It’s not speaking to manslaughter or running a red light, causing death. It’s speaking to First Degree, pre-meditated murder. To get the death penalty in America, you have to go through a special hearing (called bi-cameral hearing) to make sure that the case qualifies for the death penalty. This leads us to ask what the God says about the death penalty through His Word, the Bible.

THE BIBLE ON THE DEATH PENALTY

God is clear in Genesis 9:6 in that “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6)

Homicide (which in a sense is always “fratricide” (killing of one’s brother or sister) (v.5): “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man” (Genesis 9:5). As such this demands a punishment that matches the crime. The justification for capital punishment here established is “the nobility of the human life”, FOR GOD MADE MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE”

Hence, murder shows contempt for God as well as for one’s fellow man. Romans 13:4 makes clear where governments have the power to use the death penalty. We are not allowed to take the law into our own hands and murder those who have violated us.

In closing, the United States has become a much less safe place to be. It seems daily that we read about innocent people who are murdered by people who have been convicted in the past for murder. God’s ways are not our ways. When we follow His ways, we live in peace. When we allow our guilt culture and emotions to lead out criminal justice system, innocent people get hurt or die. Let’s not allow our guilt culture override God’s truth. I know this is a touchy subject and there is so much more to be said. I read Genesis 9 this morning and wanted to share in today’s entry. How we apply God’s Word is not politics, it’s God’s ways. How we apply God’s ways is up to us. In the end, it’s still God’s Word. The bottom line is that while we (America) are a “National of Laws”, if we don’t properly, swiftly and justly execute the law, we end up-quickly becoming “Lawless” due to our guilt culture. Let’s put a stop to this today and seek God’s Word-His Truth, despite how we feel about His command for Capital Punishment-the Death Penalty.

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