acknowledgeurma wrote:
Following Romans 13:1,"...there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God", so if an authority has decided that honor killing is legal, is God ok with honor killing for those under that authority?
Very good question! I've thought about the idea of killing and the Ten Commandments and what is really going on.
First, I going to clear up some misconceptions about the Commandment that states "Thou shalt not kill".
The word that has been translated "kill" in the King James Bible is not entirely correct. The more appropriate word that should be there is "murder". The Hebrews were killing in their animal sacrifices as well as killing entire tribes of people, so killing is not the intent of the Commandment . . . it is actually murder.
With that being said, I think what you're addressing is actually the different types of governments around the world. God has established Government as you pointed out in Romans . . . but what type of Government rest in the hands of man, not God! Would you say that the Government under Hitler was moral or godly?!? No, of course not! Some Governments, mostly in Asia and the Middle East, have a type of Government that is directly connected to their national religion . . . which is closing in on your specific question.
Now, considering we are talking about what the Bible says and not the Quran and other Islamic scriptures, the Christian perspective on Islam is that it is a religion with its own rules. They obviously condone these honor killings in some sects of Islam. But does God, the Hebrew God, the Christian God, condone honor killings?!? No!!! If a Muslim converted to Christianity, he would surely see the sin in it and stop doing it . . . but then he would be going against the traditions and perhaps sharia laws of the land.
Perhaps another train of thought might help. I've often wondered how God judges those who were born on some Pacific Island and never got to hear about Jesus or read the Bible. God holds them accountable for what truth they do have . . . God has written in the hearts of mankind that which is right and wrong (which got there when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil) so mankind is without excuse when it comes down to killing/murder. And, if you think about it, those Muslims that commit these honor killings surely must break their hearts to do it . . . and that, in itself should tell them the error of the act!
Muslims are stuck between a rock and a hard place because of where they live and the religious type of Government they have. What I see is a God ordained institution that has been corrupted by man . . . this is not to say God ordained their type of Government . . . God ordained the concept of Government . . . what mankind has done to it is what mankind always ends up doing, corrupting it. This is part of the reason America is one of, if not the greatest country in the world . . . . our Constitution was designed in such a way as to not allow our Government to ever condone any single religion thus creating a kind of separation of church and state! Almost every Muslim nation though has a Government that is directly influenced by their religion!
If you need Bible reference, just ask . . . I was just going off the top of my head on most of this so consider it my opinion and not the gospel according to anybody, OK!?!