Death penalty

Policies of religious groups

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There are 16 main religious groups in the U.S. which have over 1 million adherents. This includes 12 Christian faith groups, Islam, Judaism, Atheism; and persons with no religious affiliation or identification.

Christian groups have taken opposite views on the death penalty:

Support for capital punishment among the general public is higher that one would expect from the positions of American religious groups. The membership of the various denominations appear to support capital punishment more than their own faith groups do.

Additional information:

"Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."

"If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person."

"Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically non-existent'." _24,25

A public debate on capital punishment:

During 2001-JUN, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life sponsored a public debate on the theology and morality of capital punishment. _20,21 Present were two representatives from each side of the issue:

The debate followed shortly after the execution of two high-profile inmates on death row:  Timothy McVeigh on JUN-11, and Juan Raul Garza on JUN-19. These were the first prisoners in four decades to be executed by the federal government. It also followed a report issued by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. The report confirmed his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that "there is no evidence of racial bias in the administration of the federal death penalty." The report showed that:

Debating in opposition to capital punishment:

Joseph Lowery said: "The death penalty is a matter of place and race, inequity and iniquity...Where the execution of Jesus Christ is most deplored in the South, the execution of human beings is most employed." He compared the "Bible Belt to the killing belt."

He referred to the United States "as the leader of the free world. But I don’t know who we are leading. Who's following us? Iran, Iraq, Libya, China. Nobody in the European Union is following us in the death penalty. Turkey held out, but recently they did away with it."

Lowery said supporters of the death penalty use the same arguments as those who once defended slavery "And the Bible was used to justify that as well. The state does not have the right to kill, to take a human life; the state does not have a right to enslave. It has the power, but the Bible addresses that. It says 'Not by power, nor by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord.' "

He noted that during the past century, "eight out of ten persons executed in the South were African-American. In Georgia, where I live, black males constitute 15 percent of the population but 50 percent of those who are on death row...The poor are rigidly prosecuted but poorly defended...capital punishment is for people who have no capital...Poor defendants are represented by lawyers who are paid meager fees and spend an average of two days on the case."

Lowery noted that "most of the major religious bodies in this country -- Methodist, American Baptist, National Baptist, all except for Southern Baptist -- oppose the death penalty." He said, "It’s interesting to me that killing [supposedly] damages the image of God when it’s done by a person, but it doesn’t damage it when it’s done by the state... [The death penalty] extends the cycle of violence; it affirms killing as an acceptable means of resolving social problems."

John Carr explained that the Catholic church believes that the state has the "right to execute people, but other ways have evolved to protect society, specifically the penal system, and that the state ought to forego the right to execute people and protect society in other ways."

Debating in support of capital punishment:

Nathan Diament noted that there is no consensus on this issue among Jews. He said if one had to "sum up the position of my organization as the umbrella group for orthodox synagogues around the country in a pithy sound bite, I would say, we’re not abolitionists, but we are for a moratorium."

According to the Associated Baptist Press: "Barrett Duke, acknowledging that the state has undoubtedly convicted innocent people and that the death penalty has problems related to race and economics, said he opposes a moratorium while problems are studied." His concern about a moratorium is that many of its supporters "see it as simply the first step to the abolition of capital punishment, not a real effort to try to change the system." He said that the SBC's prime concern is "that someone who’s innocent might be executed. We are not oblivious to that accusation...If there is not clear and overwhelming evidence of guilt, then capital punishment should not be sought, should not be practiced...such a possibility is less likely today than it has ever been. There are more secure ways of determining guilt than there have ever been. It is the state’s responsibility to protect the image of God, in which we are created. Referring to a resolution at their year 2000 assembly Duke said: "Southern Baptists did decide to speak on this issue, so we need to show up and take the heat wherever we get invited to do that."

The resolution approved at the SBC's year 2000 assembly says, in part, that: "God authorized capital punishment for murder after the Noahic Flood, validating its legitimacy in human society...[messengers (delegates of the SBC)] support the fair and equitable use of capital punishment by civil magistrates as a legitimate form of punishment for those guilty of murder or treasonous acts that result in death."

Duke said that: "historically Southern Baptists have supported capital punishment in our rank and file. There were some attempts in the late '60s to have Southern Baptists actually go on record opposed to capital punishment...Southern Baptist rank and file rejected that as an option." He said that support for the death penalty "is a biblical position. And we do believe that the Bible continues to be relevant for life today." Commenting on the race and economic issues, he said: "To us, they are real issues, and we call for a study, and we call for change in the way this is done so that there is not racial or economic inequity in the system. However, we do acknowledge that the state has the right to execute those who have violated certain laws."

Question-and-answer session after the debate:

On the subject of executing mentally ill persons, Duke said: "There is a point at which we must say that a person is not mentally competent to really have been able to understand the consequences of his actions, and that that should be taken into consideration. And in some of those, there are certain circumstances capital punishment would not be appropriate."

Referring to Lowery's comparison of  the '"Bible Belt to the killing belt," Duke said "there are more evangelicals in the South, in terms of percentage, who attempt to apply the biblical teachings to life. And their conclusion, then, when they do that is that capital punishment is an appropriate response, under certain circumstances, for a civil government."

Lowery countered, "You interpret the Bible to conform to Southern mores. The same argument was used to justify slavery. That’s why they dehumanized black folk, so they could enslave them. And there were a lot of biblical arguments for that. It is the section of the country that is the most armed. … The Bible Belt is the belt with the gun in the holster...We’ve lost reverence for life. And you don’t protect society by making killers of all of us because one of us kills."

Additional religious and moral considerations:

Some points that bear on this debate, but were not necessarily brought up at the time, are:

References:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "A Good Friday appeal to end the death penalty," United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, at: http://www.nccbuscc.org/ This and many other documents are linked to "Catholic Social Thought: Online Resources" under the topic of Capital Punishment, at: http://www.saintmarys.edu/
2. "Resolution No. 5 on capital punishment," Southern Baptist Convention, at: http://www.tnbaptist.org/
3. "American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.: Resolution on Capital Punishment," at: http://www.deathpenaltyreligious.org/
4. "United Methodist Church: Capital Punishment," at: http://www.deathpenaltyreligious.org/
5. "A social statement on the death penalty," at: http://www.elca.org/
6. "Report on Capital Punishment," Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Originally published in the Lutheran Witness, 1976-MAY-16.
7. "Prominent religious leaders urge Bush to enact a moratorium on federal executions," Citizens for a moratorium on federal elections, 2001?, at: http://www.federalmoratorium.org/
8. Estimates of the total population of Muslims vary greatly from about 6 million (by Muslim organizations) to about 3 million (from public opinion polls).
9. "Shattering ten misconceptions about Islam," at: http://www.usc.edu/
10. Deleted because of inaccurate data
11. "Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): Continuing opposition to capital punishment," at: http://www.deathpenaltyreligious.org/
12. "Re: Presbyterians and the death penalty," at: http://venus.soci.niu.edu/ This includes a statement by the Episcopal Church.
13. "Report of the Commission on Christian Action," at: http://www.rca.org/
14. "Civil and human rights," at: http://www.ucc.org/
15. The American Atheists have not taken a position on the death penalty. However, an essay by its president Ellen Johnson opposing the death penalty is at: http://www.americanatheist.org/
16. Estimates of the number of Neopagans also vary greatly They are growing at a very rapid pace. So, if our 1 million member estimate is currently high, they will probably reach it shortly.
17. Wiccans and other Neopagans have a vast range of religious beliefs, practices, and social beliefs. An essay by a Wiccan opposed to the death penalty is at: "Wicca and the Death Penalty," at:  http://www.homestead.com/
18. "National church bodies share historic opposition to death," at http://www.wfn.org/
19. "Capital Punishment," at: http://www.nae.net/
20. A transcript is available at the PewForum.org web site at: http://pewforum.org/
21. Kenny Byrd, "Southern Baptist, civil-rights leader spar on ethics of death penalty," Associated Baptist Press, 2001-JUN-21. See: http://www.cbfonline.org/
22. Caryle Murphy, : 'Eye for an Eye' Challenges Faithful," Washington Post, 2007-MAY-12, at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
23. "Public Issues: Capital Punishment," The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at: http://www.lds.org/
24. "Section 2267, Catechism of the Catholic Church," United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, at: http://www.usccb.org/
25. John Paul II, "Evangelium vitae,"  56. at: http://www.vatican.va/
26. George D. Chryssides, "New Light, Conscience and Jehovah’s Witnesses," Center for Studies on New Religions, 2002-JUN, at: http://www.cesnur.org/

Copyright © 2001 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-JUL-3
Latest update: 2007-SEP-03
Author: B.A. Robinson