Capital Punishment
    By Mark E. Moore

The death penalty is a critical social issue for Christians involving a number of complex issues including but not limited to:

    1. The sanctity, dignity, and protection of life (both victims and perpetrators)

    2. The Christian call to mercy and forgiveness

    3. Submission to the authority of the state

    4. The preservation of social order

    5. Justice for victims (both individuals and society as a whole)

    6. Equity and civility in punishment

There are no unilateral answers. But there are some arguments to be considered on both sides which must address each of the previous issues. The following arguments should be weighed, not counted.

Arguments for the Death Penalty (DP): (Counterpoints in Blue)

1. Life imprisonment is actually more cruel than DP because it permanently robs a person of autonomy. It is not more cruel because life imprisonment can be reversed or repealed, DP cannot.

2. DP brings certain closure to victims (both the individuals wronged and society as a whole which has been offended). This would not be true of individuals or communities that are horrified by DP.

3. DP alone expresses appropriate horror against the gravest of crimes. Violence begets violence, even if it is state sponsored.

4. DP is not for personal revenge to compensate for an individual's suffering. It is a means for carrying out justice and maintaining social order.

5. It is ordained by God in the Scriptures both in the Old Testament (e.g. Ex 12:12-17) and in the New (Rom 13:1-5). Although the example of Jesus' forgiveness and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount should take precedent to O.T. Law (Mt 5:38-42; 18:21-35).

6. It is a lot less expensive to execute a prisoner than to keep them in prison. God help us when economic concerns outweigh our concern for life.

Arguments against the Death Penalty: (Counterpoints in Red)

1. Where DP is practiced, it is unequally distributed. More murderers of whites receive DP than murderers of blacks. This is an argument against the inequity of the application of DP which doesn't necessarily answer the basic question of its moral justification, only the inadequacy of its implementation.

2. Innocent people get executed.

3. It legitimates murder. Punishment by the state hardly legitimates the crime of the individual even if the punishment looks like the crime committed. That would be tantamount to saying that imprisonment legitimizes kidnapping or that fines legitimize robbery.

4. DP is morally degrading to individuals and to society. DP may actually affirm an individual's dignity since it recognizes the criminal's rationality and moral responsibility. Furthermore, if it does degrade the individual the blame for that should be given to the convicted criminal rather than to the state. Don't reverse the direction of causality.

5. Most, if not all, European nations have abolished DP. The majority is not always right. Besides, thirty-seven states and the majority of Americans favor the death penalty. So how can one logically argue that the majority in Europe is a valid argument but the majority in this country is not?

6. DP does not deter crime.

7. The early church was uncomfortable with participating in a government that supported capital punishment (while this is an oversimplification, cf. Tertullian De Idolatria c. 17) and they forbade those who had been involved in capital punishment to participate in the clergy. The early church was not right on every issue. Furthermore, their opinions on capital punishment may well reflect their experience of persecution and martyrdom.

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