Capital Punishment

“I also understand that a not insignificant number of Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, wise, and discerning Christians are in favor of capital punishment…. I’m just not sure that a pro-capital punishment reading of Scripture is the only faithful reading—or even the most faithful reading.” - Dale Chamberlain

“I believe we should oppose the death penalty because it involves the retributive killing of our siblings in Christ. This argument, while not new, is often overlooked.” - CToday

“The court ruled in the case of a Texas inmate, John Henry Ramirez, who challenged state rules that would have forced his pastor to remain silent and apart from him as he is put to death.” - C.Index

“For nearly two millennia now, this passage [Rom 13:4] has been seen by most Christian faith traditions both as authorizing governmental authority and authorizing their right to use lethal force to punish evil doers, domestically through the criminal justice system and internationally through the military in “just war” conflicts with other nations.” - Richard Land

“Two of the three congregations that met inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh said they were saddened and disappointed with the news that federal prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing 11 Jews at their place of worship last year.” - RNS

Barr: “Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President… The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.” - National Review

“True, New Testament believers do not live under the Old Testament economy, but that does not render the Old Testament obsolete—or even nearly so.” - AiG

Moore emphasizes “the distinction the Bible makes between the innocent and the guilty,” adding, “The gospel shows us forgiveness for the guilty through the sin-absorbing atonement of Christ, not through the state’s refusal to carry out temporal justice.” BPress

Last week “the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)—the umbrella group founded in 1942 to give conservative white-evangelical Protestants an amplified voice—voted to soften its longstanding position supporting capital punishment.”