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Entries tagged with “Religious”

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Mar 21, 2016

Baptist Theologian Says Death Penalty Does Not Fit With Christian Theology

Baptist ethi­cist and the­olo­gian Dr. Roger E. Olson (pic­tured) recent­ly issued a call ​“for Christian church­es to pub­licly stand against the death penal­ty for Christian rea­sons.” A pro­fes­sor of Christian Theology and Ethics at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Dr. Olson writes in an essay for the the­ol­o­gy web­site Patheos​.com that ​“authen­tic Christians must oppose the death penal­ty.” He says that, while “[t]here are many sec­u­lar rea­sons to abol­ish the death penal­ty,” there are also the­o­log­i­cal rea­sons why church oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment should be non-nego­tiable. ​“Christians believe…

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Religion

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Dec 05, 2018

DPIC PODCAST: The New Catholic Teaching on the Death Penalty and Human Dignity

In August 2018, Pope Francis pro­mul­gat­ed a new Catholic Catechism that deemed the death penal­ty ​“inad­mis­si­ble” in all cas­es and com­mit­ted the Church to work­ing to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment world­wide. Cardinal Blase Cupich, the ninth Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, joined DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham on the lat­est episode of the pod­cast Discussions with DPIC, to explore the impli­ca­tions of the new teach­ings and how they fit into the Church’s broad­er mes­sage on social jus­tice and the sanc­ti­ty of life.

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Mar 21, 2017

Harper’s Magazine Profiles Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

A fea­ture sto­ry in the March issue of Harper’s Magazine explores the grow­ing con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment against the death penal­ty, with a focus on the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and its nation­al advo­ca­cy coor­di­na­tor, Marc Hyden (pic­tured). Hyden, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked on Republican cam­paigns and was a field rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the NRA, explained the gen­e­sis of his views against the death penal­ty. His oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty came from his pro-life beliefs, con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions, and the high cost of the death penal­ty, which vio­lat­ed his…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Jan 13, 2017

Mental Health Professionals, Religious Leaders Join Ricky Gray’s Plea for Clemency

Ricky Gray (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on January 18, is seek­ing clemen­cy from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and his clemen­cy peti­tion has been joined by a diverse group of men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als and the Virginia Catholic Conference. A let­ter signed by more than 50 men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als, includ­ing two for­mer com­mis­sion­ers of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, urges McAuliffe to com­mute Gray’s sen­tence because of Gray’s his­to­ry of ​“hor­rif­ic” child­hood abuse and his addic­tion at the time of the crime. Gray’s jury never…

Dec 01, 2004

NEW RESOURCE: The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty

A new book by Dale Recinella, The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty, ana­lyzes cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through an exam­i­na­tion of reli­gious texts and teach­ings. Using sources such as the Torah, the Talmud, and the Bible, Recinella out­lines what bib­li­cal texts say regard­ing who is deserv­ing of the death penal­ty and who is grant­ed the author­i­ty to impose such a sen­tence. While explor­ing issues such as inno­cence, race, men­tal capac­i­ty, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, Recinella weaves bib­li­cal texts with cur­rent case exam­ples to con­clude that: ​“People of bib­li­cal faith must abol­ish the…

Policy Issues

Race

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Religion

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New Voices

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Aug 11, 2016

NEW VOICES: Latino Evangelical Leaders Call For End to Capital Punishment

Leaders of nation­al Latino evan­gel­i­cal groups are call­ing for an end to the death penal­ty, cit­ing both reli­gious con­vic­tions and prac­ti­cal con­cerns about the fair­ness of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Reverend Gabriel Salguero (pic­tured), founder of the Latino Evangelical Coalition, said, ​“Given stud­ies on how the death penal­ty is met­ed out, par­tic­u­lar­ly for peo­ple of col­or, if it’s not a lev­el play­ing field, we need to speak out. … The nee­dle has moved for Latinos and evan­gel­i­cals.” According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Latinos com­prise a grow­ing por­tion of the nation’s…

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Religion

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New Voices

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Aug 14, 2017

NEW VOICES: More Than 100 Rabbis Issue Statement Calling for End to the ​“Cruel Practice” of Capital Punishment

A group of more than 100 rab­bis from mul­ti­ple Jewish denom­i­na­tions have issued a state­ment express­ing their oppo­si­tion to the use of the death penal­ty in the United States. The state­ment, post­ed by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (pic­tured) in Forward.com’s Scribe—a curat­ed con­trib­u­tor net­work of Jewish thought — called for an end to the ​“cru­el prac­tice” of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and ​“for the begin­ning of a new par­a­digm of fair, equi­table restora­tive jus­tice.” The rab­bis said that “[a]s Jews and cit­i­zens, we believe that gov­ern­ments must pro­tect the dig­ni­ty and rights of every…

May 12, 2004

NEW VOICES: New York Religious Leaders Unite Against Death Penalty, Call for Moratorium

New York reli­gious lead­ers rep­re­sent­ing a range of faiths and regions recent­ly unit­ed to voice their oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty and to encour­age a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions so that issues of fair­ness and accu­ra­cy may be addressed. A state­ment issued by the group not­ed: “[O]ur nation’s con­tin­ued reliance on the death penal­ty is extreme­ly cost­ly, inef­fec­tive in fight­ing crime, unequal­ly applied, and hand­ed out with alarm­ing fre­quen­cy to defen­dants who are lat­er proved to be inno­cent. Even most death penal­ty pro­po­nents now agree that there are seri­ous prob­lems with…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Religion

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New Voices

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Feb 19, 2016

Orthodox Jewish Organization Calls for an End to Capital Punishment in the U.S.

“As Jews, as cit­i­zens of a nation ded­i­cat­ed to lib­er­ty and jus­tice, we believe that gov­ern­ments must pro­tect the dig­ni­ty and rights of every human being. The use of the death penal­ty, in America, fails to live up to this basic require­ment,” wrote Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (pic­tured), founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Orthodox Jewish social jus­tice move­ment. In a col­umn for Jewish Journal, Rabbi Yanklowitz out­lines the rea­sons for Jewish oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, focus­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly on the issue of inno­cence. “[O]ur American sys­tem today lacks…

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Apr 13, 2006

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Catholic Bishops Invoke Holy Day in Calling for End to Executions

In a let­ter issued pri­or to Easter, the Catholic Bishops in Missouri called for an end to exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and urged parish­ioners to ​“build a cul­ture of life.” The let­ter not­ed that vio­lence ​“is not a solu­tion to soci­ety’s prob­lems,” and it sum­ma­rized church teach­ings regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and high­light­ed a cam­paign by U.S. Catholic Bishops to end the use of the death penal­ty. “(Christ) was unjust­ly sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed on a cross, the cru­elest form of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at the time.… [R]ecent…

Oct 29, 2004

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Catholic Bishops Oppose Expansion of Federal Death Penalty for Terrorism

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington and act­ing as Chairman of the Domestic Policy Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has urged House and Senate con­fer­ees work­ing on anti-ter­ror­ism leg­is­la­tion to report out a final bill that would not expand the fed­er­al death penal­ty for ter­ror­ists. McCarrick wrote a let­ter to House and Senate lead­ers craft­ing their final ver­sion of the National Intelligence Reform Act (S. 2845). The House ver­sion of that bill con­tains pro­vi­sions to expand the fed­er­al death penal­ty, but the Senate…

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New Voices

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Jan 07, 2005

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Connecticut Archbishop Asks Parishoners to Protest the Death Penalty

As Connecticut pre­pares to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in over 40 years, Catholic Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford called on local parish­es to sign a Church peti­tion that calls for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“The death penal­ty offers the trag­ic illu­sion that we can defend life only by tak­ing life,” Mansell wrote in a let­ter that will be read dur­ing Masses on January 8 and 9. Other bish­ops in Connecticut are tak­ing sim­i­lar actions pri­or to the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Michael Ross on January 26. The U.S.…

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Religion

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Feb 12, 2007

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Leading Baptist Theologian Calls for National Halt to Executions

Professor David Gushee, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, called for a nation­al halt to exe­cu­tions because the death penal­ty as a pub­lic pol­i­cy ​“fails the most basic stan­dards of jus­tice.” Prof. Gushee, writ­ing for the Associated Baptist Press, stat­ed that the recent mora­to­ri­um in Tennessee sur­round­ing lethal injec­tion prob­lems should be extend­ed to review the entire appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, and that oth­er states should take sim­i­lar action. Prof. Gushee wrote:

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May 18, 2016

Support for the Death Penalty by Republican Legislators No Longer a Sure Thing

One year after the Nebraska leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to repeal the death penal­ty and over­rode a guber­na­to­r­i­al veto of that mea­sure, actions in leg­is­la­tures across the coun­try sug­gest that the state’s efforts sig­nalled a grow­ing move­ment against the death penal­ty by con­ser­v­a­tive leg­is­la­tors and that sup­port for the death penal­ty among Republican leg­is­la­tors is no longer a giv­en. Reporting in The Washington Post, Amber Phillips writes that Republican leg­is­la­tors in ten states spon­sored or co-spon­sored leg­is­la­tion to repeal cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dur­ing the cur­rent leg­isla­tive ses­sions. She reports that although these repeal…

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Apr 25, 2006

United Methodist Church Marks 50th Anniversary of Stance Against Death Penalty

Marking the 50th anniver­sary of the United Methodist Church’s pub­lic call for an end to the death penal­ty, the church’s General Board of Church and Society recent­ly issued a state­ment echo­ing the sen­ti­ments of the church’s orig­i­nal call for abo­li­tion and urg­ing all United Methodists ​“to prac­tice trans­for­ma­tive love, to com­fort the vic­tims of crime, to human­ize those con­vict­ed of crime, and to advo­cate for an end to the death penal­ty in our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” The state­ment comes five decades after the his­toric 1956 United Methodist General Conference, during…

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Religion

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New Voices

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Feb 19, 2007

Vatican Says Death Penalty Is ​“Affront to Human Dignity”

In a posi­tion paper issued this month dur­ing the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, the Vatican said that the death penal­ty ​“is not only a refusal of the right to life, but it also is an affront to human dig­ni­ty.” Echoing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the paper not­ed that while gov­ern­ments have an oblig­a­tion to pro­tect their cit­i­zens, ​“today it tru­ly is dif­fi­cult to jus­ti­fy” using cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment when oth­er means of pro­tec­tion, such as life in prison, are pos­si­ble. The Vatican also gave support…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Apr 14, 2017

With Looming Execution and Serious Innocence Concerns, Calls Mount for Virginia to Grant Clemency to Ivan Teleguz

Amid mount­ing con­cerns that Virginia may exe­cute an inno­cent man on April 25, a diverse group of reli­gious, polit­i­cal, and busi­ness lead­ers are call­ing on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemen­cy to Ivan Teleguz (pic­tured). Their pleas for clemen­cy stress that Teleguz was con­vict­ed based upon high­ly unre­li­able tes­ti­mo­ny and sen­tenced to death based upon false tes­ti­mo­ny that he had been involved in a fab­ri­cat­ed Pennsylvania mur­der that had, in fact, nev­er occurred. Teleguz was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on charges that he had hired Michael Hetrick to…