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Death Penalty Divides Religious Community
By Christine Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
November 14, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The future of capital punishment is under close scrutiny,
given state moratoriums on death sentences; high-profile death penalty cases;
and DNA evidence that may exonerate some prisoners facing death.
On Thursday evening, Virginia is scheduled to execute a Pakistani man, Mir Aimal
Kasi, for a 1993 shooting at the entrance to the Central Intelligence Agency
headquarters that killed two employees. Kasi opened fire on people as they sat
in their cars, waiting to turn left into the CIA complex.
Most Americans consider capital punishment an appropriate consequence for crimes
such as Kasi's.
According to a Gallup Poll released on October 29, 2002, 70 percent of Americans
say they support the death penalty for convicted murderers. But death penalty
opponents are quick to point out that 70 percent is less than the 72 percent who
said they supported the death penalty back in May and the 80 percent who
supported it in a 1994 survey.
Among religious groups, however, there is less consensus on the death penalty,
as different religions and internal factions find themselves at odds on
interpretation of scripture and the need for a death penalty.
The Southern Baptist Convention, for example, passed a 2000 resolution
supporting capital punishment, based on its historic use by religious figures
and in biblical lore.
And the Rabbinical Council of America supports it as well. "While we abhor the
taking of any life, there are certain cases where life should be taken for the
heinous crimes that have been perpetrated," said Executive Vice President Steven
Dworken.
Pope John Paul II has led the Catholic Church down the path of opposing capital
punishment with a revised catechism that does not condemn the death penalty when
"it is the only practical way to efficiently defend the lives of human beings
from the unjust aggressor." However, the Catholic Church asserts the need for
capital punishment today is "very rare, if not practically non-existent" because
states have other means to "repress crime efficiently and render [criminals]
inoffensive."
Similarly, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America favors a death
penalty moratorium. "One of Judaism's great teachings to the world is an
appreciation for the infinite value of human life," Congregation public policy
director Nathan Diament explained in a June 2001 forum.
But, Diament continued, the Congregation is not about to take the position of
abolishing the death penalty, because of Jewish teaching that calls for
"implementing justice for society."
A cofounder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Joseph Lowery, is
seeking abolition of the death penalty, primarily due to concerns of inequity in
how such punishment is meted out by the legal system-that it befalls black and
poor defendants more frequently.
The Catholic League's Louis Giovino highlighted the fact that the issue causes
discord within the Catholic faith.
Liberal Catholics "accuse conservatives of saying you're for [life] except [for]
the death penalty," said Giovino. But "the difference is abortion is objectively
evil according to Catholic teaching, which means it's always wrong, no matter
when, no matter what. That's not the case with capital punishment."
However, when it comes to budging public opinion away from supporting capital
punishment, David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
has observed that religion is not the most effective way to change people's
minds.
"It ends up being the innocence argument" that persuades most people, said
Elliot, referring to the 102 people who have been freed from death row because
they are later found to be innocent. "Americans cannot tolerate the idea of a
person being wrongly incarcerated, much less wrongly executed," he explained.
"The religious message will work with some people," Elliot concluded, but for
many people that just doesn't work, he said.