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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Death penalty perverts Christianity, say church leaders -16/01/06

Protestant leaders in Austria have called on the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger to suspend the death penalty and spare the life of an elderly convict on death row. And a Catholic sister who has spent her life counselling both those who commit, or are victims of, capital crime says that Christian supporters of the judicial executions are perverting the message of Jesus Christ. “A country which uses the death penalty violates its citizens’ human dignity,” the Evangelical Church in Austria said in advance of the scheduled execution of 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen on 17 January 2006.

Mr Schwarzenegger is of Austrian origins, though he and his home city, Graz, site of the second European Ecumenical Assembly in 1997, have recently disowned one another. Clarence Ray Allen is blind, diabetic, has a weak heart and is wheelchair-bound. He has been on death row for 26 years. His lawyers argue that it would be cruel to kill him because of his infirmity, though they do not deny the extent of his crime. The Austrian church leaders are taking their stand on the more fundamental judgement that contemporary “biblical and theological arguments point only to a clear and unambiguous ‘no’ to the death penalty.”

This is a position that puts them in direct confrontation with the religious right in the United States. Mr Allen already was serving a life sentence for murder — arranging the strangulation of a witness to his 1974 burglary of a Fresno-area store — when he was condemned to die for calling from his prison cell for the 1980 shotgun slayings of three of that store’s employees. California has 646 people on death row, more than any other state. Last month Governor Schwarzenegger refused appeals against the execution of ‘Tookie’ Williams, the Crips gang leader who recanted his criminal past and spent many years campaigning against gang violence from his prison cell.

Christian opponents of the death penalty, including Sister Helen Prejean, whose story was dramatized 10 years ago in the film Dead Man Walking, say that it is merciless, discriminates against the poor, denies the reality of redemption and risks killing the innocent. Sister Helen was in the UK last week promoting her new book, Death of the Innocents. She has attended the executions of men she knows to be guilty of horrific crimes, but also of those she believes to be wrongly convicted, and prays with and counsels their families and those of their victims. The Louisiana-based nun, aged 66, insists that US politicians’ rhetoric is moderating and that the number of death penalty convictions is in decline.

Public uneasiness about wrongful convictions and the manifest inequity with which the death penalty is implemented is growing, she says. Opinion polls bear this out. Sister Helen is especially scathing about politicians and judges who use the Bible to justify executions. “I call it Christianity-lite”, she declares. “It’s not real Christianity. Truly it is blasphemy. Jesus Christ is being held hostage by these people: his whole message is being perverted.”

9 comments:

OldLady Of The Hills said...

I agree 150% with Sister Prejean...We are Barbaric in this country...Very few of these "Christian Right" people practice the true teachings of Jesus, as I understand them. I am not a Christian but I believe that killing is wrong wrong wrong, no matter who does it! And I believe Jesus would turn over in his grave, (That is, if he hadn't risen) at how his name is used to promote sick and UN Christian agenda's day in and day out! OY!

Sadie Lou said...

The death penalty is one of those things that is so easy to be against until you're living the other side of it. I can totally sympathize with the families of victims that would rather see the criminal that took the life of a loved one, dead--than rotting in a jail cell somewhere, getting three squares a day and able to watch TV.
Me, personally, I'm against it but I can say that without having walked in the shoes of someone who has lost a loved one to a monster.

CyberKitten said...

Sadie lou said: The death penalty is one of those things that is so easy to be against until you're living the other side of it.

Indeed it is - as with most things. However, no one ever said that doing the right thing is also doing the easy thing. But isn't killing in general wrong for christians and killing for revenge even more so. Isn't retribution what the death penalty is all about?

Sadie Lou said...

Oh absolutely.
Seeking revenge is such a prideful thing, really and ultimately can consume a person's life. I love that movie The Count of Monte Cristo which really portrays a man so consumed with revenge that it almost steals his joy and his life.
The only time I have ever been able to assume that murder is "okay" with God is in self defense--if someone comes into my home to do me or my family harm--I wouldn't hesitate should the opportunity present itself.

Michael K. Althouse said...

Hi -
Just stopped by - read your post but, unfortunately, I don't have time to get into it at the moment. I'll say this though - you sure aren't afraid of controversy. *I like that*

gotta go,

~Mike

CyberKitten said...

mr althouse said: I'll say this though - you sure aren't afraid of controversy. *I like that*

I actually have a reputation for being controversal.. though I'm somewhat less outspoken than I was in my youth.... I am however getting the taste for it again.

I'm sure you'll enjoy some of the things I'm planning to post here... You ain't seen nothing yet [grin].

Sadie said: The only time I have ever been able to assume that murder is "okay" with God is in self defense.

That wouldn't be murder - that'd be self-defence - which is a whole other thing. Self-defence is just about the only way I can justify taking another life... and we don't need God's "OK".. it's quite legal as far as I know.

Paste said...

He was executed on 17/1/06, can anyone explain how the death penalty makes this a better world?

Random said...

Dave,

Here's one. In the 40 or so years before the death penalty was abolished in Britain, the murder rate held pretty steady at about 300-350 cases a year. Since it has been abolished however the murder rate has ridden steadily, and now stands at something like 900 a year. Is the increase solely down to the removal of the deterrent effect of capital punishment? Probably not. Did the removal of the deterrent effect have absolutely nothing to do with it? Almost certainly not. Or to put it another way, thanks to the abolition of the death penalty thousands of people have been murdered who would otherwise have lived. Is this a fair trade?

But this is a utilitarian argument. I got the impression CK was asking for a moral one. Okay, here goes - there is indeed nothing moral about killing purely for revenge and with hatred in your heart. We're not talking about that however - we're talking about an act of justice, coming at the end of a lengthy trial and appeal process. And that's where morality comes in - a moral society retains the death penalty not because it treats human life as being of little worth, but because it values it so much that it does not believe that any lesser punishment can fit the crime of deliberately taking another's life. Murderers and potential murderers need to be shown, without any equivocation, that their crimes take them utterly beyond the pale of human decency. Killing someone is *serious* and merely depriving killers of their liberty for a few years does not send this message.

greatwhitebear said...

"Death Penalty Perverts Christianity"

In my experience, it is people who pervert Christianity!