Christian support for capital punishment, like Christian participation
in war, has known a majority Christendom approbation since the era of
Constantine in the fourth century. This support has likewise dominated
Western secular jurisdictions until the last century – a tragic
Christian legacy of fear and vengeance! The church moved in the fourth
century from "underdog" to "top dog" status. In moving into the
political mainstream, there was the church’s resultant loss of
compassionate social action as its first task in favour of sorting out
doctrinal metaphysics ("truth" declared, but not necessarily clothed,
in love – Eph. 4:15).
The
almost universal pre-Constantinian church watchword was: "the church
abhors the shedding of blood", whether in abortions at one end of the
spectrum, or war at the other, or capital punishment in between. After
Constantine, the mainline church inexorably moved instead to incite and
bless abhorrent crimes against humanity: interminable wars; the
Crusades; the Inquisition; the rise of Western penal justice systems,
with use of torture and capital punishment; the list goes on… The
best historical treatment in English is: The Death Penalty: An
Historical and Theological Survey, by James Megivern (Paulist Press,
1997).
Majority Christendom since Constantine has sadly chosen contrary to the
way of Jesus. It has made this choice in spite of, not because of,
Jesus’ teaching. Majority Evangelical opinion is pro death penalty.
This despite its commitment to biblical faithfulness that believes if
Jesus taught something, then acted on it, and other New Testament
writers underscored it, we ought to take notice!
The central teaching of Jesus on this issue is: "Love your enemies
(Matt. 5:44ff; Luke 6:27ff)." Jesus’ direct comments on retribution and
capital punishment are found in: Matt. 5:38 – 42 and Luke 6:27 – 36. In
these passages, Jesus disallows any interpretation of the Torah which
would mean retaliation in kind: he says NO! to tit for tat justice or
any notion of "just deserts". He says categorically that the entire
interpretation of the Old Testament is summed up in two commands: “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind. (Mt. 26:37)”, and: “Love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt.
26:39)”. (Compare Galatians 5:14, and other New Testament passages,
that collapse the two “Great Commands” into one: love of neighbour.)
Consistent New Testament witness is: the litmus test of love of God is
love of neighbour; the litmus test of love of neighbour is love of
enemy. For Christians, there is no room for capital punishment of
neighbour or enemy whatsover. If the state legislates it, the Christian
duty is to oppose it. (An excellent resource on this is: Against the
Death Penalty: Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital
Punishment (Gardner Hanks, Herald Press, 1997).)
Jesus’ direct action against capital punishment was the woman brought
to him caught in adultery, punishable, in Mosaic law, by death. "If any
one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone…" he
said (John 8:7). He instead taught, exemplified, and was later
remembered for, a response to all enemies which attempted limitlessly
to draw a circle of inclusion around them – including the murderer (as
witnessed while one hung on the Cross beside Jesus – Luke 23:43, and in
Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness in church discipline in Mt. 18.). And
Jesus’ universally applied words from the cross were: “Father, forgive
them… (Luke 23:34).”
Finally, Romans 5:6 – 11, and Eph. 5:1 & 2 call Christians to an
imitation of Jesus’ teaching and example through loving embrace of
neighbour and enemy. Richard Hays, in his chapter on “Violence in
Defense of Justice”, in The Moral Vision of the New Testament
(HarperCollins, 1996), puts this point home definitively.
Nonetheless, some Christians in support of the death penalty cling to
the Old Testament, in particular, Mosaic law, or to Genesis 9, in
particular verse 6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his
blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” I know of no
one yet who still holds that position after reading the masterful essay
on the death penalty by a committee of Reformed scholars in the
Christian Reformed Churches’ publication, Acts of Synod 1981. (Twice in
formal debates on the issue, I have adduced the arguments presented
there and stopped all mouths. Not my doing!) For starters, all such
arguments at best are pre-Christian.
As in all pro-life issues, the follower of Jesus has an unequivocal
choice on the matter of capital punishment: be faithful to the way of
Jesus, or choose some other way. It is time for the church worldwide to
say again: "The church abhors the shedding of blood."
All statistical studies on capital punishment refute any notion of its
being a general deterrence. Several have shown it is however model and
impetus for a citizenry to commit murder as a way of dealing with its
problems like the state. (This modelling likewise happens in
state-approved warfare.) Further, studies the world over cite a
significant percentage of wrongly convicted who have been executed. No
court system today or in history is just in this matter. The best book
on this is: Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death
Penalty in the United States (Helen Prejean, Vintage Books, 1993).
Capital punishment has no Christian, moral, or statistical basis of
support. It is heinous vengeance worthy of the most cold-blooded
murderers themselves. It serves no cultural function apart from
releasing vengeance, which, in the end, ineluctably breeds more
scapegoating violence (Mt. 26:52). (For profound illustration, see Gil
Baillie’s book, Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads
(Crossroad, 1995), and the vast literature connected to the thought of
René Girard, in particular The Girard Reader (James Williams,
Crossroad, 1996), and I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (René Girard,
Novalis, 2001).)
The death penalty is not the “most excellent way”, which we know is
love (I Cor. 13), which does no harm to the neighbour and therefore
fulfills the law (Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14), which is the perfect law of
liberty and the royal law (James 1:25; James 2:8 & 12), which alone
drives out fear (I John 4), the ultimate sub-Christian human emotion
behind humanity’s endless call for capital punishment. Jesus came, on
the contrary, to save us from our sins and our fears. Praise God. Amen!