The Death Penalty
Running head: THE DEATH PENALTY
The Death Penalty
The Death Penalty
Introduction
The primary support at present for the death penalty comes from law enforcement groups, i.e., from the police and from prosecutors. Vital to their position is the conviction that society has a right to exact retribution from law breakers and that the best means to do this with murderers and other cruel criminals is through capital punishment. They as well defend the view that the death penalty is the merely effective deterrent.
A secondary line of justification issues from some theologians of the more Bible-centered point of view. While police officers rely largely on their personal experiences with criminals to support their claims, these theologians rest their case primarily on Biblical exegesis and code of belief. Reverend Vellenga's article, though briefer than some, is envoy of this viewpoint (Christianity Today, 1960). Only a century ago in this country, his sort of argument was leading among those favoring the death penalty. Orthodox Presbyterian and Congregationalist clergymen continuously advanced it against the more humanistic divinity pressed by Unitarians, Universalists and the Quakers.
Christianity and the Death Penalty
The Church in general is giving serious thought to capital punishment. Church councils and denominational assemblies are making strong assertions against it. We are hearing such arguments as: "Capital punishment abuses society by cheapening life." "Capital punishment is ethically hard to defend." "Capital punishment is no deterrent to murder." "Capital punishment makes it not possible to rehabilitate the criminal."
However many of us are persuaded that the Church must not intrude with capital punishment. Church members must be strong in supporting good legislation, militant against wrong laws, opposed to weak and limited law enforcement. However we must be...
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