Versions began 1997, updated 7/2024
Religion & The Death Penalty
Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom
Here are over 4000 pro death penalty factual, philosophical, biblical and theological references, which either
1) support the death penalty or which
2) refute the factual, biblical and/or theological objections to the death penalty.
NOTE: Proper Translation and Meaning
It is important to look at biblical commentators, regarding any biblical text.
This has 8-12 different commentaries, per biblical text. Use them.
Religious
For 4,500 years (biblical timeline), the death penalty has had religious support, starting with Genesis 9:5-6. Anti-death penalty teachings did not occur, in major Christian denominations, until the 1950's, with the Roman Catholic Church not joining that chorus until 2018 - 4500 years after Genesis 9:6.
Did the bible or basic theology, suddenly change? Of course not, as reviewed, in detail.
US Catholic Dioceses and Archdioces have been receiving versions of these since 1997.
Through today and for more than 4500 years, there has been Noahic, Mosaic, Torah, Old Testament and Christian New Testament support for the death penalty, from Genesis to Revelation, from Jesus to St. Dismas, from the Holy Ghost (Ananias & Saphirra) to the greatest of Popes, Saints, Doctors and Fathers of the Church, church leadership, biblical and theological scholars, which, in breadth and depth, overwhelms any teachings to the contrary, particularly those wrongly dependent upon the Church not knowing of human dignity, until the 21st century, and upon the secular concerns, such as defense of society and the poor standards of criminal justice systems in protecting the innocent, such as errors within Evangelium Vitae and the 1997/2018 amendments to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 22667, as detailed:
NOTE: Go to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website and enter "death penalty" in their search box. Everything which pops up is defeated, within this review, Religion and the Death Penalty. It will take you awhile to research, fact check and vet, everything, but you will be way ahead of the Church, which has chosen to avoid that process, since, at least, 1995.
If you have a specific issue, just let me know.
1) The Catholic Church & The Death Penalty
12 (14) Factual Errors: 2018 CCC 2267 amendment
2) Saint/Pope John Paul II marks the beginning of the Catholic Church's disastrous anti-death penalty run, 1995 forward, intentionally, avoiding the most basic of reason, research, fact checking and vetting, as detailed, throughout.
Pope John Paul II: His death penalty errors
3) Catechism & State Protection: The Gross Negligence of the Holy See
The Church calls these cases non-existent.
In modern criminal justice systems, from 1973-2024, in the US:
500,000 innocents were murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals and
20,000 innocents were murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we allowed to murder, again -recidivist murderers.
and on and on and on . . .
4) Three questions for Catholic opponents of capital punishment,
Dr. Edward Feser, Catholic World Report, 9/15/2019,
"Pope Francis' conclusions are not only absurd, they are obscene."
5) Catholic Leaders Misinterpret Holy Scriptures on Capital Punishment in Breathtaking Ways, The Stream, Dr. Jules Gomes BA, BD, MTh, PhD, June 10, 2024
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, " . . . displayed his cavernous ignorance of the Holy Bible in a recent pronouncement on the death penalty."
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,” St. Jerome
6) Francis Uses Junk Theology to End the Death Penalty, Monica Miller, Crisis Magazine, August 6, 2018, https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/francis-junk-theology-end-death-penalty
Miller states the obvious, somehow missed by Pope Francis, but she leaves out many of the other, obvious, problems and does not recognize paragraphs 7 & 9.
7) The Death Penalty: Mercy, Expiation, Redemption & Salvation
Romano Amerio: Some opposing capital punishment ". . . go on to assert that a life should not be ended because that would remove the possibility of making expiation, is to ignore the great truth that capital punishment is itself expiatory."
8) Jesus and the Death Penalty
As Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ states: "At no point, however, does Jesus deny that the State has authority to exact capital punishment. In his debates with the Pharisees, Jesus cites with approval the apparently harsh commandment, He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die (Mt 15:4; Mk 7:10, referring to Ex 21:17; cf. Lev 20:9)." "Jesus commends the good thief on the cross next to Him, who has admitted that he and his fellow thief are receiving the due reward of their deeds (Lk 23:41). "
9) Pro Life: The Death Penalty
The death penalty protects innocent lives, in six ways, better than life without parole (LWOP), meaning dead penalty abolition equals many more innocent deaths, which brings about this reality (para 9), just below.
Based upon biblical and theological teachings, as well as secular realities, one can, reasonably and accurately, find the death penalty pro-life.
10) 30 Examples:
How Death Penalty Opponents Value Murderers More Than Their Innocent Victims
Well known anti-death penalty scholars/leaders "(Charles) Black and (Hugo Adam) Bedau said they would favor abolishing the death penalty even if they knew that doing so would increase the homicide rate by 1,000 percent." (7), meaning they prefer an ADDITIONAL 9 milli0n innocents murdered (1973-2023), in exchange for saving the lives of 1500 capital murderers.
Grotesque and part of the pattern, as detailed.
11) The Legitimacy of Capital Punishment,
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.,
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6871&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=1486390
"Within (Christian) moral order, we believe that both justice and mercy are to be operative. It is not enough to so concentrate on, the practice of merciful charity as to overlook or ignore the corresponding practice of justice.Nor is it pertinent to say that 'capital punishment does not in the least redress the injustice committed against the murdered victim or anyone else.' On the contrary, capital punishment does help to redress the injustice committed both against the murdered victim and, especially, against the Someone Else who is God."
12) Forgiveness and Murder
If we go by biblical instruction, it includes that the wrongdoer confess their wrong, find honest sorrow and remorse and state that they will do all they can to not harm again - to change their ways, prior to any forgiveness being given, by the specific party harmed.
To forgive those who have not repented is to give approval of what they have done, while rejecting the importance of responsibility and atonement. It would not be mercy, but insult.
To forgive those who have not repented is to give approval of what they have done, while rejecting the importance of responsibility and atonement. It would not be mercy, but insult.
13) The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge
Neither the judges nor jurors can have any connection to the individuals or circumstances of the murders, must presume the defendant innocent, until (or if) proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, with laws and sanctions that existed prior to the murders . . . laws outside the control of the judge or jurors, within a system that provides super due process, in pre-trial, trial, appeals and executive consideration within pardons or commutation, offering greater protections and safeguards than with any other sanction,- with the jury having to vote 48-0 (4 votes for the 12 jurors), 100%, against the defendant/murderer in order to get a death penalty, but only 1 out of that 48, 2%, needs to be for the defendant/murderer, to evade the death penalty, all of which exclude a revenge component.
14) Sister Helen Prejean:
Her Lies, Deceptions and/or Astounding Willful Ignorance? - A Compilation
"Devinci's investigative research indicates that Prejean's "Dead Man Walking" is not honest."
Prejean's next book, "Thee Death of Innocents" ' . . . is moreover riddled with factual errors and misrepresentations.” ” . . . despite repeated claims that (Prejean) cares about crime victims, she implies that the victim’s husband was a more likely suspect but was overlooked because the authorities wanted to convict a black man.”
Truly foul.
” . . . a Federal District Court . . . stated that ‘the evidence against Williams was overwhelming.’ " “The same court also did “not find any evidence of racial bias specific to this case.”
and on and on and on
15) See para 13, "Unnatural Lawyering", first, then start at the beginning:
By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment
"This leaves the Catholic who claims that the death penalty is always and intrinsically evil with two options. He can give up this extreme claim. (He might still hold that capital punishment is a bad idea in practice – I’m not addressing that question here.) Or he can give up the Church’s claims about the authority of scripture and tradition – which is really to give up Catholicism itself, since this would undermine the Church’s foundation in the deposit of faith. There is no third option, and it is sophistry to pretend otherwise."
" . . . the book simply flattens (death penalty) opponents." "(Bessette) uses this data to refute claims made by the (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) that capital punishment has no deterrent power, that innocent persons are regularly executed, that the application of the death penalty has been unfairly applied to minorities and the poor."
"Feser systematically refutes the arguments of those who think the Church now teaches that capital punishment is intrinsically unjust. He helps readers to see how weak our attachment to justice has become and how little we allow tight reasoning about justice to govern our thinking…"
"Feser systematically refutes the arguments of those who think the Church now teaches that capital punishment is intrinsically unjust. He helps readers to see how weak our attachment to justice has become and how little we allow tight reasoning about justice to govern our thinking…"
16) What Did Jesus Teach about Violence and Turning the Other Cheek?
by: J. Daryl Charles, Timothy J. Demy, Crossway, May 16, 2014,
https://www.crossway.org/articles/what-did-jesus-teach-about-violence-and-turning-the-other-cheek/
" . . . Jesus is challenging his listeners to consider their attitudes so that they respond properly to personal injustice or insult. That insult (personal injury) rather than assault (public injury) is at issue here is suggested by the mention of the right cheek being struck. And it is clarified by the further illustration, “If someone wants to . . . take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well” (Matthew 5:40). Handling insults and matters of clothing (a basic human need) are not the realm of statecraft and public policy."
"Even when Jesus forbids the sword as a means to advance the kingdom of God, the New Testament does not teach an absolute or principled pacifism. Nor does it forbid the Christian from “bearing the sword”— or serving as a magistrate, for that matter—in the service of society and the greater good of the community."
17) "The Death Penalty”, Chapter XXVI, 187. The death penalty, from the book Iota Unum, by Romano Amerio,
domid.blogspot.com/2007/05/amerio-on-capital-punishment.html
titled “Amerio on capital punishment “, May 25, 2007
Thoughtful deconstruction of current Roman Catholic teaching on capital punishment by a faithful Catholic Vatican insider. Romano Amerio was an episcopal consultant to the Central Preparatory Commission of Vatican II and was a peritus for the Bishop of Lugano during the Council. A true insider to the Council's activities. He was Italian by nationality, was a man of broad and classical erudition, who taught philosophy, Greek and Latin at the Academy of Lugano, Switzerland from 1928 to 1970.
18) Full Rebuttal: John 8 - Jesus and the Death Penalty
and
The Woman Caught in Adultery, the Death Penalty & John 8:2-11
19) “Capital Punishment and Magisterial Authority”
"Fastiggi on Capital Punishment and the Change to the Catechism,
Part I," Edward Feser, 8/6/2023,
Part II, Edward Feser, 8/30/2023
Part I: " . . . the (CCC 2267, 2018) revision focuses only on statements from the tradition that seem unfavorable towards capital punishment while entirely ignoring the mountain of statements from scripture, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and previous popes that are clearly favorable to it. The revision also entirely ignores the empirical considerations favoring the judgment that there are at least some cases where public safety would best be served by keeping the death penalty on the books. The revision thereby gives the impression that capital punishment is intrinsically wrong, and that social scientists are in agreement that it is never needed in order to save lives – neither of which is true."
Part II: " . . . even Catholic scholar E. Christian Brugger, who is not only opposed to capital punishment but would like the Church to go as far as condemning it as intrinsically immoral, admits that there is what he calls a “patristic consensus” on the thesis that capital punishment is legitimate at least in principle, even among those who opposed resorting to it in practice (Capital Punishment and Roman Catholic Moral Tradition, p. 95)."
" . . . in A Treatise on the Soul, Tertullian says that “we do not account those to be violent deaths which justice awards, that avenger of violence.” Lactantius, in The Divine Institutes, acknowledges that a man can be “justly condemned to [be] slain.” In Ad Demetrianum, Cyprian indicates that if Christianity really were a crime, the state would justly “put the man that confesses it to death.” These Fathers did indeed nevertheless oppose the use of the death penalty in practice, but they do not teach that it is intrinsically wrong."
"Genesis 9:6 famously states: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” This passage has for millennia been understood by Catholic and Jewish commentators as sanctioning the death penalty, and as Bessette and I show at pp. 99-101 of our book, there is no plausible alternative way of reading it."
" . . . the Old Testament merely permits, but does not require, slavery and polygamy. The Israelites are not told that they must take slaves or marry more than one woman. They are told at most only that if they do these things, then there are certain conditions they must follow. By contrast, the use of the death penalty is positively commanded many times in the Old Testament. Moreover, these commands are not ad hoc in nature, directed to some specific temporary purpose (as are divine directives to the Israelites to destroy this or that pagan city, say). Rather, the Mosaic Law makes the death penalty a standing and normal part of the everyday life of the nation of Israel."
"Hence, if capital punishment were intrinsically or of its very nature “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” we would be left with the conclusion that scripture not only permitted, but positively commanded the Israelites to set up the very structure of their society in a manner that was inherently and gravely contrary to the good of human beings. We would be left with the conclusion that scripture thereby led the Israelites into grave moral error. But that is not possible given the Church’s doctrine that scripture cannot teach moral error."
20) “Capital Punishment: What the Bible Says”, Dr. Lloyd R. Bailey,
Abingdon Press, 1987. A definitive biblical review of the death penalty.
21) “The Purpose of Punishment (in the Catholic tradition)”, by R. Michael Dunningan, J.D., J.C.L., CHRISTIFIDELIS, Vol.21,No.4, sept 14, 2003 www.st-joseph-foundation.org/newsletter/lead.php?document=2003/21-4
22) “God’s Justice and Ours” by Antonin Scalia, First Things, 5/2002
23) Forgotten Truths: “Is The Church Against Abortion and The Death Penalty”, by Luiz Sergio Solimeo, Crusade Magazine, p14-16, May/June 2007
24) New Testament Death Penalty Support Overwhelming
25) “Capital Punishment: A Catholic Perspective” at
26) Does Truth Matter? Sister Prejean, The Church & U of Notre Dame
27) Call for the Resignation of Pope Francis, 16 signatories, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, May 2, 2024,
With two main isuues (explained in detail)
1) Pope Francis has committed criminal acts gravely damaging to the Church and to individual believers.
2. He has shown that he rejects the Catholic faith, and has worked to destroy the faith of other Catholics.
28) The unbearable ugliness of the Catholic Church,
from Catholic author DAMON LINKER, This Week, 29 Aug 2018
https://theweek.com/articles/792775/unbearable-ugliness-catholic-church
29) Catechism & The Death Penalty Problems: Section 2267:
A Rational Deconstruction of Catholic Revisionism, 1995-2019
A Rational Deconstruction of Catholic Revisionism, 1995-2019
30) Four Catholic Journals Indulge in (anti-death penalty) Doctrinal Solipsism, Steven Long, THOMISTICA, March 5, 2015,
31) Magisterial Irresponsibility, First Things, 10/18
32) Archbishop Chaput: “Both Scripture and long Christian tradition acknowledge the legitimacy of capital punishment . . . " "The Church cannot repudiate (the death penalty) without repudiating her own identity." "Archbishop Chaput clarifies Church’s stance on death penalty", CNA, Catholic News Agency, Oct 18, 2005. Chaput was then archbishop of Denver, now of Philadelphia
33) BISHOPS HIDE TRUTH FROM THEIR FLOCK: DEATH PENALTY
34) Catholic Bishops: So Wrong on Death Penalty
35) 7Moral Hypocrisy: European Union & The US Death Penalty
37) Religion and the Death Penalty, (aka Rebuttal to Albert Camus)
By Walter Berns,The Weekly Standard, February 04, 2008,
38) “At the Death House Door” Can Rev. Carroll Pickett be trusted?
39) CATHOLICISM & CAPITAL PUNISHMENT,
by Avery Cardinal Dulles, First Things, April 2001,
"No passage in the New Testament disapproves of the death penalty." "In the Old Testament the Mosaic Law specifies no less than thirty-six capital offenses calling for execution . . .". "The death penalty was considered especially fitting as a punishment for murder since in his covenant with Noah God had laid down the principle, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6)." "In his debates with the Pharisees, Jesus cites with approval the apparently harsh commandment, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die” (Matthew 15:4; Mark 7:10, referring to Exodus 2l:17; cf. Leviticus 20:9)." "Turning to Christian tradition, we may note that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church are virtually unanimous in their support for capital punishment." Saint Augustine writes in The City of God: "Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” to wage war at God’s bidding, or for the representatives of the State’s authority to put criminals to death, according to law or the rule of rational justice." " . . . leading canonists and theologians assert the right of civil courts to pronounce the death penalty for very grave offenses such as murder and treason. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus invoke the authority of Scripture and patristic tradition, and give arguments from reason."
" When Pilate calls attention to his authority to crucify him, Jesus points out that Pilate’s power comes to him from above-that is to say, from God (John 19:11). Jesus commends the good thief on the cross next to him, who has admitted that he and his fellow thief are receiving the due reward of their deeds (Luke 23:41)."
I rebut all of Dulles' review of the secular "facts" of the death penalty, here (1). Sadly, he didn't stick to his own identity: " I am here addressing the subject as a theologian." He made no efforts to fact check nor vet the false anti-death penalty and secular objections to the death penalty. I do (1), just as the Church.
40) The Death Penalty: Fair and Just
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/12/is-death-peanalty-fairjust.htmlReviews race, ethnicity, class, gender and others.
41) Pre-Constantine Death Penalty Support
42) Judaism & the Death Penalty
43) All Catholics May Support the Death Penalty
44) Quakers & The Death Penalty
45) “The Death Penalty”, by Solange Strong Hertz at
46) A Refutation of the ELCA Social Statement on the Death Penalty
47) Is There a Biblical Requirement for Two Eyewitnesses for Criminal Prosecution?
48) The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
49) The Death Row "Exonerated"/"Innocent" Frauds
71-83% Error Rate in Death Row "Innocent" Claims, Well Known Since 2000
50) The Evils of Cain - some fascinating essays
Did Cain Get Away with Murder?
2014, Biblical Archaeology Review
The Evils of Cain
Cain and His Family
From the Fall to the Flood
The Book of Jasher, Read Chapters 1-5,
See a review of the Book of Jasher, here:
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FN
1) Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone in a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
The media/academic norm is to use anti-death penalty material, refuse to fact check or vet it and avoid all pro-death penalty research and experts. How will you know that is true? You haven't seen this material, prior.
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts are included)
600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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Victim Services
Victims' Voices
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Partial CV
Maybe future edits, below
“Catholic and other Christian References: Support for the Death Penalty”, at
“MOST CATHOLICS OPPOSE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?”, KARL KEATING’S E-LETTER, Catholic Answers, March 2, 2004
“THOUGHTS ON THE BISHOPS’ MEETING: NOWADAYS, VOTERS IGNORE BISHOPS” , KARL KEATING’S E-LETTER, Catholic Answers,, Nov. 22, 2005
