It's an issue that rarely gets our attention—the death penalty. After all, the kinds of people locked up on death row are the kind that deserve the death penalty. They're irredeemable murderers, criminals without a conscience. They have earned the death penalty. Right? Actually, no, who are we to judge someone based off their sin when that nobody's place but Gods and Gods alone. I believe if you identify as a person of faith, or a christian you should not be for the death penalty.
Let's set aside the statistical issues with death penalty. Issues like the fact that black defendants are three times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants. Issues like the fact that 88% of experts in criminology argue that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent to crime. Issues like the fact that is is in fact cheaper to give someone a life sentence than to execute him. But let's set aside those issues for a second and tackle the death penalty from a Christian perspective.
Many Christians who argue in favor of the death penalty reference places in the Old Testament such as Exodus 21:12-14 or Leviticus 24:17, 21, where the Bible specifically states that deliberately causing the death of another human being is to punishable by death. And that would be a strong argument, if the Old Testament did not also list several other crimes that "deserve" the death penalty, crimes such as disobedience to one's' parents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21), doing work on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14), adultery (Leviticus 20:10) or a woman falsely claiming virginity at the time of marriage (Deuteronomy 22:13-21). If we are to follow the Old Testament's punishment for the crime of murder, then it follows that we should also follow its punishment for these other crimes. However, as any rational person can recognize, doing work on the Sabbath or being disobedient to your parents are not crimes worthy of capital punishment; otherwise, we would all be dead. Furthermore, Jesus expands the teachings on sin in the New Testament, claiming in Matthew 5:21-22 that if we so much look at someone in anger, we have already committed murder in our hearts... which means that anyone who has ever nursed a grudge would be liable for capital punishment.
But regardless of the lack of logic in referring to the Old Testament to define punishment, the entirety of the New Testament is a reference to love, forgiveness and redemption. Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery that she is to go and sin no more, that she is forgiven. He tells the repentant criminal hanging from the cross next to him—the criminal condemned to capital punishment—that surely he will see paradise. Jesus' entire message is one of redemption, of moving on from past sin and brokenness. The death penalty destroys this notion of redemption. It tells those punished with it that there is no hope of redemption for them, that they are completely unworthy of even living, that they no longer have the basic human right to life. The death penalty spits in the face of forgiveness and redemption. It promises its recipients that they do not deserve forgiveness or redemption, that their sin is too much to be overcome.
That is the exact opposite of what Christianity teaches, what Jesus teaches. Because Jesus promises us—promised even the criminal hanging on the cross beside him—that no sin is too great to separate us from him and that no sin in the eyes of God is greater or less than another ones sin. Not even one that we deem worthy of capital punishment. So if one on the death penalty acknowledge his sin and prayed for redemption and forgiveness who are we to commit murder?
