South Carolina Christian Action Council
THE DEATH PENALTY
We affirm God as Creator of our world and all life therein. We understand all people everywhere to be the created children of God, brothers and sisters, members of the family of God. For us, these affirmations are basic to two convictions. (1) That the Church of Jesus Christ must work toward a criminal justice system which will include caring consideration for both offenders against society and victims of crime, and (2) that the South Carolina Christian Action Council is opposed to the death sentence.
The death penalty is a peculiar form of killing. It is done with calculated deliberation, with certain form and ceremony. It makes every citizen of the state a participant in the killing, since an order of execution is given by a judge after a trial bringing charges by ?the people? against an individual. When an executioner pulls the switch, he does it in the name of ?the people.? He does it for all of us.
Legalized killing by the state is destructive of the goals of a civilized and humane society. Its deterrent value is highly questionable. The death penalty reflects the desire of society for retribution and revenge, even though some see it as a way to protect the public against dangerous persons and others consider it necessary to remove such evil doers from the common life.
The death sentence, when carried out, is irrevocable. The imperfect methods of human justice, through which we seek to ascertain guilt or innocence, are far too fragile to dare to support the imposition of death. Judge and juries, like all other human beings, make mistakes, which cannot be corrected after the death penalty has been carried out.
The death penalty fosters a false confidence in the effectiveness of our criminal justice system. Often, only the poor and disenfranchised die in state execution chambers. The rich, influential, and well counseled rarely meet a trial judge in a capital offense and almost never face the electric chair.
Capital punishment brutalizes our society and the people in it. If we deal with persons who have brutally killed someone by killing them, then we encourage insensitivity in dealing with all human problems. Vengeance breeds vengeance, whether carried out by individuals, by a mob, or by the state.
We declare our conviction that our Judeo-Christian tradition affirms that God has revealed Himself in love and mercy and lays upon us the ministry of reconciliation.
Because the God of love, mercy, and justice is also the God of new beginnings and new life, we believe that no one is ever beyond God?s redemptive reach and the possibility of reconciliation. Therefore, we vigorously oppose the death sentence and its accompanying act, capital punishment, as morally wrong and contrary to our best understanding of the Biblical witness. However, we acknowledge that some of our constituent denominations do not share this position. They affirm that Capital Punishment is Biblically sanctioned and in fact serves a deterrent purpose in our society.
Nevertheless, we declare our opposition to the retention and use of the death sentence in any form or carried out by any means. We urge the abolition of the death penalty and capital punishment in South Carolina. The South Carolina Christian Action Council calls on all people of good will to join in this stand, as we continue to seek judicial and penal reform in a society which is responsible to and before God.
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