United Methodist Church Marks 50^th Anniversary of Stance Against Death Penalty

Marking the 50^th anniver­sary of the United Methodist Church’s pub­lic call for an end to the death penal­ty, the church’s General Board of Church and Society recent­ly issued a state­ment echo­ing the sen­ti­ments of the church’s orig­i­nal call for abo­li­tion and urg­ing all United Methodists ​“to prac­tice trans­for­ma­tive love, to com­fort the vic­tims of crime, to human­ize those con­vict­ed of crime, and to advo­cate for an end to the death penal­ty in our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” The state­ment comes five decades after the his­toric 1956 United Methodist General Conference, dur­ing which the church offi­cial­ly stat­ed, ​“We stand for the appli­ca­tion of the redemp­tive prin­ci­ple to the treat­ment of offend­ers against the law, to reform of penal and cor­rec­tion­al meth­ods, and to crim­i­nal court pro­ce­dures. We deplore the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.”

In the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society’s 2006 state­ment rec­og­niz­ing the 50^th anniver­sary of church oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, the Board not­ed:

We cel­e­brate this prophet­ic state­ment and the fact that The Methodist Church was one of the first denom­i­na­tion’s in the United States to for­mal­ly come out against the death penal­ty. The United Methodist Church main­tains a strong stand against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as exem­pli­fied in the Book of Discipline,

We believe the death penal­ty denies the pow­er of Christ to redeem, restore and trans­form all human beings. The United Methodist Church is deeply con­cerned about crime through­out the world and the val­ue of any life tak­en by a mur­der or homi­cide. We believe all human life is sacred and cre­at­ed by God and there­fore, we must see all human life as sig­nif­i­cant and valu­able. When gov­ern­ments imple­ment the death penal­ty (cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment), then the life of the con­vict­ed per­son is deval­ued and all pos­si­bil­i­ty of change in that person’s life ends. We believe in the res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ and that the pos­si­bil­i­ty of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with Christ comes through repen­tance. This gift of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is offered to all indi­vid­u­als with­out excep­tion and gives all life new dig­ni­ty and sacred­ness. For this rea­son, we oppose the death penal­ty (cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment) and urge its elim­i­na­tion from all crim­i­nal codes.

In Matthew 25:38 – 39, Jesus point­ed­ly refutes revenge as a basis of jus­tice and com­mands his fol­low­ers to com­pas­sion­ate­ly serve even their ene­mies. In John 8:1 – 11, Jesus exon­er­ates and redeems the woman caught in adul­tery who was to be put to death. Jesus refus­es to uphold the use of the death penal­ty and as his fol­low­ers we are called to do the same.

Therefore, we urge all United Methodists in their church­es to prac­tice trans­for­ma­tive love, to com­fort the vic­tims of crime, to human­ize those con­vict­ed of crime, and to advo­cate for an end to the death penal­ty in our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

(General Board of Church and Society Statement on the 50^th Anniversary of the United Methodist Church’s Opposition to the Death Penalty, April 23, 2006). See New Voices.