A new poll by the Barna Group found that only 40% of prac­tic­ing Christians sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, and sup­port was even low­er among younger Christians. According to the poll released on January 17, only 23% of prac­tic­ing Christian ​“mil­len­ni­als” (i.e., those born between 1980 and 2000) agreed with the state­ment: ​“The gov­ern­ment should have the option to exe­cute the worst crim­i­nals.” Without regard to their reg­u­lar prac­tice of their faith, only 42% of Christian baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and only 32% of mil­len­ni­als agreed with the use of the death penal­ty. Roxanne Stone, the vice pres­i­dent of pub­lish­ing at Barna, said, ​“This par­al­lels a grow­ing trend in the pro-life con­ver­sa­tion among Christians to include tor­ture and the death penal­ty as well as abor­tion. For many younger Christians, the death penal­ty is not a polit­i­cal divid­ing point but a human rights issue.” 

A 2011 Gallup poll also found Americans under 30 were more like­ly to oppose the death penal­ty than those over 30. The Barna Group poll sur­veyed 1,000 American adults and had a mar­gin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

(J. Merritt, ​“Poll: Younger Christians less sup­port­ive of death penal­ty,” Religion News Service, January 18, 2014.) See Public Opinion and Religion.

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