Resolution Opposing the Death Penalty: Adopted unan­i­mous­ly by the General Assembly of the Texas Conference of Churches
February 24, 1998

WHEREAS the Texas Conference of Churches, in 1973 and 1977, and many of the church­es and judi­ca­to­ries belong­ing to the Texas Conference of Churches have made clear state­ments in oppo­si­tion to and call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty; and

WHEREAS the Bible does autho­rize every gov­ern­ment to ​“bear the sword” (Rom. 13:4) and the gov­ern­ments and nations of this world are also called upon to care for ​“the least of these broth­ers and sis­ters” of Christ (Matt. 25:40) thus impos­ing upon each gov­ern­ment and nation the oblig­a­tion to respond to human sit­u­a­tions and crises with jus­tice and mer­cy; and

WHEREAS Jesus clear­ly reject­ed any ideas of ​“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” (Matt 5:28 – 39), and the God of Israel insist­ed that ​“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” (Deut. 32:35; and

WHEREAS in our mod­ern soci­ety we have means of keep­ing an offend­er from harm­ing oth­ers. Although in pre­vi­ous times peo­ple of faith have employed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, today we have the abil­i­ty to real­ize bet­ter the prin­ci­ples of mer­cy, for­give­ness and uncon­di­tion­al love for all peo­ple as evoked in the Hebrew Scriptures by the Prophet Ezekiel: ​“As I live, says the Lord God, I have no plea­sure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back from your evil ways.” (Ez. 33:11)* and

WHEREAS the evi­dence is over­whelm­ing that racism, clas­sism and eco­nom­ics are gov­ern­ing fac­tors in admin­is­ter­ing the death penal­ty; and that greater num­bers of peo­ple of col­or are exe­cut­ed than is reflect­ed in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion; that men­tal­ly inca­pac­i­tat­ed peo­ple and far too many poor and une­d­u­cat­ed peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed — thus demon­strat­ing the injus­tice of the cur­rent prac­tice of exer­cis­ing the death penal­ty; and

WHEREAS we believe that the com­pas­sion­ate exam­ple of Christ calls us to respect the God-giv­en image found even in hard­ened crim­i­nals, and we stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the pro­found pain of the vic­tims of bru­tal crime,* there­fore be it

RESOLVED that the Texas Conference of Churches in Assembly in San Antonio, February 24, 1998, calls on the State of Texas to put an end to the prac­tice of exer­cis­ing the death penal­ty and reaf­firms its pre­vi­ous res­o­lu­tions in 1973 and 1977 in oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty; and be it further

RESOLVED that all judi­ca­to­ries, church­es, mem­bers and car­ing cit­i­zens acknowl­edge our com­plic­i­ty in the con­tin­u­ing use of and sup­port of the death penal­ty. When we are silent in the face of injus­tice, cru­el­ty or oppres­sion, our silence becomes our assent; and be it further

RESOLVED that we call upon all judi­ca­to­ries, church­es, mem­bers and car­ing cit­i­zens to work in every way pos­si­ble to oppose the death penal­ty and to work to cre­ate a humane, just and decent soci­ety; and be it further

RESOLVED that copies of this res­o­lu­tion be giv­en pub­lic­i­ty with­in the church­es of the Texas Conference of Churches, sent to the Governor of Texas, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Attorney General, to the mem­bers of the Texas Legislature, to can­di­dates for these offices and to the Chair of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

*These para­graphs are quo­ta­tions from the Statement of the Catholic Bishops on Capital Punishment, October, 1997.