Why Pope Leo is wrong about the death penalty
According to Pope Leo,
“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life”
The pope still affirms the teaching of the catholic church on abortion and I would say that is definitely the Biblical position. I have earlier written an article on abortion and the Bible so would not necessarily rehash that here. The focus is whether the pope is correct on the death penalty.
The logic of opposing the death penalty according to Pope Francis is that it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the human person and as such should be inadmissible in all cases. Pope Leo adds that it is not a pro-life position.
Question though, God Himself institutes the death penalty in the book of Genesis,
“Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man.”
(Genesis 9:5–6)
The argument against this would be that this is merely a descriptive. Much like when Jesus said those who live by the sword would die by the sword. The problem with that approach is that God Himself said He requires it,
“Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.”
God means business about this. He means this so much he states that He will even require the death penalty from beasts who kill men.
Someone else might point out that this is the old testament law which does not apply today but remember this is Genesis which was given before the law. The Biblical view on marriage and sex is also based on Genesis which is before the law and Jesus in His teaching on marriage (Matthew 19) appealed to and affirmed Genesis. So if Genesis’ teaching on marriage is universal and for all time, so is its teaching on the death penalty.
Secondly, God Himself recommends the death penalty for various offences in the Torah. In two specific instances, God passes the death penalty for breaking the Sabbath and for blaspheming His name,
“Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
“Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.
‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death’.”
(Numbers 24:10–17)
“Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
Again, the point of this is not that Christians today should support blasphemy laws or killing people for not keeping the sabbath but rather to show that God did not deem the death penalty as a violation of or inconsistent with human dignity.”
(Numbers 15:32–36)
The point of this is not to say that Christians should support blasphemy laws or stone people for not keeping the sabbath but to show that God Himself imposed the death penalty on people without deeming it inconsistent with the dignity of the human person or the fact that human beings are made in His image.
Thirdly, one of the things Ezekiel condemns Israel for is this,
“And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies?”
(Ezekiel 13:19)
Note the above criticizes Israel for not only killing people who should live but actually living alive people who should die. Now the pushback to this would be that in context, it could potentially be metaphorical especially given the fact God talks about the sinful dying and the righteous living (Ezekiel 18 and 33) and it says it is the lies of the people that are having this effect.
Fourth, the very gospel itself is based on the idea of the death penalty. The soul that sins ought to die, so Jesus who never sinned dies in the place of the sinner so that the sinner may live,
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…”
(1 Peter 3:18)
There is something about the death penalty that speaks to the justice and righteousness of God. Which is why it was instituted by God in Genesis and why the government is supposed to carry it out as the agent of God’s vengeance. Permit me to show this from scripture.
To set the background, remember the Bible was not originally written in chapters and verses, these were additions later on for ease of referencing. At the end of Romans 12, Paul writes,
“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord…”
He then goes on to admonish Christians not to avenge themselves but rather to feed their enemies and overcome evil with good, immediately Paul then pivots to talking about governments,
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
(Romans 13:1–4)
Did you spot that? The government is supposed to be a terror to evil works and be God’s minister for good and to execute God’s wrath on those who practise evil. The sword the government wields is supposed to be for executing God’s wrath on those who practise evil. There have been two classical and complementary interpretations of what the sword is for. The first is for fighting war and the second is for the execution of the death penalty. So again, the gospel goes hand in hand with the death penalty. The message is Christians do not avenge yourselves, it is the government’s job to do that.
Fifth, Paul in the New Testament does not seem to be against the death penalty, he says before the court,
“For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
(Acts 25:11)
Notice he does not debate the merits or demerits of the death penalty, he is only concerned that it be applied only if he merits it.
Now after all this, there is the question of “But what if we sentence an innocent person to death?”. The answer is two fold;
First, there should be the highest standards for applying the death penalty. It should be for specific designated heinous offences (and definitely in the case of murder) and the accused should be afforded every reasonably possible time and opportunity for their defence.
Secondly, the fact that innocent people might be sentenced to death should not be so high a consideration that it outweighs the benefit of having the death penalty enshrined in law. It is not a reasonable argument at all. For example, knife crime is very high in areas on Europe (say London and Paris for example), does that mean knives as a whole should be banned? Definitely not, the benefit of having knives, to cook and do other things, outweighs that risk of having people using knives to stab people. The same argument can be made with cars, there are thousands of road accidents (50,000 in the US) in a year, should cars be banned altogether? So the fact there might be the risk that an innocent person is put to death far outweighs the benefit of having hardened murderers walking around prisons at tax payer’s expense or being released into the society at large.
Does the Bible not say “Thou shall not kill?”. Again the reading of the word is “You shall not murder”. God Himself ordered quite a number of killings in the Bible so the idea is committing unjustified acts of killing, the Hebrew word also covers killing by reckless actions. The death penalty would therefore not contravene that commandment.
In conclusion, Pope Leo and his predecessor are wrong about the death penalty, it is not inconsistent with the dignity and inviolability of the human person, it is in fact very consistent with the dignity and inviolability of the victim of the criminal’s actions and as such it is a very pro-life position because it emphasises the sanctity of life.
