Religion and capital punishment

Major world religions take varied positions on the morality of capital punishment. Religions are often based on a body of teachings, such as the Old Testament and the Qur'an, which contain many cases of criminals being executed.

Christian tradition from the New Testament have come to a range of conclusions about the permissibility and social value of capital punishment. While some hold that a strict reading of certain texts forbids executions, others point to various verses of the New Testament which seem to endorse the death penalty's use. Many read the Passion narratives in the Gospels as a condemnation of capital punishment because of the execution of Jesus, whom Christians regard as innocent and an example of executing the innocent.

Historically and traditionally, the Church has classed capital punishment as a form of "lawful slaying", a view defended by theological authorities such as Thomas Aquinas. (See also Aquinas on the death penalty). At various times in the past, the Church has held that, in certain cases, a legal system may be justified in levying a death sentence, such as in cases where the sentence may deter crime, may protect society from potential future acts of violence by an offender, may bring retribution for an offender's wrongful acts, and may even help the offender to move closer to reconciliation with God in the face of death. The 1566 Roman Catechism states this teaching thus:

Another kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which are the legitimate avengers of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.

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