400+ Catholic and evangelical leaders want to kill the death penalty

Holy Week is used by many Christians to reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, and now more than 400 Catholic and evangelical leaders are using Jesus’ state-sanctioned execution to call for an end to the death penalty.

 

“When they look at Christ on the cross, it’s a reminder of how very many millions of people have been executed by government in history and how grotesque it really is and, often, how unjust it is,” said David Gushee, an evangelical ethicist at Mercer University in Atlanta.

 

Gushee is one of the signers of the statement, as are two former presidents ofthe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston and William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash.); Miguel Diaz, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See; and Jim Wallis, founder of the progressive Christian group Sojourners.