The Growing Faith-Based Movement To End The Death Penalty And Protect Prisoners

[cbayer]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/07/14/3680096/faith-movement-prisoners/

by Jack Jenkins Jul 14, 2015 8:00am


CREDIT: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
A group of death penalty opponents stand outside St. Francis Xavier Church to protest an execution in St. Louis in 2013.

When state lawmakers voted in May to make Nebraska the 19th U.S. state to ban the death penalty, secular activists who support prisoners’ rights lauded the decision as a triumph for coalition-based efforts to protect human dignity. But behind the scenes, people who worked on the campaign heaped praise on one group in particular for helping shift the political winds on capital punishment: People of faith, especially local Catholics.

“When I think of a word to describe how the local Catholic church in Nebraska stepped up in the repeal effort this year, that word would be ‘invaluable’ and that includes hundreds, probably thousands, of individual Catholics,” Effie Caldarola, organizer with the secular group Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told the National Catholic Reporter.
We rationalize and try to sanitize the death penalty in the way it’s applied, but murder is murder in God’s eyes and my eyes as well.

In fact, the influence of faith actors was deemed so important that when pro-death penalty groups began mobilizing in June to accrue signatures for a statewide referendum on the practice, anti-capital punishment advocates once again turned to religious leaders to help push back. Priests and pastors promised to deliver a message of forgiveness during Sunday sermons and homilies.

Yet while these organizing efforts are inspiring opponents of the death penalty across the country, some are beginning to notice that the spiritual work being done in the Cornhusker State is not isolated incident. Rather, it appears to be part of a resurgent, impassioned, and increasingly effective movement among people of faith to combat capital punishment and speak up for prisoner’s rights.

more at link

[trotsky]

1. Faith-based, huh? It's too bad they aren't interested in a coalition with non-believers.

That's what it's all about, right cbayer? Building coalitions and working together?

[Igel]

3. Haven't actually taken note of cbayer's views.

But for many, this is a good thing. Separation of church and state is a basic desideratum when it keeps others from political activity, others that we want neutralized. It's a fundamental, bedrock principle that must never be violated.

Combination of church and state is a great thing, though, when it's for a cause we like.


As for a coalition with non-believers, I suspect that they'd have no trouble working together. Parallel play at times, cooperative play at others. Yielding leadership and message, though, would be a problem. For both sides.

[trotsky]

4. Thanks for your opinion. n/t

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Deceptive headline. Should be more like 'religious groups finally joining secular anti-DP movement'