Evangelical Group Following Mainline Decline With Death Penalty Shift?
The Institute on Religion & Democracy has accused the National Association of Evangelicals of dumping traditional church teachings in favor of pursuing wider social support due to the recent revision of its historical position on the death penalty.
"Clearly NAE's drift and intent is toward critique of capital punishment," IRD President Mark Tooley said in a statement on Thursday.
"Church bodies should address moral issues through the lens of historic Christian thought, reflecting with the whole church, past and present, and not striving to align with transitory secular trends. But there's little theology in the NAE's new resolution, which instead focuses on differences of opinion in their constituency, while implicitly inclining toward the supposedly 'growing number' on the liberal side," he continued.
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"Shouldn't the NAE have seriously interacted with historic Christian teaching on an important ethical issue before jumping in a new direction? Or does the NAE prefer to join the habit of liberal Mainline Protestants to jettison traditional teachings by votes among select elites in vain pursuit of wider social approval?"
The NAE, which had historically supported the death penalty in America, released a new resolution earlier this week that affirms "the conscientious commitment of both streams of Christian ethical thought" on the issue.
NAE President Leith Anderson said: "A growing number of Evangelicals call for government resources to be shifted away from the death penalty. Our statement allows for their advocacy and for the advocacy of those of goodwill who support capital punishment in limited circumstances as a valid exercise of the state and as a deterrent to crime."
The new resolution adds that Evangelicals are united in calling for reform of the criminal justice system, and want to see changes that "improve public safety, provide restitution to victims, rehabilitate and restore offenders, and eliminate racial and socio-economic inequities in law enforcement, prosecution and sentencing of defendants."
Capital punishment is legal in 31 states across the U.S.
The latest poll numbers from Gallup from October show that most Americans continue to support capital punishment, with 61 percent of adults in favor of the practice, compared to 37 percent who are opposed.
When it comes to American Christians, a 2013 survey by Barna Group found that younger believers are less likely to support the death penalty than older Christians. Although close to half of self-identified practicing Christian boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, said that they support the death penalty, only 23 percent of practicing Christian millennials said the same.
Barna revealed that only 5 percent of Americans believe that Jesus Christ would actually support the death penalty, however.
