The N.H. Council of Churches is a body of many diverse denominations, ranging from Protestant to Orthodox to Unitarian Universalist. All these denominations regard the use of capital punishment as unacceptable and support its repeal.
We thank our legislators who made a clear, bipartisan vote to repeal the death penalty. Lawmakers voted out of their deeply held spiritual beliefs, so we urge them to keep the faith and override the veto of House Bill 455. That bipartisan faith vote frequently cites three reasons to oppose the death penalty:
First, in Genesis 1:26, we read, “God said, ‘Let us make (humanity) in our image, after our likeness.’” Christians believe every human life is sacred, even when that person denies the dignity of others. We recognize that the sacredness of life is a gift from God, neither earned through good behavior nor lost through heinous acts.
Second, that sacred dignity is in every person equally since all people have the same divine Creator. We want to believe that here we serve justice impartially and equally. Unfortunately Christians know that we make mistakes and poor decisions. We cannot leave choices about life and death to fallible justice systems administered by error-prone humans.
Finally, God can redeem any person, no matter their past, and bring them to the forgiveness and mercy. The death penalty closes off the possibility of God’s redemption through our presumption that we know better than God.
For these reasons and more, we urge our legislators to cast a faith-filled, bipartisan vote to bring to an end the death penalty in our state.
The Rev. JASON WELLS
Pembroke
(The writer is executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches.)