Opposing the Death Penalty

When I was still a teenager, I became a pacifist, and I have remained so for nearly 70 years now. It was perhaps only a little later, and for some of the same reasons, that I became an opponent of the death penalty, and I ask you to consider that position as you read this post. 

The above meme was included in a blog post I made in December 2013. That article, which you can access here, is the only time I have dealt directly with the matter of the death penalty since I started this blog over 15 years ago. But this is an important matter that needs further consideration.

Support for the death penalty is at an all-time low among USAmericans, but still, accord­ing to a late 2024 Gallup poll, 53% of Americans say­ that they sup­port the death penal­ty. And in spite of decreasing public support, in 2024, the number of executions was the most since 2015 (with 2018 the same).

Of the 25 executions in 2024, 48% were non-White. Fifteen of those 25 were from only four states: Alabama (6), Texas (5), Oklahoma and Missouri (4). The average age of those executed was 52, but their average age at the time of offense was 27 (including four teenagers)—a 25-year gap!

Consider these prominent people’s opposition to the death penalty:

** Most prominent is Pope Francis, who changed the wording in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018. It now reads,

… the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

* Far earlier, Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and the author of Dead Man Walking (1993), became a tireless advocate of abolishing the death penalty since first accompanying Elmo Patrick “Pat” Sonnier (b. 1950) to his execution by electrocution at Louisiana State Penitentiary on April 5, 1984.

From 1993 to 1995, Prejean served as the National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which was founded in 1976.*¹

* Recently, I learned that John Grisham, the noted novelist, is also an opponent of the death penalty. Last October, I read the three novellas in his 2022 book Sparring Partners. The second, “Strawberry Moon,” is a touching story of a woman who became pen pals with a man facing execution.

Grisham’s main concern, it seems, has been the execution of people who were apparently innocent, and his latest book is Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Conviction.*²

 * Former President Biden also opposes(d) the death penalty. In 2021, his Administration placed a moratorium on federal executions, and on December 23, 2024, he commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on the federal death row to sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.*³

From 1972 to July 2020, there were only three federal executions. And even though there had been no federal executions since January 2021, during the last six months that Trump was in office as the 45^th President, there were thirteen federal prisoners executed, including the first woman in 67 years.

On inauguration day in 2025, the 47^th President rescinded Biden’s moratorium on federal executions. It is widely recognized that conservative White evangelicals favor the death penalty far more than do moderate/progressive Christians, so perhaps Pres. Trump was primarily pandering to his base.

If you would like to know more about why I oppose the death penalty, please read the last part of Chapter 9 in my book Fed Up with Fundamentalism (2007, 2020), even though the discussion there is also too brief.  

Or, please email me or post your questions/comments on the blogsite. I look forward to dialoguing with several of you on this important issue.

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*¹ At the invitation of Jesuits in Japan, Sister Prejean (b. 1939) visited Japan four times. In 2002, when she came to Fukuoka, June and I had the privilege of hearing her speak and then chatting with her. Last Sunday, we watched the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking and were impressed again by Sister Prejean. In the film, she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon, who won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Actress for that performance.

*² Grisham, who celebrated his 70^th birthday on February 8, was interviewed for an article in AARP Bulletin in October 2024. Twelve years ago, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers regarding Grisham’s first nonfiction novel, The Innocent Man. That interview, titled “John Grisham on Wrongful Death Penalty Convictions,” can be accessed here.

*³ Death penalties are usually carried out by state governments, but the federal government imposes and carries out a small minority of the death sentences in the U.S.

India at 75: Still the World’s Largest Democracy?

Today is my birthday, and most of you know that I am “as old as the hills,” as the saying goes. But do you know that I am older than India?! Well, I am older than the Republic of India, which became a sovereign and democratic nation at 12:02 a.m. on August 15, 1947 (my ninth birthday). 

India is perhaps the world’s most complex nation. There was no nation of India until 1947, but the history of the Indian subcontinent is a long and complex one. There were numerous empires, kingdoms, and sultanates that ruled various parts of the area over the centuries.

The subcontinent was (and is) populated by a host of different ethnic groups. Even today India has 22 separate official languages and at least 121 languages altogether.

India is also quite complex religiously. The major religion, of course, is Hinduism. But “India” was also the birthplace of Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. There are also a large number of Christians in India; for example, there are only two countries in the world with more Methodists than in India.

India began to come under greater and greater European influence/rule after about 1500, first by the Portuguese followed by the Dutch and then especially after the formation of the English East India Company in 1600.

After the short-lived independence movement of 1857, “India” was under the British Raj, the rule of the British Crown, from 1858 until 1947, when it finally achieved its independence.

India will soon become the world’s most populous nation. India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country just next year, according to the 27^th edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects, released about a month ago.

The population of China was 1,144 million in 1990 compared with India’s 861 million. But with the continuation of India’s rapid growth rate causing its population to surpass China’s, next year nearly 19% of the people in the world will live in India.

With nearly one out of five of the world’s population living in the one nation, India will increasingly have significant impact on the world as a whole.

Is India still the world’s largest democracy? As India celebrates its 75^th birthday today, there will be those who will again point out that, among other things, it is the “world’s largest democracy.”

On January 26, 1950, when the Indian constitution took effect, the Republic of India did in fact become the most populous democracy in the world—and it has been so regarded until the present. But there are some who now question whether India, in fact, is still a democracy.

In The World Ahead 2022, published in Nov. 2021 by The Economist, the first article about Asia is regarding India, and it was titled “A museum for democracy?”

Democracy is in danger there as in other places in the world, including the U.S. That danger both there and here is rooted largely in religious nationalism.

Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) in India and Christian nationalism in the U.S. are both linked to religious fundamentalism—and both are a real danger to the perpetuation of democracy.

In my book Fed Up with Fundamentalism (2007, 2020), I have a short sub-section titled “Hindu Fundamentalism.” There I briefly introduce the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That is the Party of Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India, who was first elected PM in 2014.

Under Modi, the BJP is now much stronger than when the first edition of my book was published.

Hindutva is an ideology that disregards Indian Christians and other religious minority believers as true Indians because they have allegiances that lie outside India, and it asserts the country should be purified of their presence.

To be real democracies, both the Republic of India (75 years old today) and the USA (which turned 246 years old this July 4) must accept the diversity and the equality of its citizenry, seeking the greatest good for all citizens regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.

Christians in India, of course, oppose Hindu nationalism there. Many progressive Christians in the U.S. also oppose Christian nationalism here (see Christians Against Christian Nationalism).

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** On Aug. 12, The Washington Post posted “As India marks its first 75 years, Gandhi is downplayed, even derided.” I was sad to see that.