Religion: The Duty of Mercy

Capital punishment is unChristian, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has decided. At their 165th annual convention in Boston last week, the Episcopalians unanimously resolved that:

"The death penalty falls for the most part on obscure, impoverished, friendless or defective individuals and rarely on the well-to-do and educated. The church believes that each individual is sacred as a child of God, and that to legalize the killing of an offender is to deny the basic Christian doctrines of forgiveness of sin and the power of redemption, and that mercy is a Christian duty."

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