Christian Values in the Abolition of Capital Punishment

Be able to discuss at least two of the U.S. Bishops “Christian Values in the Abolition of Capital Punishment.

Dignity and Worth of Persons

This Christian Value firmly opposes capital punishment in a deeply-rooted belief in the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, something that deeply resonates with Justice Brennan’s own opposition to the death penalty in Furman and Gregg. In both Brennan’s judicial philosophy and the U.S. Bishops, the mutual and core conviction is that human dignity is inviolable, even when a person has committed grave crimes.

For Brennan,

Brennan would no doubt believe capital punishment would be to allow the state to instrumentalize human life, using death as a means to an end - whether deterrence, retribution, or closure. That, he believed, was incompatible with the values the Constitution was designed to preserve, and in direct conflict with the U.S. Bishops insistence we must "affirm the unique worth and dignity of each person" - a call to recognize value in every life, even those society is most tempted to reject.

Breaking the Cycle

The Christian ethic in this value draws from a moral idealism rooted in the imago Dei—the belief that each person bears the image of God and thus possesses inalienable dignity. Abolition of the death penalty, from this view, is not only about sparing life but about elevating our moral imagination, choosing not to reciprocate harm but to model justice that heals rather than retaliates - guided not by what the offender deserves, but by what society aspires to become.

Breaking the Cycle in terms of Gregg

By contrast, the Court in Gregg acknowledged that while the death penalty was severe, it served legitimate social purposes such as deterrence and retribution. But the Christian moral vision is skeptical of this logic, arguing that no civic order / mortal institution can justify taking life unless absolutely necessary, and that true strength lies in the restraint of power, not its expression.