Death Penalty Poll

Polls are polls and probably should all be taken with a pinch of salt as so much depends on the exact wording of the questions but the Pew Research Center has just published some results from a wide survey of attitudes to the death penalty in America.

The death penalty for those convicted of murder is still favoured by two thirds of the population and not by one third. Thankfully from the look of it this support is seeing a(nother) decline in recent years.

Other than such outrageously high support for capital punishment in a country that often professes to be Christian (and indeed is perceived in this way by much of the world), what I find equally disturbing is the stark contrasts when support is broken down into sub-groups.

So in terms of 'race' 68% of whites support it contrasted with Hispanics at 52% and 42% for blacks. In terms of voting Republicans are at 73-84% in support of it depending on how 'liberal' they are (either way it is far above the national average) and Democrats are (mercifully) at 37%-55%.

But what I find most terrible is that amongst white protestants support is at 73-77%!! This is outrageous frankly. For a group of people who proclaim (often viciously) that they follow a man who preached forgiveness for one's enemies, grace as the solution to human sin (whether you want to cast it in terms of Original Sin or a human tendency towards selfishness etc) and love for all including the despised and criminal... well, I don't know what is going on there.

I'm not wanting to cast any stones here but to me those figures suggest that something has clearly gone very, very wrong with those followers of Christ and their understanding of his life and message.