National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty
Don Tarbutton, Amnesty International Activist, Santa Cruz, New Mexico
When I returned home from a stay in Hawai`i, I made the decision to become more actively involved in social justice issues, and in particular those issues that related to my Buddhist spiritual practice. Last fall, I attended a meeting of the local chapter of Amnesty International (AI) and found out about their Faith in Action program to abolish the death penalty in the US. Amnesty opposes the death penalty on the grounds that an execution is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and is a violation of each individual's right to life. Since I believe, reinforced by the set of Buddhist values called Precepts that provide me with guidance for my life, that taking a life is ethically wrong, I resonated deeply with Amnesty's position and decided to get involved with the Faith in Action Program.
The Program designates one weekend a year and through a variety of means, encourages faith communities all over the US from all spiritual traditions to create a focus on the issue of the death penalty. This year that weekend is October 10 - 12. When I say "create a focus on the issue of the death penalty", each spiritual tradition approaches that focus in its own way, based on their tradition's belief or teaching related to one human being or the collective action of society taking the life of another human being. In some cases, a pastor devotes his or her sermon to the topic, or the faith community organizes a discussion group on the topic or takes a position against capital punishment and makes that position public.
What I decided to do last year was to develop a talk on the Buddhist Perspective on the Death Penalty under the guidance of my teacher, Eric Kolvig, and offer the talk to the four Buddhist communities in my tradition in New Mexico. All of them invited me to give the talk at one of their regular evening meditation sittings. It was well received. One of the groups decided to take a stand against the death penalty in New Mexico and made that statement available to the members of the State Legislature who were considering a bill to abolish the death penalty. Another Buddhist social action group took a similar position, and I was invited to offer the talk to a non-Buddhist community meditation group in Albuquerque. When I communicated information about this activity to AI as they requested, they asked for permission to publish my talk in the 2003 Resource Guidebook they send out to all faith communities who express an interest in participating in the Program.
My talk has been reproduced beginning on p. 83 [of the 2003 Faith in Action Resource Guidebook], and the statement on the death penalty by the Santa Fe Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship is on p. 68. If you are connected to a faith community and it feels right for you to do so, please be kind enough to talk to someone in a leadership position (perhaps that person is you!) and encourage them to participate in this year's Program. The packet has a wealth of information and suggestions of ways your community can participate. If you are not actively involved with a faith community, please pass the packet along to someone you know who is.
Even though you may live in a state that has abolished the death penalty, 38 states, the federal government and the US military permit the imposition of the death penalty. It will likely take action at the federal level before the death penalty can be abandoned in all states. For your information, a majority of nations have taken the moral position that the death penalty is ethically wrong. More than half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. It is now time for the United States to join the rest of the world in abandoning this cruel and unusual form of punishment! Thank you for your consideration of this humanitarian social justice issue.
Join the Discussion: Do you believe most Americans' position on the death penalty is faith-based? If not, what are the grounds upon which Americans base their support or opposition for the death penalty?
About our discussion forums
All registered users of Amnesty International USA's Online Action Center are encouraged
to participate in the Action Center Forums, a discussion area for people
to post questions and comments on human rights issues. If you are already a member
of the Online Action Center, you will need to log
in. If not, you will need to register.
Registeration is free and only takes a minute.