Christian pacifist Shane Claiborne organized a social media campaign to promote his new book attacking the death penalty as “a moral crisis” in America. Hundreds of individuals followed Claiborne in sharing his plea on social media to “abolish the death penalty”:
The message shared by participants linked to the website for Claiborne’s new book, Executing Grace. The book’s subtitle, “How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us,” was displayed prominently in a large banner across the top of the page.
Claiborne enlisted nearly 500 people to participate in the campaign under the hashtag #ExecutingGrace across the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr at precisely 12pm EDT. The campaign was projected to reach more than 700,000 people.
On the campaign’s Thunderbolt webpage, Claiborne said that in his book, he challenged Christians in particular to “reject killing in all forms, legal and illegal.” He said that he was “big fan of life” and thus “committed to trying to subvert and disrupt everything that destroys it.”
“I’m convinced that we can’t kill to show that killing is wrong any more than we can rape to show that rape is wrong,” Claiborne said. He argued that “restorative justice,” even for the worst murderers, was superior to the death penalty.
Claiborne shared the example of a jail warden he met operating “inside the machinery of death,” who “became convinced that there is no good way to kill someone…that when we execute we become as immoral as those who murder.” The activist said that American society’s participation in the death penalty exacted a “human toll” on each of its members.
As a pacifist, Claiborne is not only an opponent of the death penalty, but war and any other exercise of violence by the state.
“Claiborne is a leading younger voice for increasingly popular neo-Anabaptists who erroneously insist that faithful Christianity demands complete pacifism,” wrote Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). “He authored the 2008 book Jesus for President that apocalyptically likened America to the Roman Empire, the Third Reich, and the Anti-Christ.”
In a column for Sojourners, Claiborne bragged about travelling to Iraq in 2003 to protect Iraqis from the U.S. “shock-and-awe” campaign. He later commemorated the tenth anniversary of 9-11 with a “variety show” that critiqued “violence and militarism.”
Comment by Mike Ward on June 7, 2016 at 1:26 pm
They love the murderers more than the victims. They think because the death penalty doesn’t bring back the victim that it has no value. Prison doesn’t bring back the victim either. Carried to its logical conclusion their version of love thy enemy would forbid any punishment. Their descendants will advocate just that and call today’s absolute pacifists hate mongers.
Comment by Dan on June 7, 2016 at 1:30 pm
I’ll be properly impressed when Shane takes his show on the road to Saudi Arabia and Iran to publicly demonstrate there for abolishing the death penalty. I’ll give him a pass on North Korea since it’s too difficult to get there.
Comment by BigMikeLewis on June 7, 2016 at 2:07 pm
I asked a question on Twitter he never answered which was “When will you actively call for the end of the death penalty for unborn children through abortions?” My twitter handle is @bigmikelewis if you want to see.
Comment by Mike Ward on June 8, 2016 at 1:31 am
This is the guy who suggested God protected Hitler from assassination.
Comment by Nat Alee on June 8, 2016 at 12:10 pm
He seems to be anti-abortion.
http://www.redletterchristians.org/a-dialogue-on-what-it-means-to-be-pro-life/
Comment by The Dove on June 8, 2016 at 11:33 am
The Michael Moore of Christianity – bad hair and an ugly head covering, and people are supposed to take you seriously.
Comment by Mark Brooks on June 8, 2016 at 11:39 am
There is nothing Christian about opposition to the death penalty.
“I will surely require your blood of your lives; at the hand of every
animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every
man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.”
–Genesis 9:5-6
“Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God. Therefore he who resists the authority, withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. For
rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you
desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you
will have praise from the same, for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil. Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.”
–Romans 13:1-5
“But Paul said, ‘I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also know very well. For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I don’t refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that they
accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!’ Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, ‘You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.'”
–Acts 25:10-11
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
— Ecclesiastes 8:11
So we can see that those who profess Christianity, and oppose the death penalty, are really opposing God.
“But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift
destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.”
— 2 Peter 2:1-2
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter!”
— Isaiah 5:20
Claiborne is a deceiver, a ravening wolf, and a false teacher. I am sure that his opposition to the death penalty is not his only corruption.
Comment by Nat Alee on June 8, 2016 at 12:10 pm
Claiborne seems to be one of the few progressive Christians who is anti-abortion.
Good for him.