Moratorium on Death Penalty

ELCA Church Council Action CC02.04.25a

Passed by the 2002 ELCA Church Council.

Resolved
To commend the action of the Sierra Pacific Synod encouraging action by congregations and members to support a moratorium on the death penalty;

To acknowledge this church’s opposition to the death penalty as expressed in the ELCA’s 1991 “Social Statement on the Death Penalty;”

To affirm that moratoria are positive steps toward the abolition of the death penalty and to encourage the members of the ELCA to continue their work, in conjunction with the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs and state public policy offices, to establish moratoria on the use of the death penalty and to work for its eventual abolition in this society; and

To request that the response of the Division for Church in Society to the synod’s resolution and this action by the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America be shared with the Sierra Pacific Synod.