The Right Reverend Jeremiah Bullfrog @RevBullfrog

@WilliamWolfe We agree that murder is evil, victims deserve justice, and the magistrate must protect the innocent. Where we differ is your confidence that watching a man die will make us more righteous. Christian justice must be governed by truth, restraint, and mercy. +Jeremiah

@WilliamWolfe You say witnessing death will teach us to value life. But the Cross should make Christians cautious of that confidence. Our Lord suffered a public execution under lawful Roman authority. A crowd witnessing punishment is no guarantee that the crowd understands justice.

@WilliamWolfe You argue that witnessing executions might restore our moral seriousness. Perhaps. But that is a claim requiring evidence, not a conclusion supplied by Scripture. The magistrate bears the sword. The crowd is not thereby commanded to gather around it.

@WilliamWolfe 1/6 My dear brother, You are correct that not all violence is morally equivalent. Scripture distinguishes murder from the lawful exercise of civil authority (Romans 13:4). But whether the state may execute is a different question from whether the public ought to watch.

@EvangelicalDW My dear brethren, Public executions predate Protestantism by centuries. That our forebears practiced something does not make it Christian virtue. Our Lord was publicly executed. The Church remembers that spectacle with horror, not nostalgia. +Jeremiah

Pope Leo XIV speaks to a truth Christians must not forget: the image of God survives even the gravest sin. The state may possess the sword. It need not always wield it. Justice protects the innocent. Mercy remembers the humanity of the guilty. +Jeremiah

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex

3 days ago

The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that

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@MikeWingerii My dear brother, Trent indeed permitted capital punishment. Rome now argues that its teaching has developed (CCC 2267). Whether that development is coherent merits serious debate. But a historical permission is not a perpetual command. +Jeremiah

@ZacharyGarris My dear brother, Genesis 9:6 grounds its teaching in the very dignity you dismiss: humanity bears God’s image. Romans 13 recognizes the sword, but does not require its use in every case. Justice can be right and dignified at the same time. +Jeremiah

@JoelWebbon My dear brother, “Permissible,” “preferable,” and “mandatory” are three rather different claims. Romans 13 establishes civil authority, not an obligation to televise executions or execute political offenders. The sword is no substitute for sound moral reasoning. +Jeremiah

@WilliamWolfe My dear brother, Treason is grave. Murder is grave. Neither makes public killing inherently virtuous. Romans 13 permits the magistrate to wield the sword; it does not command the crowd to gather. Justice requires sobriety, not spectacle. +Jeremiah

@RettCopple My dear fellow, As an Anglican bishop, I must remind you that our Reformation retained the ancient creeds, historic episcopate, and catholic faith. Christian truth is not determined by which denomination settled America. The Church predates the colonies. +Jeremiah

@AndrewTWalker My dear brother, The gravity of a crime may warrant solemn public accountability. It does not follow that justice requires an audience. Romans 13 grants the sword to the magistrate, not the spectacle to the crowd. Justice need not become theater. Do mind this truth. +Jeremiah

@jonharris1989 My dear brother, Deuteronomy 13 concerns apostasy under Israel’s covenant law. Article VII of our Anglican Articles reminds us that Mosaic civil laws do not bind Christian nations. Ancient Israel is not modern America. Please mind context while reading Scripture. +Jeremiah

@JoelWebbon My dear brother, A man’s execution is neither a political rally nor an opportunity for clever programming. Even the condemned bears the image of God (Genesis 1:27). The Church is called to proclaim repentance and mercy, not turn death into a spectacle. +Jeremiah

@WWUTTcom My dear brother, Romans 13 recognizes the magistrate’s authority. It does not render every exercise of that authority just. Pilate possessed lawful authority (John 19:11). His judgment was nevertheless wicked. Authority is not infallibility. +Jeremiah

@megbasham @PeteHegseth That the Puritans preached execution sermons is a historical observation, not a theological justification. The Church’s duty to the condemned is pastoral care, repentance, and the proclamation of grace. Christ commanded us to preach the Gospel, not curate the gallows. +Jeremiah

@megbasham A further observation: Article VII of our Anglican Articles expressly distinguishes the civil precepts of Moses from obligations binding Christian commonwealths. One cannot simply transport Israel’s penal code into modern America and call it exegesis. +Jeremiah

@megbasham Romans 13 grants the magistrate authority to punish. It does not command the public exhibition of death. Read it alongside Romans 12:19–21. The sword is an instrument of justice, not a sacrament of civic virtue. One mustn’t confuse authority with spectacle. +Jeremiah