What is the official stance of the Missouri Synod on the death penalty?
A. In 1967, The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod stated its position “that capital punishment is in accord with the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions.” Resolution 2-38 of the New York convention of the Synod reads as follows: “Whereas, Various church bodies have condemned capital punishment in recent years; and “Whereas, God’s Word supports capital punishment (Gen. 9:6; Lev. 24:17; Ex. 21:12; Num. 35:21; Deut. 19:11; Rom. 13:4; Acts 25:11; and “Whereas, The Lutheran Confessions support capital punishment: “Therefore neither God nor the government is included in this commandment, yet their right to take human life is not abrogated. God has delegated His authority of punishing evil-doers to civil magistrates in place of parents; in early times, as we read in Moses, parents had to bring their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore what is forbidden here applies to private individuals, not to governments. (Large Catechism I, 180 to 181 [Tappert, p. 389]) “
