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The Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project seeks
to build a powerful coalition of faith-based activists. Nationally,
it works with official religious bodies to develop strategies and
to promote anti-death penalty activism within each faith tradition.
At the grassroots level, the Project links with individuals and
faith communities, establishing "covenant" relationships
to foster local abolition efforts.
The work of the Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty
Project comprises four central components:
Education
One of the Project's major functions is to provide individuals
and faith groups with religiously oriented anti-death penalty
materials. Resources available include:
Dead Man Walking study packets
a compilation of national religious bodies' statements on
the death penalty
a compendium of powerful sermons against the death penalty
educational videos for people of faith
national conferences and smaller gatherings that provide training
and inspiration
Commitment
We provide individuals and communities of faith with tangible ways
of expressing their opposition to the death penalty. These include:
signing the declaration of life, a pledge to express one's
individual opposition to capital punishment
developing a statement to reflect one's faith community's
opposition to the death penalty
becoming a member of the Religious Organizing Project
designing action plans for working for the abolition of the
death penalty
signing the moratorium petition
Ministry
The Project works with individuals whose lives are deeply touched
by the specter of the death penalty. We help faith communities:
to address the needs of murder victims so that true healing may occur
to reach out to family members of those on death row, the "invisible victims" of the death penalty
to assist death row inmates in a variety of ways
Action
We provide people of faith with tangible ways to work for the abolition of the death
penalty. We help individuals and groups to:
organize anti-death penalty demonstrations and vigils
publicly challenge politicians and prosecutors who support the death penalty
testify and lobby against the death penalty
monitor capital cases to witness against injustice in the courtroom
develop a strong anti-death penalty voice in the media
Each of us can make a meaningful contribution. People of faith helped spearhead the first
abolitionist movement in the United States -- the movement to abolish slavery. The time is
long overdue for the religious community to play a decisive role in the second
abolitionist movement -- the movement to abolish the death penalty.
"The role of the religious community is to reconcile what seems
irreconcilable: love for death row inmates and their human dignity, and love for murder
victims and their dignity and compassion for the hurt of their family members. Our
spiritual energy can unite and combine what ideology alone can never bring together."
-Sister Helen Prejean
Click here for a printable version
of this statement as it appears in our brochure.
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