This is the company we keep when it comes to the death penalty: China, the number one executing country; Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, those are the top 4, and number 5 is the US. And those are not countries that are known as champions for human rights, you know.

I think a lot of people view the death penalty as a debate class or something. The cost and what's at stake is really, really a big deal.

If we believe terrorists are past redemption, we should just rip up like 1/2 the New Testament because it was written by one.

We're remembering both the good and the bad in our history together in this world. This isn't an attempt to make people feel bad every morning and to force them to go stick their fingers in a wall socket. We chose these things we included as a way to point people toward the possibility of transformation even while remembering the great pain we have experienced as humanity.

How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?

Too often we just do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it.

I think we've misinterpreted some of the scriptures to justify the death penalty. So whereas a lot of folks in America feel like we can do far better justice  -  it's more expensive to do the death penalty than the alternatives  -  there's so many reasons that people come to the conclusion to abolish the death penalty.