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Subject: From D.C. Pulpits, Pleas to Defeat Referendum;Religious Leaders Preach the
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 04:30:31 EST
Message-ID: <51.1992Oct26.043031@AmeriCast.com>

From D.C. Pulpits, Pleas to Defeat Referendum;Religious Leaders
Preach the Evils of Death Penalty, Call Measure an Insult to Home
Rule<By Michele L.  Norris=Washington Post Staff Writer=

From tiny storefront sanctuaries to Gothic cathedrals, religious
leaders  throughout the city used the power of the pulpit yester-
day to encourage churchgoers to reject the death penalty referen-
dum on the District's Nov. 3 ballot.

Outraged by congressional action forcing the referendum, reli-
gious leaders at more than 100 District churches synchronized
their Sunday sermons to fight the measure. The style and tone of
the preaching varied greatly, but the central themes were much
the same: The referendum is an insult to home rule, and the death
penalty violates the religious precept that God alone has the
right to take a life.

At Walker Memorial Baptist Church, at 2020 13th St. NW, the
congregation responded with impassioned shouts of "Amen" and
"Yes, Lord" when the Rev. Reginald M. Green said, "We have a
crisis on our hands come Nov. 3 . . . because a Congress that is
only concerned with themselves is trying to impose their will on
the District of Columbia."

"No matter how low a life has sunk, there is still some grace
that the will of God can touch," Green said in a fiery sermon ti-
tled "The Church in Crisis."

The death penalty "might take some lives away. . . . But what
happens if the justice system does not work?" Green asked his
congregation in a series of rhetorical questions. "What happens
if someone is wrongly accused?"

Ministers at several Christian congregations bolstered their ar-
guments against the death penalty with a description of Jesus
Christ as a victim of capital punishment. "The one that we wor-
ship and follow was sentenced to capital punishment by the most
sophisticated and civilized "No matter how low a life has sunk,
there is still some grace that the will of God can touch."<

- the Rev. Reginald M. Green,>Walker Memorial Baptist Church>
system available," said the Rev. John Steinbruck, of Luther Place
Memorial Church in downtown Washington.

"The capital punishment was carried out in a capital city not un-
like our own, a city that had taxation without representation, a
city that was experiencing great suffering," said Steinbruck, who
told his ethnically diverse Lutheran congregation to "pray for
your enemies in the tradition of Jesus Christ."

Some said a feeling of helplessness in the face of rising crime
was fueling support for the death penalty.

"You have a lot of people acting out of fear or vengeance or
anger," said Dennis Singleton, who worships at Walker Memorial
Baptist Church.  "They may otherwise be opposed to the death
penalty, but they feel like there is nothing left that they can
do to battle all this crime. To try and move them off that posi-
tion, well, that is hard to do because emotion can sometimes be
stronger than intellect."

Many churches balanced their spiritual arguments against capital
punishment with strong denouncements of Congress, and more
specifically Sen. Richard C. Shelby (D-Ala.), who introduced the
bill forcing the referendum after one of his legislative aides
was gunned down hear his Capitol Hill home.

"We're being treated like American's last colony," Steinbruck
said.

The Rev. J. Philip Suehr, of Assumption Catholic Church in
Anacostia, closed his Sunday homily with a list of reasons he
believes the death penalty is ill advised. Among them Suehr list-
ed the questions about whether the death penalty would serve as a
deterrent to criminals and its disproportionate use against
minorities and the poor.

At the point during the service at Assumption when parishioners
stand to ask that others say prayers for them, a woman said she
needed strength to fend off the impulse to vote for the death
penalty because her son was killed in a drive-by shooting.  At
another point, Suehr asked the congregation to pray that one of
the church cooks would find the strength to reject the death
penalty measure even though she also had just lost a son to
violence.

The church has played a key role in several political issues in
the District. Many of the religious leaders who are rallying
against the death penalty referendum also banded together last
year for a successful campaign to reinstate a gun-liability law
that District officials had killed under congressional pressure.
But exasperation over violence could weaken the church's influ-
ence this time around.

"The church is one of the strongest influences over people's
lives, but right now people feel like there is no one out there
to protect them, not the police, not the church, nobody," said
Calvin Chase, a member of Walker Memorial Congregation who op-
poses the death penalty measure. "Fear is a hard thing to reason
with."Staff writer Santiago O'Donnell contributed to this re-
port.<02:43 10-26C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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