Gayle Gerber Koontz is a professor of theology and ethics at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. She has written about women and peacemaking; her publications include “Peace Theology in Transition: North American Mennonite Peace Studies and Theology 1906-2006,” in the January 2007 Mennonite Quarterly Review.

Joseph J. Fahey was a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y. He specializes in Christian social ethics and peace studies, and his publications include War and the Christian Conscience: Where Do You Stand?

Read a roundup of the positions of various religious groups and denominations on capital punishment, posted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Read a July 9, 2013, opinion piece by professor of theology Robert Olson arguing that churches should do more to oppose capital punishment.

Cynthia Lynn Lyerly is associate professor of history at Boston College in Massachusetts. She has written about women in Southern churches.

Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale is associate professor of theology at Boston College in Massachusetts. She is author of Women Shaping Theology.

A Sept. 22, 2011, blog post at Christianity Today examines attitudes toward the death penalty broken down by religion.

The Rev. Sharon Watkins is general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a mainline Protestant denomination.

The Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. A megachurch, it is the largest woman-led church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, whose Faith and Message statement states, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by […]