By Rev. Stacy Swimp
When the U.S. government launches deadly force against suspected drug carriers far away, it sets a chilling and dangerous precedent. For followers of Christ, this state expansion of power to take a life, combined with a history of unequal justice, is a grave moral warning. We must ask: Does this power reflect the sanctity of life and the perfect justice of God?
Scripture commands us to “do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8, KJV). Yet, the War on Drugs—which has always been fundamentally unfair to Black communities—is now threatening to reject mercy and execute judgment without the due process God requires.
The Christian worldview holds that all human life is sacred, made in the “Imago Dei,” or image of God. The authority to end a life is the most serious a government can claim. Current policy efforts dangerously redefine drug trafficking as a capital offense:
- Lethal force abroad: The U.S. government has, at times, designated transnational drug cartels as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with them. This position, which aims to invoke the laws of armed conflict (LOAC) to justify lethal military targeting of suspects, has been widely challenged by legal scholars and human rights experts as an attempt to transform a law enforcement matter into a military conflict to permit extrajudicial killings (as discussed by the U.S. Naval Institute in 2025).
- Capital punishment at home: The Trump administration also explicitly sought to expand the death penalty for drug traffickers.
Headshot Credit: Courtesy photo
Both efforts attempt to pronounce a death sentence solely for the crime of drug trafficking, an action that acts as judge, jury, and executioner. This contrasts sharply with the established moral and constitutional standard for deadly force: police can only use lethal force if there is an immediate threat to life (Tennessee v. Garner, 1985). When the government kills a suspect who poses no immediate danger, it rejects the fair legal process God requires and violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment (Amnesty International, 2015).
The Bible is clear: God detests partiality in judgment. “My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons” (James 2:1, KJV). Yet, the War on Drugs has always shown a profound respect of persons against the Black community:
- Unequal punishment: Despite similar rates of drug use and sales between Black and White individuals, Black people are arrested, charged, and imprisoned far more often (Human Rights Watch, 2020).
- Harsher sentencing: Black individuals receive significantly longer prison sentences than White individuals for the exact same drug crimes (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2023).
This is a failure of Christian justice. If a new, less-restrictive standard for taking a life is established—if selling drugs becomes grounds for execution—it is tragically clear, based on this history, which community will bear the heaviest burden of the state’s lethal power. The same systemic bias that leads to disproportionately longer prison sentences will, by extension, lead to a disproportionate number of executions.
As Christians, we are called to be advocates for the powerless and to “open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction” (Proverbs 31:8, KJV).
We must reject any policy that cheapens the sanctity of life or undermines due process. We must fight to keep the law clear: Deadly force is only justified by an immediate threat to life (Tennessee v. Garner, 1985).
We cannot allow the War on Drugs to become a war that executes God’s children without a fair trial, for this is the sin of injustice that Christ came to redeem.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.