"There are some fourteen thousand books written on the death penalty, and I didn’t want to write another “one of those.”
One of my favorite writers once told me, “Don’t write unless you cannot not write. Make sure it is a fire in your bones, a passion that cannot be contained.”
This book chose me." (SC)
This is my first and so far, my only Shane Claiborne read. But it was a "Rocket Read". A read that sent me on a trajectory into a different and strange space. I just read this last year.
I am a Canadian. We don't have the death penalty here. This would seem to be NOT an issue I would not find myself drawn to... but I am.
"And these are the words of Jennifer Lemmerman, the sister of the slain MIT police officer: “Whenever someone speaks out against the death penalty, they are challenged to imagine how they would feel if someone they love were killed. I’ve been given that horrible perspective and I can say that my position has only strengthened.” She went on to say, “I also can’t imagine that killing in response to killing would ever bring me peace or justice." (SC with JL)
I can't relate to most of the stories shared in this book, but it was impossible for me not to have compassion for both sides. Maybe I can be glad I am Canadian, I could just shuffle this issue off to south of the border and forget about it. Only one problem. I don't want to. I just don't know what to do about my compassion right now. I want to get involved somehow, but am at a loss to figure out how.
"In replacing “an eye for an eye” with “love your enemies,” Jesus teaches us to wear evil down with love. He teaches us that no one is beyond redemption; all of us are better than the worst mistake we’ve made." (SC)
"All of us are better than the worst mistake we've made." That I can get behind. That I want to communicate to a few people in my life... including me.
The death penalty seems to me like the easy way out... for governments, for victims and for the ones to be executed. It seems like a whitewashing of the problem. I think Shane Claiborne tries to get that point across numerous times and the question is asked...
"How can we kill people who kill to show that killing is wrong?"(SC)
When you put it that way... Who can't figure that out? I have listened to a few interviews with Shane Claiborne and he has mentioned that in the U.S. the majority of the executions are done in the Bible Belt. I just heard him say in an interview yesterday something like...
"The Death Penalty isn't still active in spite of the Christians, it is active because of the Christians." (SC in an interview with Jonathan Martin)
REALLY!!!
Is that the group of people who call themselves "Christians" or followers of Christ, but haven't met Jesus yet. Are those the ones who will faithfully attend a Good Friday service and forget that the one they are remembering was a man who was executed.
"When we miss the central message of God’s love and the cross gets twisted, it can be used as a weapon. Some of the most horrifying things in history have happened at the hands of Christians with poisonous theology, divorced from grace." (SC)
Again... I'm a Canadian. I must not understand the issue. I definitely don't understand "Killing someone to show that killing is wrong." And then there is forgiveness. Where does that come in to play? Is that not a given in the life of a Christian? Or is forgiveness just something Jesus (believed to be "God in flesh") did when he was getting executed... and not meant to be something we do?
Shane doesn't seem to think so. I did a search in my Ibook version of the book and came up with over 75 references to the word forgiveness. That must be the point he was making in this story.
Who makes this hit home harder than this mom.
"Aba Gayle, a mother whose nineteen-year-old daughter was murdered, knows both the poison of anger and the power of forgiveness:
"I knew that I didn’t need the State of California to murder another human being so I could be healed. . . . It’s time to stop teaching people hate and start teaching people to love. The whole execution as closure idea is not realistic. . . . Anger is just a horrible thing to do to your body. Not to mention what it does to your soul and spirit. Forgiveness is not saying what he did was right—it’s taking back your power." " (SC with AG)
What I admired most about the book, is that is far from being one sided. No one wins when some one is killed... even and especially when it is the government authorizing the killing. The stories shared here are from all sides. Families of victims, family of executed inmates, prison staff, government officials... no one escapes the pain of killing another human being.
"No matter whether a loved one had been killed by a deranged gunman or by the government, the pain the members of this group felt was the same; the tears were the same; the trauma was the same." (SC)
I am still stuck. I feel so far away from the people, the issues and the prisons where the killing is being done. I want to put this book into the hands of everyone making decisions in the American governments and say with enthusiasm...
"WAKE UP!!!"
Thank you Shane for doing what you can to make a difference. I hope America appreciates you... because I know this Canadian does!!!
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