Wrestling with the death penalty
ENS reports on a Lenten program at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Richmond, Va, that wrestles with questions of faith and the death penalty.
For the members of Church of the Holy Comforter in Richmond, Virginia, this familiar story took on new meaning within the context of a Lenten program that brings fresh perspectives to the topic of the death penalty."I had always thought about that story from the position of Jesus," said Mark Osler, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minnesota. "I realized that I'm not Jesus. I'm one of the people with a rock in my hand." Osler, author of Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment, joined with Jeanne Bishop, a board member of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, to lead a two-part series of events bookending the Lenten season on the subject of the death penalty.
Bishop is the sister of Nancy Bishop Langer, who was shot to death along with her husband and their unborn child in 1990. She is assistant public defender in the Office of the Cook County Public Defender in Illinois and is an adjunct professor at Northwestern School of Law in the trial advocacy program.
By examining the story in the Gospel of John, explains Bishop, "We can look at Jesus and see that he himself was a criminal defendant. What Jesus asks us to do in John 8 is to say we are not perfect. We're flawed. And if that's true, I don't think it's possible for us to have a sentence that's irrevocable."
The first part of the series, "Jesus on Trial," focused on offering perspectives and stories surrounding the death penalty in the form of a Saturday evening presentation and Q&A followed by a Sunday morning sermon and adult forum on March 5 and 6.
The next part of the series, scheduled for April 16, will feature an enactment of the sentencing of Christ, in which Osler will play the prosecutor arguing that Jesus should be killed and Bishop will play the defense attorney. Volunteers will play the role of judge and witnesses. The next day, Palm Sunday, will feature an adult forum to further explore themes from the trial.
Both Osler and Bishop hope that, by presenting a familiar story in a new format, attendees will reconsider and reexamine the take-away messages. "It's important sometimes to challenge ourselves in a different way, and that's what we're trying to do here," said Osler, who noted that too often Christians view the death penalty in isolation from their faith. "By mashing [political issues and our faith] together, we're hopefully forcing people to confront those two things together."
Thank you for posting this. Mark Osler is a man of deep faith and great character. He’s also a friend to me and to my congregation (St. Stephen’s Church in Edina, Minnesota).
Please note that the “trial of Christ” in Richmond on Saturday, April 16, will have taken place on Friday, April 15, as well at the University of St. Thomas Law School in downtown Minneapolis. That first event at St. Thomas is also open to the public.
As mentioned at the end of the ENS article, the Governor of Illinois signed a bill on March 9 to abolish the death penalty in that state (and commuted to life without parole the sentences of all 15 people still on death row). It’s interesting to me that he signed that bill on Ash Wednesday. In response to a comment from me about that on Mark Osler’s blog, Osler’s Razor, Jeanne Bishop wrote:
At the press conference after Governor Quinn signed the bill abolishing the death penalty in Illinois, Cathy Crino, who also lost a sister to murder, spoke eloquently about exactly that point. She noted that Ash Wednesday is a time of repentance, and that repentance means changing one's mind.
We changed our minds about the death penalty in Illinois today.
We've been delivered from a sentence of hatred, cruelty and revenge, to borrow the words of the beautiful prayer you quoted. It feels miraculous. All day, I kept humming the Doxology we sing at the beginning of each worship service at my Presbyterian church (that's for you, Prof. Osler!): "Praise God from whom all blessings flow...."
You can read her reflection on being asked to witness the signing of that bill here at Osler’s Razor.
You can also read Mark Osler’s reflection on that moment here at The Huffington Post, a reflection that he told me “was in part inspired by [St. Stephen’s] wonderful Ash Wednesday service, which also had an appropriately somber tone.”
Posted by Neil Willard![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
March 12, 2011 1:10 AM