Jesus was killed by the death penalty. My neighbors, the ones left to do the country’s dirty work, are bearing our burden.
It was late July. I was on vacation up north. Attorney General William Barr announced he would lift the moratorium on federal executions.
The federal death penalty is back.
I returned from vacation on August 1. The day the church celebrates Joseph of Arimathea.
Gathered for worship, hearing the lessons, the gospel, and the story of Joseph — how he took Jesus off the cross, cared for his body, and placed him in the tomb he had bought for himself — the moment struck me with urgency.
Since moving to Terre Haute, Indiana, I knew this would be a possibility. The prison is in our city. The only federal prison which executes. Anyone convicted at the federal level and sentenced to death will inevitably end up here.
And I thought of the old word parish. The word isn’t a synonym for church or congregation. It’s the territory, the land, space, a church’s jurisdiction. I realized this prison is in my parish.
I’ve never supported the death penalty. It has never meant a bit of sense that we ought to kill somebody to prove that killing is wrong. And as a person of faith, that is even more the point.
All the defenses, protections of vengeance, excuses for brutality distract us. Manipulate us and confuse us. The state executed the prince of peace. He never said: be like Rome. His teachings were nearly universally: be unlike Rome.
Rome executes those people it is afraid of. Be completely different from that.
Don’t kill. Love.
Preparing
Since July 27th, the prison has started making the preparations. Workers at the prison have been living under extreme levels of stress. Their families bear the burden of caring for them during months of never-ending community anxiety. And the community’s wounds from the last execution, sixteen years ago, are reopening.
This December, Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, and Wesley Ira Purkey will be executed in the same week. Families will come in the days before to see them and make their goodbyes. Members of the media will flood the scene and then quickly disappear. The community will be locked down like the prisoners. Monday. Wednesday. Friday.
Then Christmas shopping and a Happy New Year.
And then again. Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honken in mid-January. Two more people killed in three days.
Quickly, systemically, like we’re supposed to think that killing is worth killing for. And yet also no big deal. Terrible and yet necessary. But for us, structured and inevitable. Just what we do.
A Small Step
I cannot wave a magic wand and end the death penalty. Nor can I avoid the challenge of other people’s convictions. And even worse, the church has struggled to speak with one voice. Even as its oldest institutions have long urged against it.
And yet Jesus, the apostles, Paul, and James witness to the evil of death. The sin of people destroying other people, corrupting the lives of others, even for good causes.
This is the insidious power of sin. To make us feel justified in doing what we know is wrong.
The house is considering two bills that would abolish the death penalty. Including one sponsored by Ayanna Pressley which is cosponsored by former Republican Justin Amash.
I’m starting a mailing list to keep people connected and informed. If you would like to find out what you can do, you can sign up here:
I’ll try to keep you posted on what we can do.