Sister Helen Prejean, Bishop Michael Rinehart, and Rev. Daniel Melendez discuss the death penalty as is pertains to the opera adaptation of “Dead Man Walking.” | Pin Lim/The Daily Cougar
A panel of area religious leaders with moderator Sister Helen Prejean had a dialogue about the death penalty last week at Zilkah Hall in the Hobby Center. Prejean is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.”
Her book was turned into a major motion picture, a play and an opera. The Houston Grand Opera’s production of “Dead Man Walking” is running through Feb. 6.
Karen Clifton from the Catholic Mobilizing Networks in Washington, D.C. and Master of Ceremonies Patricia Gross of Houston PBS hosted the event.
“Our country needs dialogue,” Gross said. “Our city needs to come together for conversation.”
Like the play and book, the opera “Dead Man Walking” is an opportunity to visit both sides of the death penalty issue, she said.
“I didn’t always understand about Jesus and the poor,” Prejean said. “I started out to be a nun, as holy as I could be, maybe a saint and serving, but not understanding about justice and really not understanding about poor people very much because I grew up as a child of privilege.”
Prejean was awakened through her experience working with prisoners, and eventually through Matthew Poncelet.
Victims’ rights is one of the arguments offered for using the death penalty, but there are many organizations comprised of murder victims who speak out against the taking of a life for another.
“To use violence as a deterrent is opposite to the mandate to love your enemy and to pray for them,” Rev. Harvey Clemons, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, said.
Clemons gave various references from the Bible that supported not using the death penalty — like the one in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It states that people should not take vengeance themselves but that, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.” Clemons said that capital punishment is statistically unbalanced and that those given the death penalty are mostly black men, typically poor.
He gave information that 25 percent of the death row lawyers aren’t equipped to represent the defendants, and that percentage has been reprimanded by the state with disciplinary actions and even disbarment.
Representing the Texas United Methodist Church, Bishop Janice Huie spoke upon her experience prior to coming to the Texas Conference. She was the chairperson at the Arkansas assembly and a layperson stood up offering a resolution that would overturn UMC’s position against capital punishment.
Huie said it was likely that most would probably agree with the man and was “more than dismayed” the resolution could overturn the position. When the time was almost over, a well-respected layman stood and gave a speech reminding the group who they were.
“We are the people who believe that every human being is made in the image of God, even the most hardened of criminals. That is who we are,” the layman said. “We believe no human being is beyond reach of an all-loving and all-powerful God. That is who we are.
“In Torah there is a litany of offenses in which the penalty of death is allowed,” Rabbi David Lyon, senior Rabbi at Congregational Beth Israel, said. “This includes murder, idolatry, adultery, violating the Sabbath, such as sorcery and even rebelling against one’s parents.”
Looking for an explanation should not stop there, he says, but one should look to the Talmud and other Jewish case law that follows.
Rabbi Lyon spoke of the one instance when the State of Israel allowed capital punishment since 1954 and that was for Adolf Eichman, who was executed for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“An eye for an eye and the whole world is blind,” Bishop Michel Rinehart of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church said.
One of the questions often posed by supporters of the death penalty is, “What if it was your child?” Bishop Rinehart said that he hoped there would be someone there to stop him.
If he committed violence in retaliation he said, “Am I not then becoming that which I abhor?”
Part of a productive dialogue is to have both sides of the discussion speak, which did not occur.
As Sr. Prejean wrote:
"It is abundantly clear that the Bible depicts murder as a capital crime for which death is considered the appropriate punishment, and one is hard pressed to find a biblical ‘proof text’ in either the Hebrew Testament or the New Testament which unequivocally refutes this. Even Jesus’ admonition ‘Let him without sin cast the first stone,’ when He was asked the appropriate punishment for an adulteress (John 8:7) – the Mosaic Law prescribed death – should be read in its proper context. This passage is an ‘entrapment’ story, which sought to show Jesus’ wisdom in besting His adversaries. It is not an ethical pronouncement about capital punishment .” Dead Man Walking.
She was right, then, and wrong, now.
This has been the teaching for about 2000 years. Any religious based opposition to the death penalty was e fragmented and extremely limited, until quite recently.
All interpretations, contrary to the biblical support of capital punishment, are false. Interpreters ought to listen to the Bible’s own agenda, rather than to squeeze from it implications for their own agenda. As the ancient rabbis taught, “Do not seek to be more righteous than your Creator.” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.33.).
Part of Synopsis of Professor Lloyd R. Bailey’s book Capital Punishment: What the Bible Says, Abingdon Press, 1987.
Thank you, Mr. Sharp. I do agree that the panel was all in agreement about the issue and that opposing views weren't really include. Some of the arguments for the death penalty were spoke upon, but yes, all panelists that night were against it.
I also agree with your point that the opposition to C.P. by the church has been very limited until recently. That was one of the (many) points of the evening that I left out of my article. I cannot recall who said it, but it was an important idea that dialogue take place and that the church's actions support the bible it teaches.
Henry:
Thanks for the reply.
My experience tells me that "Some of the arguments for the death penalty were spoke upon" but were quickly dismissed or rebutted, something that could not have occcurred with a knowledgeable party who supported the death penalty.
For example, I have been having an online discusssion on the topic with one of those speakers, here:
http://bishopmike.com/2011/01/19/last-nights-deat…
Henry:
I have rebutted all of the Bishop's claims and he has chosen not to reply to those rebuttals.
So far, he has not approved a number of my comments – comments which are additional rebuttals. I can see them, others cannot, I suspect.
I have copied them, if you wish me to forward them to you.
[email protected]