Thursday, January 04, 2007

Help stop the execution of Ronald Chambers

Click here to write a letter to the governor of the state of Texas to help stop the execution of Ronald Chambers, one of six individuals scheduled to be executed in the U.S. this month.

Does it make sense to execute a 50 year old man who has been in prison for 30 years for a crime he committed when he was 20 years old? The idea of this being a deterrent is ludicrous.
He had just become a father, and now he is a grandfather. Do we honestly so completely and totally reject any hope of redemption or reconciliation? This man could conceivably live for another 20 or 30 years, and in that time he could do and say things that could have profound positive impact in the lives of his family and in the lives of many others. Execution seems to me to be the antithesis of hope, and thus the antithesis of christianity.
Your thoughts?

3 comments:

Justin said...

It’s hard to argue that if something is not hopeful, that it is by itself the antithesis of Christianity.

But arguing that executions usually look like a bureaucratic mess, legal nightmares and political opportunism is totally possible. And I think more powerful.

Benjamin Ady said...

... I guess I thought Christianity was at it's *core* about hope. Is this not the case?

Justin said...

Not an unqualified "hope". Evil cannot hope to be a part of the future restoration of all things, for example.

My point is this: that you can't say: "Because 'x' is not hopeful, it is not Christian.'