Unsettled Christianity

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September 21st, 2011

Troy Davis and what’s wrong with the American Justice System

First – I do not support the death penalty.

This is not justice. Murder in the replace murder is no longer the way. Further, evidence has been been presented that Troy Davis is innocent, or at the very least, deserves another trial.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Georgia’s Supreme Court had rejected a last appeal by Davis’ lawyers. Earlier, a Butts County Superior Court judge also declined to stop the execution.

Davis was convicted in the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.

In their U.S. Supreme Court filing, Davis’ attorneys said “substantial constitutional errors” were made when the lower courts denied his claims that “newly available evidence reveals that false, misleading and materially inaccurate information was presented at his capital trial in 1989, rendering the convictions and death sentence fundamentally unreliable,” NBC News reported.

The lawyers said they’ve been struggling to get these claims heard in the lower courts “after having a grueling clemency process.”

There was no guarantee justices would act in time to stop the execution, but they likely knew the filing was coming, NBC News said. (here)

I am sorry. But this is America, and he is black. That’s all you need to know in order to execute someone.

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September 8th, 2011

The Struggle of Changing Beliefs

One of the many scary consequences with reading books on ethics and theology is every now and then, you read something that forces you to reevaluate your current beliefs.  It’s scary in the sense that you don’t know the outcome of this reevaluation.   Sometimes, after you’ve had a chance to work through the issues, you’re beliefs stay the same.  But, you are more informed about your beliefs and any objections that may be raised concerning those beliefs.  Other times, this reevaluation causes you to completely change your beliefs in some way.

I’m currently working my way through Kingdom Ethics by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee.  This is one of those books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while.  This is one of those books that has forced me to reevaluate what I believe and why.

I’m not vain enough to assume that my beliefs are infallible and welcome chances to reevaluate what I believe.  It just seems to fit with the process of discernment that I’ve been going through for most of the year.  It seems that recently, I’ve been doing a lot of evaluation.  Over the past few months I’ve been sporadically documenting how my beliefs have changed.

Here’s where I’m at so far:

  • Moving from traditional theology to a more open theism
  • Moving from just war to just peacemaking

And most recently:

  • Moved from pro-capital punishment to anti-capital punishment-The more involved I get with justice issues, the more I came to see the injustices within and the issues surrounding this system of “retributive justice.”
  • Moved from purely pro-choice belief to being morally pro-life, but legally pro-choice-I’ve actually been here for a while, I just couldn’t express my beliefs accuratly enough to categorize myself into a group.
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March 9th, 2011

Illinois Kills the Death Penalty

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn addresses attendee...

Image via Wikipedia

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs a bill on Wednesday abolishing the death penalty in Illinois. Quinn talked about his struggle to decide whether to sign the bill when he was here last month for the National Governors Association meeting.

Quinn noted that he was lobbied to sign the ban during calls from death penalty foes Desmond Tutu, Martin Sheen, Sister Helen Prejean and pleas from those who wanted Illinois to keep the death penalty on the books, including the families of victims and state’s attorneys from around the state.

via Quinn ends death penalty in Illinois: His struggle to a decision. – Lynn Sweet.

Good for Governor Quinn!

I do not support the death penalty, although I preface that by saying that if something happened to my children, I feel that I might be hardpressed to remain with my convictions here.

 

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January 30th, 2010

Debating the Cost of Capital Punishment

As cash-strapped states consider the high cost of sentencing prisoners to death, capital punishment has fallen on hard times.

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January 19th, 2010

Basing Your Death Penalty Support on the Bible

This might be a controversial subject, however, I feel that it is one which needs to be addressed. I fully acknowledge that Governments have a God-given right to execute whomever they deem necessary, such as the repressive regimes in Iran, China and Saddam’s Iraq who execute religious criminals, even Christians. They have that right. After all, the Christians deserved it for breaking the law against meeting to worship God. In this country, many states execute criminals based on their crime, such as murder. This is seen as a deterrent, although it has not been proven that it actually works.

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January 15th, 2010

10 Convicts Presumed Innocent After Execution

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but that death penalty thing…yeah, not so good. I’ve got other reasons to be opposed to it, but not least is the fact that it is not a fool-proof system which doesn’t allow for restitution if the person is later found innocent.

10 Convicts Presumed Innocent After Execution – Listverse.

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