Today is a very sad day in South Georgia. After a long fight to prove his innocence, Troy Davis faces the death penalty tonight. From my view of the television, largely Caucasian American Law Enforcement Officers are on post to maintain order outside the chambers with tons of people, appearing to be mostly African Americans, standing in protest, awaiting the Supreme Court’s final decision whether to execute him or acquit him.
Then, word comes back — “The Supreme Court Denies Davis Appeal.” Gosh! The scene on the television screen is way too reminiscent of the scenes from the 1960′s Civil Rights Movement. Some scenes and situations need not be repeated — this is one of them!
Davis is accused of murdering a police officer is 1989. The evidence has been weak to prove that he is guilty. Yet, he has found it difficult to prove his innocence. It is not surprising that Davis is African American. Researchers like University of Iowa law professor, the late David C. Baldus has proven that racism permeates the death penalty and has done so since it was re-instated in America.
I have no desire to protect the guilty at the expense of the violated. Yet, the death penalty is problematic on so many levels. I cannot address all of them here. However, I will say that research proves that the practice of the death penalty represents strands in American fabric that are racist at the core. There are similar racist strands that seem to weave through the educational system, job markets, Plan Parenthood’s abortion clinics, and more. Read the rest of this entry »
A Chinese proverb says, “To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.” Life’s challenges often create uncertainties despite our desire to overcome them. However, there is an inner spiritual impetus for us to triumph “certainty” even though the Chinese proverb calls this approach to life “ridiculous.” I call this a divine inspiration to “walk in the ridiculous.”
In his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King states, “The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” In King’s eyes this was “the Church” that Jesus built with expectation to continue his own mission in the world. Are our churches today extensions of that Church? Or, are we so personalistic and individualistic that we forget that the church was built as a transformative mechanism for society? There is a certain wayward spirit in our society that is transforming the churches into thermometers instead of thermostats.
