Roll out the gurneys. The feds are starting executions again!


You gotta hand it to the Catholic Church.

Led by fearless fighters like Sister Helen Prejean, the church has adopted this position:

The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is "inadmissible" in all cases because it is an "attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." (CCC 2267)

Meanwhile, so-called evangelical Christians on the Protestant side can’t seem to get their act together on the important issue of capital punishment. We love to talk about being “pro-life,” but that seems to focus a lot more on the beginning, rather than the end, of life.

My own denomination, The Christian Reformed Church of North America, whose doctrines I believe and support, continues to waffle on the subject of the death penalty.

Now, federal executions are about to get started again. What a shame!

As if there aren’t enough nasty things claiming lives.

-According to the Center for Disease Control, the coronavirus death toll in the United States could hit 150,00 by the end of next month!
-So far this year, there have been 170 mass shootings in our country, resulting in more than 160 deaths!
-Drug overdoses are killing people by the thousands! More than 750,000 Americans died from drug overdoses from 1999 to 2018!

Still, with everything our country is going through, our nation’s leaders seem hell-bent on taking more lives. The government is attempting to restart the practice of executions for the first time in 17 years. On June 15, the U.S. Department of Justice scheduled three federal executions to take place over a five-day span beginning July 13. A fourth execution is scheduled for the end of August. The legality of the federal government's execution protocol is still being contested.

A movement within the Catholic Church is calling on all of us to “proclaim on the housetops the dignity of all human life, no matter the harm one has caused or suffered.” Catholic Mobilizing Network is joining with other faith traditions across the country in urging a stop to federal executions. And you can take part.

CMN asks us to go to their web site and sign this joint statement:

"As faith leaders from a diverse range of traditions, we call on President Trump and Attorney General Barr to stop the scheduled federal executions. As our country grapples with the COVID 19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and systemic racism in the criminal legal system, we should be focused on protecting and preserving life, not carrying out executions."

I’ve signed it. I’m asking you to sign it.

As the Catholics say,

We cannot build a culture of life with a federal government that puts people to death.

Comments

Bob Bulten said…
I’ve signed the pledge
June 29, 2020 at 10:12 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half-a-race!

The HFP Drag-Racing Fund-Raiser had the potential of being extremely successful, and could have raised several thousand dollars. Let's just say it was partly successful. For background purposes I'll explain that I was racing a 1963 supercharged Studebaker Lark that has a reputation of being one of the fastest stock Studebakers in drag racing today. The engine was built by one of the finest Studebaker engine mechanics in the country, and the car many times has achieved quarter-mile runs in less than 14 seconds! We promised to make at least ten passes in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags at Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, this past weekend, and we asked for pledges ONLY ON THOSE RUNS REACHED IN LESS THAN 14 SECONDS. On Friday, here's how we fared: Run #1 13.936 @ 101.24 mph Run #2 14.027 @ 101.30 mph Run #3 14.091 @ 100.88 mph Run #4 13.805 @ 102.84 mph Run #5 14.058 @ 101.26 mph By the 5th run we discovered that ...
Read more

Gregory John McCormick: 1964-2008

Itchy is dead. The lifeless body of this talented rock musician, whose band Shock Therapy was a popular group especially in Europe, was found in a field in Detroit last Wednesday, November 5. The Wayne County Coroner's office informed father Glenn McCormick that the body of his son Gregory, better known to all of us as Itchy, bore no signs of trauma. Glenn said that Itchy, who had been living at his father's dental lab in Detroit, had been drinking to excess for some time. While the toxicology report has not been released yet, the general consensus seems to be that he drank himself to death. Our agency, while still named INNOCENT, first got involved with Itchy in 2005. The Detroit native, who called Germany his home, got involved in some unfortunate activity that placed him in the Michigan State prison system on a charge of arson of a dwelling. It was really just a bonfire in an alley, but an alleged parole violation placed him in prison for 1-20 years. I personally sat w...
Read more

Three lives, connected by a divine thread

My kids say it should be a book! The Doug, Pat and Mark story is a doozie!   About 25 years ago, while fighting to free Maurice Carter from prison, I read a newspaper column written by Pat Shellenbarger of the Grand Rapids Press on the topic of eyewitness identification. I contacted Pat re that story. That led to a friendship between Doug and Pat that continues to this day.   In subsequent months, Pat would go on to assist me in an investigation into the Maurice Carter case that eventually led to solving the crime.  That particular episode became a chapter in my book about the Carter case, SWEET FREEDOM, published in 2006.   Fast forward to 2009, A New York businessman claims wrongful conviction, and while serving time in a Michigan prison is handed a copy of my book. Mark Hartman, who was also convicted in Berrien County, was amazed at the similarity of these two stories and tried to reach out to me. His letters bounced.   Persisting in his efforts to c...
Read more