Walter Cromer LongCritiques

Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies and to forgive. How can these messages of compassion be reconciled with a policy of putting to death those whom we have judged to be wrongdoers against society? Walter Long, a defense attorney for Texas death row inmates, says that they cannot. He wrestles with the apparent contradiction between the teachings of Jesus and widespread tolerance for government violence in a state where most citizens identify themselves as Christian. He explores the impact of a particular execution of great renown—the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth—and looks for his own understanding of that event, of the man and his message, and of the followers who formed the church after his death. In a provocative essay, he returns to the basics of how Jesus taught us to live and how those instructions may encourage us to be actively faithful in our world today. Discussion questions included.

Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies and to forgive. How can these messages of compassion be reconciled with a policy of putting to death those whom we have judged to be wrongdoers against society? The author says that they cannot. He wrestles with the apparent contradiction between the teachings of Jesus and widespread tolerance for government violence in a state where most citizens identify themselves as Christian. He explores the impact of a particular execution of great renown - the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth - and looks for his own understanding of that event and of the man and his message.

This wonderful pamphlet addresses the contrast between Jesus' message of fearless compassion and the peaceable kingdom, with the Christian doctrines of atonement (Jesus' death by execution as necessary atonement for human sin) that present God demanding retribution for human sin and responsible for the execution of Jesus. The very most wonderful part, however, is Long's explanation of his use of the Lord's prayer as a spiritual practice, which has helped him to endure his traumatizing work as a death penalty appeals attorney. He sees each act of forgiveness of self and others as a small resurrection and a source of hope for a less violent and more just future.

An authentic, deeply moving expression of the pain and social debilitation inflicted by the death penalty in Texas. The author also conveys the solace and hope found in the small daily miracles of faithfulness.

Walter Long, an attorney with a practice in Austin, Texas, specializes in death-penalty cases. Long quotes historical documents to support his claim that, before Rome adopted Christianity as its official religion, Christians could not tolerate violence and specifically abhorred the death penalty.

To me, the most interesting (or should I say, startling) aspect of his essay is his proposal that the idea that Jesus died to save us was developed by the early Christian community as a way to deal with their shock at Jesus's death. Thus, he is maintaining that what many consider to be the cornerstone of Christianity -- the belief that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins -- was born from the post traumatic stress suffered by a nonviolent community when their leader was murdered. Citing modern psychological theory, he says that these early Christians needed to find some meaning in this tragic act of senseless violence.

Long stresses Jesus's teachings about forgiveness. He writes, "each act of self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others is a small resurrection -- a revivifying contact with others -- and a source of hope for a less violent, more just future."

As in all of the more recent pamphlets in this series, included at the end are Discussion Questions. What a rousing discussion this material could stimulate!

The idea of retribution does not make sense to me. If someone I love is ever horribly victimized, I hope--I sincerely hope--that I will find some way to forgive the perpetrator. Yet, I can understand that this is not a necessarily a natural instinctive answer.

It is the Christian answer, though. I cannot understand how even one person who claims the mantel of the Christian religion can support the death penalty.

Walter Long suggests that to pray the Jesus prayer, we stay in community with God and each other. Praying, we are not alone. Praying, we can find the strength to move onward.

Long quotes Martin Buber who wrote from a humanist point of view. He said,

"We know nothing of death, nothing other than the one fact that we shall die--but what is that, dying? We do not know. So it behooves us to accept that it is end of everything conceivable by us. To wish to extend our conception beyond death, to wish to anticipate in the soul what death alone can reveal to us in existence, seems to me to be a lack of faith clothed in faith" (p 24).

Speculative faith seems oxymoronic.

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