Author: Alan Bean

Reader says Bible endorses capital punishment

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Dudley Sharp

The ABP’s recent article on the mock trial of Jesus staged at First Baptist Church, Austin has sparked an angry response.  Dudley Sharp insists that the New Testament endorses the death penalty.  Moreover, he appears to argue that we should rejoice and be glad that Jesus was murdered by the Romans because, had he been acquitted, we would all be headed straight for hell.

It should be noted that the mock trial of Jesus does not primarily concern the death penalty.  However, as the ABP article notes, “audiences must vote for or against death for Jesus using their own states’ laws on capital punishment” and, as law professor Mark Osler observes, “that often leads to a conflict between deeply held religious beliefs and support for capital punishment.”

Here’s Mr. Sharp’s letter:

To: Dr. Alan Bean Executive Director, Friends of Justice
        Dr. Roger Paynter, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church
        Dr. William Underwood, President, Mercer College (more…)

Where are the grocery stores in black neighborhoods?

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Posted by Pierre Berastain

A good article on the racial politics of grocery stores.  Not mentioned in the article, though still relevant, is the fact that one finds alcohol more readily available in poor black neighborhoods.  Discrimination, favoritism, and privilege bleed into too often imperceptible spheres of people’s lives.

Commentary: Where Are the Grocery Stores in Black Neighborhoods?

By Kellee Terrell

When we talk about obesity in America, especially in low income, Black and Latino areas, it’s impossible to have this conversation without acknowledging the fact that mounds of studies have shown us that there is a serious lack of access to healthy whole foods, fruits, vegetables and lean meats. (more…)

Coincidence or crafty staging: Senators witness woman climb 18-foot fence

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By Alan Bean

The Gang of Eight senators took a photo-op tour of the border fence in Arizona yesterday and, what-d’ya-know, they witnessed a desperate young woman successfully scale an eighteen-foot border fence.  We have just their word for it since no media people were allowed to accompany the tour and hence we have no video or pictures.  I’m not questioning the legitimacy of the report; I’m sure the senators saw what they say they saw.  But how convenient that a young woman made her move at precisely the moment the senators made their appearance?

Coincidence, or crafty staging?   (more…)

At Mexican Border, Four in Five Drug Busts Involve American Citizens

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ImagePosted by  Pierre Berastain

“Three out of four people found with drugs by the border agency are U.S. citizens, the data show. Looked at another way, when the immigration status is known, four out of five busts—which may include multiple people—involve a U.S. citizen.”

Amidst the accusations of people like Governor Brewer and Sheriff Apaio that undocumented immigrants are dangerous criminals responsible for smuggling millions of dollars worth of drugs , this article brings a new and fresh perspective.

At Mexican Border, Four in Five Drug Busts Involve American Citizens

by , , 

The public’s view of a typical Mexican drug smuggler might not include U.S. Naval Academy grad Todd Britton-Harr, who was caught at a Border Patrol checkpoint in south Texas in December 2010 hauling a trailer with 1,100 pounds of marijuana.

Nor would someone like Laura Lynn Farris leap to mind. Border Patrol agents stopped the 52-year-old woman at a border checkpoint 15 miles south of the west Texas town of Alpine in February 2011 with 162 pounds of marijuana hidden under dirty blankets in laundry baskets. (more…)

A Common Peace Community takes root

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photo (1)By Alan Bean

The Common Peace Community was inaugurated on Saturday, March 23rd at Broadway Baptist Church with thirty-five wonderful people in attendance.  As participants entered the Good Shepherd Room, Al Travis, Broadway’s gifted organist, played softly in the background.  After we all had our food and were gathered around the tables, we talked about why we had come and what we were hoping to see.  The Rev. Sue Turner gave an eloquent invocation and then it was my turn to explain what a Common Peace Community is all about.  Here’s what I said: (more…)

Tale of murder and insanity puts prison on trial

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By Alan Bean

It now appears that Evan Spencer Ebel, recently paroled from a Colorado prison, murdered Nate Leon, a pizza delivery man, then, last Tuesday evening, went to the front door of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements a shot him dead.

Two days later, Ebel was pulled over in Wise County, Texas by officers who thought he looked suspicious.  Ebel started shooting and led officers on a 100 mile per hour chase before wrecking the car.  He was taken to the hospital with a head wound and died shortly after arrival.

Ballistics tests link the gun Ebel fired at police officers in Texas to shells recovered at the scene of the Colorado murders.  Dominos Pizza paraphernalia was recovered from the black Cadillac Ebel was driving when he died in Texas. (more…)

Dinner with Lazarus

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By Charles Kiker

Six days before the Passover Jesus Came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume, made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ . . . Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

Lazarus is there. Lazarus! Just a day or two before, Lazarus was dead! Dead! All bound up in grave clothes; wrapped up in the wrappings of death! He had been dead long enough that Martha objected, when Jesus asked them to roll away the stone from the mouth of the tomb, “Lord! By this time he’ll stink. He’s been dead four days.” (more…)

Putting Jesus back on trial

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Alan Bean

On Maundy Thursday, Mark Osler and Jeanne Bishop will be staging their 12th re-enactment of the trial of Jesus, this time using Texas law and legal procedure.

If Jesus was tried in a Texas court would he have been sentenced to life in prison, death, or would he have been acquitted?  Holy Week is the perfect time to reflect on this question and this article from the Austin American-Statesman gives Osler and Bishop  an opportunity to explain why they are putting Jesus on trial all over again.

Some might take offense at the very idea of placing Jesus on trial, in Texas or anywhere else; after all, he is the Son of God and all.

But there were good reasons for hauling Jesus in front of Pontius Pilate in the first century.  As Jeanne Bishop puts it: “When you tell people to give to the poor and sell everything you own and follow me, or you’re saying, ‘Turn the other cheek; don’t resist an evildoer,’ those are subversive things.”

Drama asks audience to consider Christ, death penalty

By Juan Castillo

American-Statesman Staff

If Jesus were prosecuted today under Texas law, what would we do?

Would we sentence him to a life behind bars, or would we sentence him to death? (more…)

District Attorney Drops Sexual Assault Charges on Legacy SMU Student

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This post by Friends of Justice intern Pierre Berastain originally appeared in Huffington Post

By Pierre Berastain

According to the Dallas Morning News, “The Dallas County district attorney’s office said Monday that a sexual assault charge against former SMU student John David ‘J.D.’ Mahaffey was dropped because prosecutors didn’t have evidence to show it wasn’t consensual.” According to the affidavit, Mahaffey forced another student to give him oral sex and warned him, “You better not tell a soul.” In a recorded phone conversation at SMU Police offices, the student tells Mahaffey, “You know I did not want to do that,” to which Mahaffey responds, “I know you didn’t, but we have to say it was consensual or lawyers, parents and the school will be involved.”

In November a grand jury indicted Mahaffey, but now the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has dropped the charges, indicating that it does not have enough evidence to prosecute him. Mahaffey is a member of the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon and a legacy whose great-great-grandfather was on SMU’s founding committee. (more…)