By Alan Bean
In an op-ed written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, William Sessions asks the State of Georgia not to execute Troy Davis.
Four Months ago I predicted that the State of Georgia would not execute Troy Davis.
It wasn’t suggesting that mercy tinged with common sense would prevail.
In the absence of outside scrutiny, there is no question that Georgia would send Mr. Davis to God without a single qualm. (more…)
By Alan Bean
Our twenty-four hour news cycle doesn’t lend itself to careful analysis of complex social movements. Rick Perry, the pugnacious presidential hopeful, raised eyebrows when he used a loose network of organizations associated with the New Apostolic Reformation to organize a big religious-political rally in Houston. Interest quickened when the mainstream media learned that some of Perry’s friends were “Dominionists,” folks who want to bring secular politics (and everything else) under the dominion of God.
The questions couldn’t be avoided. If elected, will Rick Perry pack his cabinet with Christian preachers? Since that didn’t sound likely, the pundits too-easily assumed that politicians like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann are just standard-issue conservatives with close ties to the religious right. (more…)
In the wake of the announcement that Troy Davis’ execution is scheduled for September 21, several US Congress members are seeking clemency for Mr. Davis.
Fifty-one Congress members, all Democrats, have signed a letter addressed to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles stating that “considerable doubts as to Troy Davis’ guilt remain.”
The evidence against Mr. Davis is questionable at best. As Congress members point out:
“Several witnesses testified at the evidentiary hearing that they had been coerced into making statements implicating Troy Davis at trial. At the hearing, one witness testified for the first time that he saw another suspect in the case commit the crime. The credibility of various witnesses was challenged by the state of Georgia, and the judge in that case agreed. Many of these same witnesses, whose credibility is now questioned, were essential to obtaining Troy Davis’ original conviction.”
Despite claims of coercion, questions about witness credibility, and 7 of 9 witnesses recanting their testimony, Troy Davis is still considered guilty and set to be executed.
Congress members are not the only people speaking out against this injustice. Other world leaders, artists, and public figures have joined the fight as well.
By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
The Georgia members of Congress have asked the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency for Troy Davis, who is scheduled to face execution next week the 1989 killing of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
Hank Johnson of Decatur, John Lewis and David Scott of Atlanta, and Sanford Bishop of Albany, all Democrats, put their signatures to the letter that can be read here. A total of four dozen members of Congress signed. (more…)
By Alan Bean
Sarah Posner and Anthea Butler understand the religious right because they attend actual religious gatherings and talk to people. When they sit down for a conversation about dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformation and politicians like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann you get the straight goods.
Dominionists aren’t poised to take over America. The religious right is an exceedingly complex social phenomenon. Most of the folks in Houston’s Reliant Stadium for Rick Perry’s The Response had never heard of dominionism. All of this is true, but that doesn’t mean something big isn’t afoot in the world of conservative evangelicalism. Something big is afoot and it is already impacting the political process and the way social issues are debated in the public arena.
When I was attending university in the mid-1970s, my parents, Gordon and Muriel Bean, were suddenly wrapped up in the charismatic movement. They continued to attend McLaurin Baptist Church (then a very non-demonstrative congregation), but they were much more excited about groups like the Full Gospel Business Men International and Women Aglow (of which my mother eventually became Alberta president). Like the dutiful son I am, I attended these meetings but was never tempted to get involved. I saw the usual “signs and wonders”: folks speak in tongues as if it was the most natural thing in the world, worshipers healed of chronic ailments (usually having one leg longer than the other), worshippers “slain in the spirit” (that is, lying in ecstasy on the floor as their bodies twitched with Holy Spirit electricity).
Like I say, it wasn’t my cup of tea. But I learned that this kind of religion can be extraordinarily powerful for those on the inside. As Posner and Butler point out below, it is the ordinary people who attend religious conferences and buy books and DVDs that drive the movement. The names of the preachers change from generation to generation; the spiritual hunger driving the movement abides forever.
The GOP has learned to tap into that hunger; Democrats lose elections, especially in the South, because they haven’t.
This is a long piece, but I offer this little clip as an indication of the fresh insight you will discover throughout a fascinating conversation. This is Anthea Butler:
For the last 30 years, journalists have had an easy time reporting on the religious right, because all they did was pay attention to to white male leaders of big organizations like Focus on the Family, National Association of Evangelicals, or Family Research Council. The days when a nice soundbite from Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, or Ted Haggard would suffice are over. If journalists and others want to understand the last 10 years of the religious right movement, they will need to pay attention to the theological, religious, and ethnic diversity among evangelicals, Pentecostals, and non-denominational churches. They will at least need to recognize the old and new leaders of the religious right, and the complex network of leaders, conferences, and teachings if they want a reductionist argument they can spin out in 800 words. As someone who has studied and written about Pentecostalism for over 15 years, their lack of basic knowledge is staggering, and although I don’t expect people to get it like I do, I do expect reporters and journalists to do their homework! (more…)
This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post
By Mark Osler
This past October, I wrote a piece in the Huffington Post entitled “Repentance of an Anti-Gay Bigot.” Among the dozens of responses I received were many from my former law students at Baylor University, where I taught for ten years. They were heart-wrenching, revealing the pain of attending Baylor in fear of being found out and expelled; of isolating themselves from their classmates; and ultimately their alienation from Baylor and even Christianity. Baylor bars gays and lesbians from the faculty, and has fought hard to keep any gay student support groups from gaining recognition. It has done this in the name of Jesus Christ, claiming the authority of the Bible.
I don’t teach at Baylor anymore. This week I am starting my second year as a professor of law at a Catholic school, St. Thomas, in Minneapolis. Though smaller than Baylor, it is similar in many ways. It is strong in its faith identity, and the majority of faculty (at least in my department) and students are more conservative than you would find at most other schools. Yet, there are differences, and at least one may be crucial to Baylor’s future.
After a few weeks of teaching sentencing at St. Thomas, one of my students stopped by to see me right before lunch, so I invited him to join me. He had a genuine interest in criminal law, and in particular wanted to work for the U.S. Department of Justice, my former employer. I love talking about the DOJ, and asked him which division he would like to work in.
He immediately told me he wanted to work in the Civil Rights Division in Washington, an important and often controversial office. Looking over my sandwich at this middle-aged white male, I asked “Why Civil Rights?”
He immediately responded, “Well, I’m gay.” He then began to describe some of the work he had already done in the area, but I barely knew he was talking—after ten years at Baylor, I was in a state of shock to hear a student openly admit this to a professor in a public place. I looked behind me to see if anyone we might know was around, and felt relieved when there were only strangers.
I need not have worried. St. Thomas has a gay and lesbian student organization, my administrative assistant is openly gay, and two of my colleagues who are full professors are also openly gay and are welcome to (and do) bring their partners to law school events. Yet, not only does the school survive, but the fact that we are welcoming to gays and lesbians does not in the least seem to be read as any kind of statement on the part of our sponsoring body, the Archdiocese of Minnesota. We are a community that includes gay men and lesbians as faculty, staff, and students, and stand proudly together as Christians.
Baylor can accept gays and lesbians without sacrificing anything. Yes, the student code of conduct bars pre-marital sex, but gays and straights are equally susceptible to breaking that rule; if potential for sexual relations is a reason to bar anyone, it is a reason to bar everyone. That rule should be enforced evenly. All evidence now is that it is enforced in the dorms, but not elsewhere. If that is the case, then enforcement should be consistent, gay or straight.
Former Baylor President Abner McCall once told a good friend of mine that “Baylor can’t be a Christian. Only people can be Christian.” As Christian people we must be both honest and loving. Honesty tells us that there have been, are now, and will be gays and lesbians at Baylor. If the plan has been to exclude them, Baylor has done a lousy job. Given that gay men and lesbians are and will be students at Baylor, love instructs us to help them grow in faith and to welcome them, rather than exclude or demean them.
The time has come for Baylor to hire gays and lesbians who meet all other requirements; to lift the veil of fear from student life; and to allow gay and lesbian groups to establish themselves on campus. Baylor is strong, proud, and Christian, and all of those qualities make such a change possible without a loss of identity.
To remain an engaged and relevant institution, Baylor must change. Its message to gays and lesbians has to be something other than what is perceived on campus now: That if you are gay, there is no love for you, on Earth or in Heaven. Christ promises more, and so should Baylor.
Are Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann part of a movement determined to forcibly Christianize every aspect of American culture?
If so, why does a blog dedicated to ending mass incarceration care one way or the other?
If Rachel Tabachnick is anything to go by, the answer to the first question is ‘yes’. Tabachnick knows more about the dominionist strain within contemporary evangelicalism than just about anybody and you simply must check out her recent interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air.)
I am still thinking through my answer to the “so what” question (and will have more to say on the subject as my thinking clarifies); but the rough outline of an answer came to me yesterday when a reporter asked me why Louisiana (unlike Texas and Mississippi) has done nothing to reform its criminal justice system.
The avuncular visage of Burl Cain sprang to mind. Cain is slowly transforming the Angola prison plantation into a spiritual rehabilitation center. Inmates (90% of them in for life) are repeatedly invited to get right with Jesus. Life becomes a whole lot easier if they take the offer.
Then I thought of Ann Richards, the progressive Texas Governor who, during her ill-fated re-election campaign against George W. Bush, told the voters that she wanted to build more prisons so folks with addiction issues could get rehabilitated.
Burl Cain and his Louisiana fan club want to lock up more people every year so earnest evangelists can have a captive audience.
Friends of Justice works in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, three states that are gradually backing away from the punitive consensus that has controlled the American judicial system for more than three decades. Texas was embarrassed into rethinking mass incarceration through a series of scandals: Tulia (the bizarre drug bust that gave birth to Friends of Justice), Hearne (the American Violet story), the Dallas Sheetrock scandal, the Houston crime lab, the Texas Youth Commission fiasco, an incredible string of DNA exonerations in Dallas County and Governor Perry’s botched attempt to silence the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Thanks to a series of modest reforms, the Texas prison population has now plateaued in the 160,000 range (it was 40,000 in 1980) and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.
Mississippi experienced a 3.5% drop in its prison population in a single year by deciding that inmates must only serve 25% of sentences before being eligible for parole (it had been 85%).
The old “lock ’em up” mentality is beginning to soften even in the state that boasts the highest incarceration rate in the free world. Folks in Louisiana want to lock up as many people as possible out of a misdirected sense of compassion. After all, isn’t it better to find Jesus in jail than to live an unregenerate life in the free world? We don’t hate criminals in Louisiana; we just want what’s best for them.
This is precisely the kind of theocratic logic that politicians like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann have embraced. They want to Christianize the nation (by force if necessary) the way Burl Cain has Christianized the Angola plantation. And if the liberals presently controlling Hollywood, the recording industry, the public school system, the evening news and the political life of the nation don’t want to be Christianized, that’s just too bad. Michelle, Sarah, Rick et al are God’s anointed apostles. At Angola, to oppose Burl Cain is to oppose God; the New Apostolic Reformation wants to extend this kind of thinking to every aspect of our national life.
Do the politicians currently feeding at the trough of radical religion really believe that the eclectic vitality of a diverse nation can be homogenized by the blood of the Lamb? Maybe not. But they want to push the political envelope as far in that direction as the public will allow. In these strange times, it’s smart politics.
If you think I’m overstating the case, please read Ms. Tabachnick’s conversation with Terry Gross.
The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare
August 24, 2011 – TERRY GROSS, host:
This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. (more…)
By Allison Gamble
America loves a good court case. You have only to look at the recent coverage of the Casey Anthony trial for proof that Americans are obsessed with high-profile criminal proceedings. The OJ Simpson murder trial is another example that kept America captivated through 41 days of trial. Yet the public perception of these cases varied widely. Casey Anthony was largely presumed guilty of killing her daughter, and outrage followed her acquittal. When OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her lover, however, public opinion as to why he was or was not guilty was divided, often along racial lines. It’s easy to get swept away by the tidal wave of public opinion, but far more difficult is understanding why these cases resulted in the verdicts that they did and how they have affected the American court system. (more…)
Kung Li with Facing South wonders why so few white Southerners have ever apologized for their behavior during the Freedom Rides. The same question applies to the civil rights and Jim Crow eras: why have so few white Southerners (or southern legislatures) acknowledged being part of an organized “massive resistance” movement dedicated to keeping African-Americans in a subordinate caste? Is it because few good opportunities for face to face apology present themselves; or could it be that the generation described in Mr. Li’s column feel their actions were justified? The young people graduating from southern high schools and colleges are certainly less bigoted than their parents and grandparents, but there has never been a day of reckoning in the South. AGB
By Kung LiThe 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides generated a burst — however brief — of remembrance. There was Oprah Winfrey’s gala show on May 4, commemorating the day the southbound Greyhound and Trailways buses pulled out of Washington, D.C. A few weeks later, a large group of Freedom Riders gathered in Jackson, Miss. at the invitation of Gov. Haley Barbour, surrounded by reporters eager to watch the interaction between the Freedom Riders and a man who had a few months earlier said about segregation, “I just don’t remember it being that bad.” (more…)
By Alan Bean
I wanted to like The Help, Hollywood’s adaptation Kathryn Stockett’s popular novel.
Having read the reviews, I was pretty sure what I was getting myself into. I did like the movie–as a movie. Given the limitations of Hollywood storytelling, The Help was an enjoyable slice of popular entertainment.
Reviewers often refer to the movie as a “surprise success;” which is odd when you consider that the book was a big hit, especially with women, and the movie appears to be a faithful adaptation. The middle-aged black woman standing in line next to us assured us that the movie got it right–she was seeing the film for the second time.
The Help is a chick flick. There are few male characters (none of any consequence) and the audience was at least two-thirds women, most of them middle-aged or older. The movie reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, a film about women in the South that centers on a particularly shocking image that is funny because it is shocking (humor is rooted in surprise). I won’t spoil the story by telling you about the shocking image in The Help, but it definitely made the story go. (more…)
By Charles Kiker
(This op-ed appeared in the June 6 Amarillo Globe-News.)
The possession and possible use of nuclear weapons is a spiritual, political and personal issue. It is a spiritual issue because life is a spiritual issue. The Ten Commandments state it negatively, “Thou shalt not kill.” Jesus stated it positively, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
It is a political, though not a partisan, issue. Republican presidents have worked toward agreements reducing the possession of nuclear weapons. Democratic President Barack Obama signed the New START agreement aimed at further reductions in nuclear weapons on April 8, 2010.
Several former Republican secretaries of state urged ratification of the agreement. The Senate gave the world a Christmas present Dec. 22, 2010, by ratifying the agreement in a bipartisan vote. This agreement, however, is very limited in its scope. It applies only to the United States and Russia, and, even when fully implemented, will only reduce nuclear weapons by 50 percent. Much remains to be done to eliminate the threat of nuclear conflict.
The church cannot control the state. But the church can bear witness to the state. This time at the anniversary of Hiroshima is a good time for that witness. (more…)
Friends of Justice 