Just hours ago, a man died. Death is something we will all experience and people die every day. But this death affects me more than most. Because this death is on us. It’s on you, me and every other person in this country who has failed to stand up and recognize that execution is nothing more than government-sanctioned murder. Tonight, Troy Davis lost his life because the State of Georgia took it.¹

This might make some people get a little hot under the collar. Especially in the area where my hometown is – I grew up in a town that is home to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the prison where all Oklahoma death row inmates are executed. And around those parts, people favor the death penalty. It’s interesting to me how most of the people I know who are staunchly in support of the death penalty also happen to be some of the most religious people I know. It’s interesting because people who claim to be followers of Jesus — a man who was so vehemently against killing and a man who was himself wrongly executed — support a punishment that goes against everything Jesus stood for, and against one of the Ten Commandments². That concept is one that I can’t even begin to understand.

(more…)