For WHOM the BELLS TOLL...

Links to sites opposed to the death penalty
Concerns about "politicizing" the church.
A message from The Presiding bishop concerning Timothy McVeigh
Prison ministry conference calls for abolition of death penalty

Links:

 www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/pendex.html  Amnesty, U.S.A.
http://www.txdpinfo.org/index.html  News from the state of Texas;  they hold the lead in number of ececutions!
 www.smu.edu/~deathpen/pending.html  Current list of pending execution in U.S.
 www.curenational.org/~bells/origin.html  "For whom the bells toll"; this organization encourages churches to toll their bells at 6:00 pm whenever there is an execution in USA. That's what we do at St. Stephen's Church. We don't get them ALL, but we don't often miss, either.
http://www.smu.edu/~deathpen/updates.html  Latest updates...
 

May 18, 2003

Steadfast Witnesses to Deaths Far Off
New York Times By Anemona Hartocollis

    At 6:05 p.m. Thursday, the bells of St. Ignatius of Antioch
Episcopal Church tolled 33 times for two convicted murderers,
Bruce Jacobs and Newton Slawson. They were scheduled to
be put to death that day, one in Texas, the other in Florida.

    As the bells rang, four parishioners, Clyde Kuemmerle, Karen
Christian, David Holkeboer and Elizabeth Moore, stood on the
sidewalk outside the rough-hewn stone church, at 87th Street
and West End Avenue, bearing witness to the court-sanctioned
killing of one human being by another. They thrust leaflets listing
the names of the killers and their victims at passers-by.

    Occasionally, someone took a leaflet. Only one person, a
15-year-old boy, stopped to find out what was going on. Most,
steeled by vast experience against the importunings of
panhandlers and evangelists for all causes, from sample sales
to political candidates, did the New York thing: they avoided
making eye contact.

    A small group at St. Ignatius has been keeping this vigil for
the last four years, every time there has been an execution.
They are part of a national movement, "For Whom the Bells
Toll," of congregations opposed to the death penalty.

    Although the Upper West Side is probably one of the most
liberal places in the world, even here this is not a popular cause.
"It's often quite a lonely witness," said the Rev. H. Gaylord
Hitchcock, the church rector, whose goatee makes his clerical
collar look almost stylish. "I can tell you the popular reaction
has been not altogether supportive. I've had messages on
my voicemail, saying we were un-Christians." Besides, death is
not a subject people like talking about. When passers-by see
the fliers listing the condemned and their victims, they often
draw back.

    There is a steady drumbeat of executions, averaging more
than one a week. They are rare around Christmas. In the last
week of May, three are scheduled. Most are in Texas,
Virginia, Oklahoma.

    Father Hitchcock and his little band are aware of the
growing evidence that capital cases have been tainted by
incompetent defense lawyers, the suppression of exculpatory
evidence, and bias among judges and juries. Their opposition
combines skepticism about the fairness of the system with
religious conviction. "The lives of every one of us is in some
sense cheapened and devalued by it," the rector says.
    They believe that they have made some people think. "I
find New Yorkers are more willing than others to engage in
true conversation," says Mr. Kuemmerle, soft-spoken and bearded.
"In other places, you've got to actually get inside someone's house."

    People ask, for instance, what is wrong with the punishment
fitting the crime. "The moment I hear that, I hear it sung in
Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Mikado,' and I love it," says Mr. Kuemmerle,
who is not without a sense of humor.
    My object all sublime
    I shall achieve in time
    To let the punishment fit the crime
    The punishment fit the crime
    And make each prisoner pent
    Unwillingly represent
    A source of innocent merriment!
    Of innocent merriment!

But if the object is to make the punishment fit the crime, he says,
he would love to see some fitting punishments for what he calls
crimes of state, like homelessness, poverty and ignorance. "I think
the treatment of so many individuals in this society who have no
resources and no expectation of any resources is criminal," he adds.

    The people at St. Ignatius not only preach, they listen. When
their campaign began, they listed only the names of the convicts
on their fliers. After passers-by complained, they added the names
of their victims.
    The vigil lasts as long as it takes to repeatedly press the
hospital call button, rigged by an ingenious member of the
congregation, that causes the church's old iron bell to peal. The
bell tolls once for every year in the life of the person being
executed, or a symbolic 33 times, Christ's life span, if more
than one person is going to die. Ringing the bells too many
times has been known to annoy the neighbors.

    After that, the protesters read from the Book of Common
Prayer. Mr. Kuemmerle, the literary one among them, chose
the verse. As other New Yorkers hurry by, they stand in a circle
remembering two more lives abruptly ended.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/nyregion/18ctyCOLU.html

______________________________________________________________________
Rev.Mr.George W. Brooks, Director of Advocacy
Kolbe House
2434 So. California
Chicago, Il. 60608
773-247-0070 

 

Austin Chronicle.  Feb. 21, 2003

The State of Texas firmly maintains its leadership in executions

We're No. 1!

BY MICHAEL KING


illustration by Doug Potter

Some time in March or April, the state of Texas will mark another contemporary milestone in capital punishment. According to the current schedule -- handily maintained online by the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm ) -- on March 12, Delma Banks Jr. will become the 300th person executed by Texas since 1982, when the state resumed executions following the 1976 revision of its statute.

We're in no danger of surrendering the overall lead -- Virginia is second with a paltry 87 -- and the 300th will also represent an internal milestone. Although many people presume there were more executions in the good old days before they took prayer out of the schools, the opposite is true. It took us 34 years (1930 to 1964) to electrocute 299 people; we will have accomplished the same feat by lethal injection in just over 20 years -- 247 in just the last 11 years. Of the 12 executions in the U.S. this year, Texas (with less than 10% of the U.S. population) has performed eight, and last year the state accounted for nearly half of all executions (33 of 71). Should Texas maintain its current pace throughout 2003, the state could easily exceed its own one-year record of 40, set in 1999.

The raw Texas numbers help sustain another myth about the death penalty: that it is somehow a cultural remnant of "frontier justice," the inevitable heritage of posse law and order. If that were true, the numbers should not be increasing (by design) in recent years, thanks largely to "streamlining" changes in both state and federal law. Moreover, other states match or exceed Texas in their rates of execution (executions per capita). Over the last 10 years (through December 2002), both Delaware and Oklahoma surpassed Texas in their execution rates, and Virginia and Missouri were very close behind.

When it comes to the death penalty, Texas is in fact more Southern than Western: the Southern states have accounted for roughly 80% of the 832 U.S. executions since 1976. Since a greatly disproportionate number of the condemned are black or brown and poor, it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to comprehend the historical circumstances that have led the Deep South states down this path. In the longest view, the death penalty replaced lynching, but did not end it.

 

Dear Father James:

Why all this "political" activity"?  Why should St. Stephen's Church host a chapter of the "Episcopal Peace Fellowship", and why should we toll the bells when someone is executed? Doesn't all of this politicize the church?

Concerned Parishioner.

 

Dear Concerned:

First, let me say that I think it is unavoidable to read the bible as an un-political book.  From Abraham through the teachings and actions of Jesus to Paul there is politics.  I think that the church should examine all aspects of life and speak out when we think our leaders are living the gospel and when they are not. 

Second, how can anyone disagree with peace?  The military officers I know agree with the mission statement of the EPF.  Many in our congregation believe that war should be the last resort in any situation.  The EPF began as a pacifist group.  They grew to understand that was is necessary in extreme situations.  I think it is our responsibility to examine the situation at hand and to decide for ourselves if war is needed.  The EPF will have those discussions and look at the concept of shalom in the bible.  I do not think that is necessarily ‘politicizing’ the situation, but I can see how some would.

Lastly, tolling the bell when there is an execution could be seen as politicizing the issue, but it could also be seen as and educational move.  Many people in our vicinity have voiced their surprise at how often the bell tolls.  They never knew there were so many executions in this country.  I would hold that being silent when there are executions is politicizing the issue; a tacit way of agreeing with what is happening.  As for praying for those who are executed, (their victims, families and friends also), why wouldn’t we?  Is praying for the President or the Queen a political act 

One of the things I stress in every Inquirers Class is that there is tremendous room for a variety of thoughts in the Episcopal Church, especially at St. Stephen’s.  I tell them that though we do not look like a diverse congregation at first, one soon comes to discover that in terms of political or ecclesial issues, we span the gamut.  Thanks for you email and your thoughts.

Peace,

James

A statement on the execution of Timothy McVeigh


I am appalled by the events developing around the execution of Timothy McVeigh. Reports of people wanting to sell T-shirts and buttons conjure up images of executions in the Middle Ages and Roman times when these events were public entertainment. Such an atmosphere demeans our judicial system as it promotes frenzy and revenge. A public ritual of death can only coarsen our spirits and deaden our sensibilities, placing us in danger of becoming persons of death, rather than life. Though undoubtedly Timothy McVeigh committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our country, I fear that execution as spectacle can only poison the soul of our nation.

We can't fully know the pain of those so tragically effected by the Oklahoma City bombing, most particularly their families. I am concerned, however, that the provisions being made for them to witness the execution may only deepen the trauma they have already experienced, rather than help them recover from it.

Nothing is served by revenge. And here I note that the Episcopal Church, along with many other faith communities, is on record as being opposed to capital punishment.

I pray for Timothy McVeigh as he prepares to encounter the God, who made him, even as I pray for his victims and their families. I invite all persons of faith to join me in these prayers as we seek with God' help to become instruments of God's peace and make our own the prayer of St. Francis: "Where there is hatred let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy…"

April 19, 2001
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

2001-110
Prison Ministry conference calls for moratorium on death penalty

(Episcopal News Service)

by Val Hymes

(ENS)The atmosphere surrounding the Timothy McVeigh execution is part of a "violence mindset" that has infected society, Bishop George E. Packard told the Sixth National Prison Ministry Conference of the Episcopal Church in Indianapolis May 4-6.

Packard, Bishop Suffragan to the Armed Services, Healthcare and Prison Ministries, said the May 16 execution furor over the Oklahoma City bomber, which has even led to the sale of commemorative T-shirts in Terre Haute, "is another 'Survivor' series. As soon as it's gone, it will be forgotten."

But the nearly 80 lay and clergy conference participants from across the nation promised not to forget. Noting that "whole nation is intensely focused" on the execution, they signed a petition calling for an "immediate nationwide moratorium of the death penalty." The conferees promised to raise their voices, both in dialogue and in political action, and to press all Episcopalians to work vigorously to abolish executions, which they decried as "the outrage of state-sanctioned homicides."

"What quantity of energy will it take to get this society to stop being a death culture?" Packard asked.

The bishop called on the church to act more forcefully on all criminal justice issues, stressing the enormity of the need for prison ministries. Calling them "members of our family," he pointed out that 16 million people are affected - the two million who are incarcerated, their families, the families of the victims and those on parole or probation.

One more step in tragedy

The Very Reverend Robert Giannini, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, opened the conference by announcing that the cathedral would join with the people of Oklahoma City at noon May 16 by holding special prayers "to ask for the presence of God in the midst of our human frailty." That day, he added, "is not about justice. It is not about closure. It's just one more step in the tragedy."

The imminent execution in nearby Terre Haute added an intensity to the conference as participants focused on ways to help prisoners, victims, ex-offenders, families and communities.

Tom Hart, director of the church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, challenged popular myths about the death penalty--that it deters crime, is fair and cost effective, and that law enforcement officials support it. "Public opinion is shifting," he said. The McVeigh case is a "tragedy ... with a silver lining. A moment has been created in the public discourse. People are talking about the issue."

Hart said we can change the system, but by "organizing, not philosophizing." He recommended that churches schedule letter-writing sessions during coffee hours; form coalitions with "quirky, interesting" organizations and people; arrange visual events like "candlelight vigils" for television and news photographers and audible activities, like bell-ringing, for radio stations.

The conferees developed action plans to follow up resolutions passed by the General Convention until there are results. The Rev. Jackie Means, director of the Episcopal Church's Prison and Law Enforcement Ministries and the conference chair, said, "We've been passing resolutions since the 1980s on these issues and you see where we are."

Wake-up call

Packard reported that the church's Jubilee ministries--activities involving freeing prisoners, feeding the hungry, taking good news to the poor--have a strong advocate in Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold/

"I'm discovering gold everywhere," said the Rev. Canon Carmen B. Guerrero, the church's Jubilee Ministries officer. Ministering to prisoners is like "singing the Lord's song in a foreign land," (Ps. 137) she said. "Inmates face the loss of human rights, the loss of family, the loss of dignity ... This is a wake-up call. A Sunday morning service is not enough. It's not enough to provide social services. They need to come home, into the family, into the church."

Bishop Francisco Duque-Gomez of Colombia said that, in his country, the jails are only "places to hold bodies," put there simply because "someone decided they were guilty." No new jails have been built there in 50 years, he said. It is a process of "degradation and slow death ... torture chambers."

A success story

Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, once known as "the bloodiest prison in America," told how the biggest of the nation's prisons has turned into one of its most progressive institutions.

The change has been possible by offering work in farming and ship-building, a full menu of religious and educational programs, a toy and bike repair hobby shop, a rodeo, craft fair, about 30 clubs instead of gangs, and a nationally recognized radio station and magazine. A hospice program is run by inmates who "help others die with dignity."

The prison has 5,000 inmates; 85 percent of them will die there of natural causes, he said, adding that inmates carefully craft the coffins for their peers.

Newcomers have a choice of going with a gang or with the Christians. "The gang leaders get to be toilet orderlies," the warden tells them. "Even the atheists want to go with the Christians."

The lack of violence in the institution he attributes to "good food, good praying, good medicine, good playing." When an inmate must die by lethal injection, Cain said he holds his hands and prays with him, telling the doomed man, "The next face you see will be Jesus."

"It's what government does. I'm the paid fall guy," he said of the executions. "It's better to do it as a Christian, the right way."

His best advice for those in prison ministry: "When you say you're going to come and visit, you better. The inmates are looking for to you to fail them."

The conference closed Sunday with a service including a homily by Stuart O. Simms, Maryland's secretary of public safety and correctional services. Simms, a member of Packard's advisory council for prison ministry, warned of an increasing growth of hatred and vengeance and a lack of tolerance. He criticized the "race to incarcerate" and praised programs that humanize inmates.

The prison ministry conference, he said, is one way to help move society "from revenge to rehabilitation ... from retribution to reconciliation."