Good afternoon and welcome.
I am Reverend actor, Aaron and this medicine, and I serve as the Director of Community Engagement for the National benevolence association of the Christian church Disciples of Christ.
As we get started, I would like to inform you that these webinar will be recorded and will be available for future viewing at the NBA website at NBA cares.or.org.
I will say that probably by next week. It will be available.
And we're also going to share some resources that are going to be connected with the recording.
And the idea is that you can share that with your congregation, with family with friends, and you can use it as a resource.
Today's webinar will be going to these women are continuously continues our 2021 series of webinar and educational training, offered by the prison and jail ministries of the national Benevolent Association
and the title of our webinar today is why followers of Jesus should oppose capital punishment.
I'm not sure if you have been paying attention. But recently, there has been a rise in the number of execution of people, people on death row, particularly by the federal government.
For decades, there have been debates over the use of capital punishment.
As a sentence for serious criminal offenses.
What does the Bible say about capital punishment should followers of Jesus Christ, who was executed himself oppose to the capital punishment.
And today we're going to hear. And I think we're going to hear very clear from a chaplain that I'm going to introduce very soon, who has worked on death row in Florida for many years.
And he will share with us why followers of Jesus should be opposed to the use of capital punishment.
Before we move forward.
Let me clarify something, if you have questions through the seminary.
I mean through the webinar.
We welcome you to use the q amp a feature.
By clicking on the icon at the bottom of your screen.
and to submit any question.
And please, please, please include your email your email address in case we are unable to get to your questions. We could follow up with you directly via email.
When the webinar is over.
And today in this space.
Reverend bean because our dean. Our friend who is MBAs prison and jail ministries mission specialist will be joined by Dale resin Ella, and he insists to be called are brothers so we're.
He will be joined Dean will be joined by brother Dale risky nella, who is our presenter.
And let me share a little bit about him. Brother Dale resin Ella has been involved in re entry services, since the late 80s.
For the last 21 years he has been an outside chaplain for Florida did through, and with his wife, Dr. Susan written Ella.
They have minister, as a team, doing executions.
He serving as a spiritual advisor to the condemn and his wife serving as a lay minister to the condemns family and loved ones.
They also minister to the families and loved ones of murder victims in non capital cases.
Mr rescind Allah has a master's in theological studies from the Ave Maria University Institute for pastoral theology and a law degree from Notre dam University Law School, and he is also a licensed Florida, a license.
Yeah license, a lawyer, I said it correctly.
So, being been either Welcome to the space, brother racing Allah.
And at this point, I would like to turn the presentation to Reverend bean book Alice.
Thank you, actor and I welcome everyone this afternoon to another.
Passionate Benevolent Association webinar,
you may be wondering why this is a topic that the NBA is interested in exploring
yy talk about capital punishment. What does that have to do with the Ministry of the national Benevolent Association well I would suggest it has everything to do with it.
The National Benevolent Association expresses care and concern about our brothers and sisters across the country and this is an issue.
Unfortunately, that continues to be pressing in the United States.
There are still 27 states that have the death penalty along with the military and our federal government.
This stands out in many ways but United States is only one of 53 countries that still has the death penalty it's not joined by any of the European Union countries other Western democracies have abandoned the death penalty for a number of years.
So we were question, why
should followers of Jesus be opposed to capital punishment.
One of the most telling statistics, I think, is that in the United States, an average of nearly 4% of wrongly convicted death row prisoners have been exonerated each year since 1973.
Those are innocent people who've been suffering on death row.
Because of the flaws in our capital punishment traditional system.
So today we're delighted to have brother Dale join us who has dedicated his life to working with people who are on death row and who are facing capital punishment as a extreme punishment for the crimes that they committed.
He brings us a wealth of information but also a deep deep sense of the Christian journey with respect to this particular issue, sharing with us. A bit biblical aspects of why followers of Jesus to be opposed to the death penalty.
So I'm going to turn it over to Brother Dale on as actor indicated to you.
If you have questions please put those in the question and answer tab at the bottom. We'll have a time, at the end of this presentation to address as many of those questions as we can.
By the tail thank you for being with us this afternoon.
Thank you, Reverend Dean, and thank you, Reverend Hector.
It is wonderful. I am grateful for this opportunity to address the prison and jail Ministry of the disciples of Christ Church for the USA and Canada.
I met Reverend dean at a fantastic seminar in Louisville.
A year ago March back in the old days when we were all still meeting in person.
I think everything shut down about 10 days after my wife and I got back to Florida from that particular seminar on re entry.
But here we are in this is a wonderful way to keep doing what we do while we wait for all the proper things to be resolved so that we can start being together again.
In large public situations.
I'd like to start by sharing something that had a profound effect on me.
Reverend Richard McSorley a Jesuit priest who suffered as a young seminarian and agenda, Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines and World War Two.
taught me that leaders cannot get their people to kill other people.
Unless the people first believe that God wants that killing.
This is true of our death penalty in the United States, the death penalty is continued existence in the US is inextricably tied to mistaken notions a god demands disposed evidence for this is the slam dunk argument from God's Word in Scripture, always
quoted in English, and the erroneous conclusion, driven by this erroneous use of Scripture is that to go against the death penalty is to go against God,
question is not whether the death penalty is in the Bible.
There is a death penalty in the Bible.
The question is, does that have anything in common with what we're doing.
And the death penalty in the US has absolutely nothing in common with a biblical death penalty, except that somebody gets killed.
In my first book which came out in 2004, the biblical truth about America's death penalty.
I document this in exhaustive detail.
In fact, through five years of extensive research.
I identified 44 absolute non Wavell non negotiable. Non compromise double elements of procedural and substantive law required by the biblical death penalty.
These 44 legal requirements were driven by the Hebrew Scriptures, primarily the divine order and Exodus, 23 verse seven, that we should not have any part in the execution of an innocent person.
How does our death penalty in the United States, no matter which state you're in that uses it.
How does it stack up.
We have a perfect score.
We are zero for 44.
We don't need any of the requirements of the biblical death penalty.
And how are we doing on God's overriding concern against the execution of the innocence.
under our death penalty law in the us today.
There is no overriding constitutional right to not be executed just because you are factually innocent.
I have witnessed the execution of a man I believe was innocent.
An agent orange Vietnam veteran.
And I'll share that experience with you in just a minute.
How can the execution of the innocent sly for people of faith in the face of God's command, an exodus 23 seven.
I have learned to call the process, the fantasy Disney Land death penalty that adherence believe kills neatly and quietly.
Without her renders botched executions.
And I've witnessed a botched execution,
without causing harm to the innocent family of the condemned and the staff, who must kill them.
This fantasy death penalty is assumed to be just an equitable without reference to race or wealth, it's assumed that only convicts the guilty.
Only attaches to the worst of the worst only costs a fraction of life imprisonment.
Only it doesn't exist.
There is no such death penalty anywhere in the United States.
It's just not true.
And as I have been writing and speaking to Christian audiences, all over the United States for 20 years or more.
I have found out that when people tell me what they're supporting.
It's always the fantasy death penalty. it's never what we really have.
And the Disneyland fantasy death penalty does not exist.
We share some real experiences with real people that I have experienced in the death house.
So when I am the spiritual advisor for a man or woman who is going to be executed.
On the day of the execution, I am with them at their cell in the death house.
Right. The cell that they will be taken from to be strapped down to the gurney.
And in this particular case I was at the cell of a man
who is going to be executed at six o'clock.
And we were sharing we were praying we were talking about his last words that he wanted me to convey to his family, who he had said goodbye to that morning.
And all of a sudden I heard a booming voice behind me. I didn't even have to turn around I knew whose voice that was, it was Sergeant redneck.
And that was his preferred moniker he told everybody to call him that from the time he started at Florida State Prison.
And I heard him behind me he said chap.
Give me the front.
I know what that means. It means step aside the officer it's going to stand right in front of the cell.
So I said absolutely sir and I stepped aside.
And he stepped up to the Bard door of that cell.
And he put his hands through the bars and took the hands of the man and side, who is going to be killed by the state.
In a couple of hours.
And he said, I wanted you to know, talking to them, condemned man, that they asked me to work second shift.
But I refuse to be here when this happens.
The man said thank you search.
But then the surgeon put up hands.
I got more
said to the man, I didn't know you when you were out on the street.
When you were doing this stuff.
Whatever the drugs, whatever.
But I've known you for 17 years in this prison.
Know that you are a better human being.
You said I know you're going to go right from that journey
of Jesus Christ.
And I hope that the day it's my turn to face God.
He will see fit to allow me into heaven.
And I will be able to see you again.
And then with tears in his eyes, he said goodbye.
Good man,
That was on a Thursday.
The man was executed at six o'clock that evening, couple of hours after that encounter.
And on Monday morning.
Sergeant redneck called in and resigned from his career resigned from his job and walked away from his benefits. his seniority and all his accumulate accumulated goodies that were part of his work.
wardens from the prisons that execute people around the country will tell you
after they've retired, they will tell you that been involved in killing Healthy People destroys good people.
I've had wardens from execution prisons tell me that their best officers have been wrecked
by having to purse dissipate in this killing process against someone who is no longer a threat to society.
Someone who's had an absolutely model record in prison for 20 years or 30 years or more.
It destroys them as human beings to be part of killing that healthy person.
And we're not talking about innocence here.
I also have experienced.
Being spiritual advisor in the death house with a man who I absolutely believe was innocent. And when there's strong evidence of innocence.
If the state is going for an execution, they will use procedural techniques to try and prevent the court from hearing the evidence of innocence. That happens all the time.
How does that comport with Exodus 23 seven have no part in the execution of an innocent man.
It doesn't, and nobody pretends it does.
Well this fellow that I had known for several years as a spiritual advisor.
And now it's his day of his execution
had his family coming to say goodbye in the morning,
his elderly parents in there at his brothers and sisters and cousins.
His own children.
And a grandchild
is for children he had three wonderful daughters in their 20s, and we had met them during the periods of the weeks before when they came to see him on Deathwatch because it's warranted been signed.
These woman, these five young women were as sweet as they could be.
And they were absolutely horrified that their father
was going to be killed by the state at six o'clock.
He claimed innocence and he had a strong case for innocence.
But as six out of seven judges on the Florida Supreme Court said, it's too late.
The lawyer he had the original trial didn't present that evidence.
We can't look at it now procedural bar, cannot be looked at.
One justice on the Florida Supreme Court absolutely refused to go along with this.
He said, this is on Constable,
And he made a last attempt to try and convince his six colleagues that they should make a decision, beyond the law.
To prevent the execution of a man who had a credible case of innocence.
The other six run moved the quarter prove going forward with his execution.
The US Supreme Court didn't see fit to stop it.
And here it is six o'clock.
I'm looking through the glass from the witness room, as this man is about to be killed right in front of me.
I couldn't help remembering vividly his three daughters that morning after each of them said goodbye to their father.
And I had to one by one.
unwrap them from around their father who they couldn't let go of.
And they were too traumatized to walk.
One by one, I had to carry them across the hall to where my wife was waiting for them to try and help them get their composure so they could leave the prison.
And the third daughter is I was carrying her across the hall she was screaming in agony.
Why are they going to kill my father.
Why can't they just let them live in prison.
Why do they have to kill my daddy.
Why indeed.
Everybody in Florida who's studied the issue knows that it costs a fortune to execute people that it's much cheaper to have life in prison without possibility of parole at the highest level of security Ynd did we have to kill this man who had a credible
case of innocence.
One thing I would suggest for your consideration is that the American death penalty is not about justice.
It's about winning
lawyers, fighting to win.
As I was watching the injection and the poison start to flow into my brother's veins.
I had to ask myself, how do we call this an execution.
What is this is a murder, am I sitting here participating in a murder of an innocent man by watching.
This is the real death penalty.
Not the Disneyland version. This is the death penalty that we really have, and it's the only one we have.
And when we support it, this is what we're supporting justice on the US Supreme Court. After that execution said point blank and another case from another state.
If you want to make sure you don't execute the innocent.
And this was Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas.
The only way to make sure you don't execute the innocent is to get rid of the death penalty.
But that's not the job of this court that's the job of the legislature's.
They haven't done it. Exodus 23 seven have no court, the execution of an innocent man
or woman.
We execute women to
jurors can be heavily influenced by misuse of the Bible to oppose death sentences.
And that's only a small part of the story, prosecutors in the US have been using Bible quotes to obtain death sentences from juries four years
in my home state of Florida.
Prosecutors quote from Romans 13 for in death penalty sentencing hearings to convince the jury that God demands the killing of this offender.
Our state Supreme Court shrugs and calls it harmless error.
How can anything that results in taking the life of a human being.
When we work through all the statistics.
The Naked Truth is that the US death penalty is a Bible Belt phenomena.
And the Bible Belt consists of those states which are predominantly Baptist, virtually synonymous with the 11 Confederate states plus Oklahoma, which was a territory at the time.
And the four border states, all of which allowed legally slavery.
The Bible Belt states have held 86% of all the state level executions in the United States since 1976 or 1516 of them.
1300 and nine of those have been in the bible belt.
So what we need to address this afternoon.
And even more detail is the misuse of Scripture
to justify and help lead people to think God demands, these killings.
And we have to be absolutely clear about our question, question is not
whether there is a death penalty in the Bible there is, as I've already said.
It has nothing to do with our death penalty in the US, except somebody gets killed
question is not whether the Bible permits the death penalty assume it does.
So long as the death penalty is not required by God.
But it's only permitted.
Then the question of the US death penalty is one of policy
And that policy should be driven by data, data which shows among other things that executions cost multiples more than life imprisonment.
Without possibility of parole.
My experiences that most of that excess cost, those two lawyers, especially on the state side, that are us death penalty is hopelessly biased by race and wealth and is so inconsistent on similar crimes that receiving it is is arbitrary as being struck
by lightning.
Statistics also show, it returns nothing to society, or the family of the victim, but does tremendous harm to the innocent family of the condemned and to the staff who have to kill on our behalf.
Some people assert deterrence but the problem is there's no credible evidence of deterrence.
Even the pro death camps know this.
That is why if one pro death state Speaker of the House in a state of North said he had invented the term specific determines which is meaningless to anyone who understands criminology or criminal law, because he met this person after we kill them will
never kill again.
Well the evidence shows that this person in a maximum security prison, can be held under constraints that they will never kill again.
We don't have to kill them.
To obtain that outcome,
what's the alternative people asked me if we're not going to kill them, what do we do with them.
biblical restorative justice, and I'm going to get to that, with a true story in just a minute.
But now let us turn quickly to the favorite scriptures used misused to try and support us executions with the Bible.
Some try to use it for i in life for life quotes from the Mosaic Law,
they overlook the fact that no serious person of biblical faith would argue that we should be cutting off people's hands or their feet, or their limbs are burning people alive, or poking out their eyes is criminal punishment.
Not like for like with anything less than death.
What is the crime involved. The taking of the human life is the killing of the criminal The only just punishment allowed by scripture. I don't think so.
think prison time.
In extreme cases even life in prison.
As punishment that fully grants retribution for the evil done.
And we don't have to become killers ourselves.
Also the argument for the US death penalty based on life for life.
I fry only deals with murder, does not deal with the other 30, some offenses. Besides murder, which are punishable by death under the Mosaic Law, including talking back to one's parents working or shopping on the Sabbath.
This attempted biblical support through the Mosaic Law fails that even the slightest level of scrutiny.
Well, the next most famous technique is Genesis nine six so called rule of blood.
And many prisons in the south. When an execution is taking place. Crowds will be outside the prison, holding banners that say Genesis nine six,
which says whoever shed the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for the image of God has God made man.
And that's from the New International Version.
And this versus included in the seven verses in chapter nine of Genesis, that make up what we call it God's blessing of Noah.
There are some major problems with the assertion that this is God's command that the entire world must use the death penalty.
first such attempts are limited to first degree murder.
Thank heavens.
But the fact of the matter is, there's no basis for this distinction in the text itself.
If read as a command does it apply to all take enough human left What about car accidents. What about negligent homicide.
What about self defense.
They had these questions under the death penalty and this is why the courts of the Israelites setup Cities of Refuge.
Because even they couldn't fathom that God would want the execution of a person who never intended to kill anybody, but may have made human mistakes.
The next problem is that none of these attempts, explain why the other sections of the blessing of Noah, are not binding on the whole world for all time.
For example, the bros ambition against eating raw meat, which under Genesis nine carries a death sentence.
If you violate.
I couldn't help wondering, what did God do.
Obviously if this is God's command for all of us for all time.
Even after Jesus,
how to execute people that were murderers.
We know that was Cain.
That banished him away from the city out into the wilderness and gave them the equivalent of modern day life in prison.
But what about the next prominent first degree murder who came after that time after the time of Genesis nine six. After that was handed down.
And of course you know who's Moses.
Moses was the most prominent and significant first degree murder.
During that period under the rule of blood
tells us an exodus
Moses came upon an Egypt overseer abusing a Hebrew slave.
And he first looked this way and that that's premeditated our courts have held that for capital punishment premeditation only requires a couple of seconds.
And then he slew the Egyptian.
And then he buried the body in the sand to try and evade capture.
When you add to those things the fact that the overseer was carrying out a function of law like a law enforcement officer.
We have Moses on death row, under the laws of any state in the United States is practicing capital punishment in 2021
premeditation aggravated.
He's there.
But God never said Xq Moses.
No, he said him out to medium with Jethro and the sheep, which was essentially like been sent into exile for seven years.
And then brought him back to be the leader of his chosen people.
Our modern term for such banishment is prison.
That's why we have prisons.
Well, at this point.
Some people will say well what about Romans 13 was epistle to the Romans chapter 13 verses three to four.
Is this God's mandate for capital punishment.
Under the new testament reading from the authorized King James Version.
If thou do that which is evil be afraid
for government and I substitute government for Caesar.
There is not the sword in vain.
I was on the steps of the US Supreme Court speaking, and reading for my King James Bible.
And there were students from schools around the country that were there on the issue of abortion.
And they were listening to what I was saying and three of them came running over to me while I was still speaking, and said, Romans 13 it says, execute
as well.
Look at the Overleaf at the front of your Bible.
That looks like a high quality Bible.
Does it say why the word execute in Romans 13 is in italics.
And this wonderful young man. He flipped to it and he read it out loud to all of us.
The word doesn't appear in the Greek text.
I said what my research, I found out that in order for the Greek to make sense in the English.
The sentence need a verb.
Some translators have inserted the word accomplish.
Some have inserted the Word Perfect.
in the authorized King James inserted the word execute.
Not necessarily as we think of executing somebody, but more in the sense of carrying out and accomplishing like that.
Runner just executed a brilliant.
Touchdown play.
And one of the young men with this fellow said.
But wait, it says sword.
I said yes.
And I had with me.
My inner linear.
And I said, the word in the Greek is not the word for broadsword to show them, because the broad sword is what was used for capital punishment at the time of Paul.
And as we all know, from studying our New Testament.
Paul was a Roman citizen. And because of that, he could exercise his right to not be killed by beheading
he exercised it.
So I guarantee you Paul knew the Greek word for broadsword
sword that's used in the Greek.
In Romans 13
is the word for a dagger.
Like one would we're on their belt or their waistcoat that could be used as utility knife.
Peeling fruit, breaking open walnuts, or to defend oneself in close quarters of one god jumped on the road.
That's not the sword that was used for execution.
But that's the word that we translated sword into English.
In Romans 13 for.
So when I take these two words and use them the way they're used in the verse in the Greek.
Romans 13 four makes complete sense without the death penalty.
It would say, If thou do that which is evil. Be afraid for government, bear with not the power of judicial punishment in vain.
For it is the Minister of God or Avenger to carry out wrath upon him that do with evil.
It definitely supports the power of duly authorized judicial authority to impose crimes for punishment.
But properly understood it is not God's mandate that we have to have executions.
Well I thought we had pretty much dealt with it.
And then I was speaking in Louisville,
and several students from the seminary came to respond to my talk, because it was on the agenda.
And they asked the Wait a minute.
Jesus
mandated to death.
I said, really.
Where is that, and they quoted to me from john 19, where Jesus is standing before pilot
quoting from scripture so pilot said to him, to you not speak to me.
Do you not know that I have the power to release you and I have the power to crucify you.
Jesus answered him.
Finally, because Jesus hadn't answered any of his questions.
The pilot was a man who had the truth standing in front of them and he was asking what's truth.
It was pointless. But Jesus answered this one and Jesus said, quote, you would have no power over me.
If it had not been given to you from above.
The Pro death camps stop right there, and claim that this phrase proves Jesus supported capital punishment.
They fail to quote the rest of what Jesus said.
Right there in that verse.
His entire response reads as follows Jesus answered, quote, you would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason, the one who handed me over to you.
has the greater sin.
Who would credibly claim, even by using a comparative that Jesus supported us doing something by calling it sin.
He did say this.
One who handed him over for this had the greater sin.
But even pilot understood that Jesus was falling what was about to be done to him, sin.
And the next verse in john 1912 tells us pilots reaction.
Consequently, pilot tried to release it.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work trying to support our horrendous system of capital punishment.
Scripture.
People say to me at this point.
Why don't we supposed to deal with them.
If we can't tell them what are we supposed to do with them.
And I believe the biblical answer is restorative justice.
Even if a man or woman has to spend the rest of their life in prison.
In order for society to be safe.
That doesn't let us off the hook.
We're not just citizens. We're Christians.
What is our duty.
under scripture especially under the gospel
to support and help the spiritual life of our brothers and sisters in prison.
Even if they're there for the rest of their life.
Jesus said very clearly.
If you want mercy from your phone.
It will be given to you as you show it to others.
Mercy doesn't mean people get off scot free.
There has to be judicial punishment for crime.
Because of our fallen nature, and we live in a fallen creation.
But restorative justice looks at a much bigger picture than the transactional analysis, you killed we're going to kill you
and says how do we bring.
Jesus Christ, who has saved us, and His Holy Spirit who nurtures and sustains us bring those powers to bear on this crime,
such as the offender.
The family of the victim.
The family of the offender.
It's the local community.
It's everybody affected by this horrendous choice to simply do evil, how do we bring our resurrection faith to bear.
So that God can restore what Satan has tried to destroy.
I met a fellow in prison as a spiritual advisor.
His name was Kenny.
And I found out through our spiritual counseling,
that he had missed the Florida electric chair in the 1980s by one jury vote.
And it was because the detective on the case testified in the sentencing hearing that this 19 year old kid could be saved.
He was redeemable.
And because of that one jerk.
out of 12
voted for life.
That's reason why this man didn't go to the electric chair.
Now I'm meeting him many years later, at a long term facility.
Not maximum security but heavy security.
Lot of lifers first in the panhandle of Florida where I've been asked by the chaplain there to pray with men that had terminal illness.
So I looked at me and he said can I get prayer from you too.
And I said, What's your terminal illness.
And this boy he knew his scriptures he knew his Bible.
He looked at me and smiled no rancor just just smiled and said, my terminal illness chap is sin.
Can you handle that.
But we became prayer partners.
And over the years I realized this young man had tremendous potential for good.
That detective had been right by the way that detective lost his job for saying that sensitive hearing and denying the politicians essence.
Well this young man had tremendous potential.
And over time, Susan and I and our children with the approval of the Department of Corrections became a Christian mentoring family for now.
And the parole board soft fit to grow him.
2009.
And from the day he left prison, until the day he breathed his last.
He expended every energy trying to help men and women coming out of prison after long incarcerations.
And he and his wife were running a reentry program for men in a retro program for women in separate houses in Gainesville, Florida.
It is impossible to even guesstimate, how many people's lives he affected for good.
We lost him to coven just eight weeks ago.
But as Susan and I speak to good people of faith in churches all across the Bible Belt.
The first thing they do is look at their pastor and say, is what he's saying about scriptures true.
And of course he says yes because he's read my books and that's why he asked us to come. Then they look at us.
And we sent a tremendous weight, being lifted off their shoulders, almost like a shroud being taken off their head.
And they always say almost the same thing.
I never liked the death penalty. I was always scared we were going to execute an innocent person.
But I thought I had to support it for God.
If I don't have to support it for God.
I don't support it.
And so, I'm asking you today as I wrap up my presentation, please
ask yourself if we don't have to do this for God to really want to support us doing this.
Or can we look at life in prison and restorative justice, the biblical way.
Thank you and I believe we're going to have questions.
Thank you, Dale, I want to thank you on behalf of all of us who've been listening for your willingness to share and your hobbies passion for this particular issue.
We've been blessed to hear from you I are running a little short on time I do have one question. One of the things that we always like to conclude our
webinars with is
offering people who are listening, people in the pews people in congregations suggestions of what they can do. What action they can take.
We, we are in the process of not only learning and educating ourselves but taking that information and, and then using it to effect change. So my question to you is what actions can individuals take to discontinue the use of capital punishment, and their
own states where it's still being used.
And in the federal government.
That is an excellent question.
And I would like to offer the answer in several parts. First of all,
with people at your church in your coming together with other Christians, talk with them about your discomfort, and you're feeling that we don't need to be doing this we can do things that are much more scriptural and strongly biblical and set this aside.
Make it a permissible subject of discussion.
So many people have told us they would have come out sooner but they didn't think anybody else they knew was bothered by this.
And because nobody ever said they were.
They didn't feel safe bringing it up.
We have to bring it up.
Ask your church for ways to become involved, through them, and with the others in the church in ministering to prisoners ministering to prisoners families, and also to the families of murder victims.
We need to be present for all the parts of our community that are suffering because of these crimes.
And that includes the families of the murder victims.
The officers and staff work in these facilities, and our protection people are police state, local sheriff working on the streets to protect the community from crime from homicidal crime especially.
They're all suffering and restorative justice requires us to get the big picture, and look for all the nooks and crannies that the healing light of the resurrection can shine into and make a difference in.
And of course, when it comes to actually bringing about change.
Virtually every major Christian Church in the United States has organizations on a state and federal level, that are working to bring this message to our legislators, and our Congress to get the laws changed.
Find out how you can work with them, so that you can amplify and elucidate this gospel message.
Thank you, Dale that's very helpful. I'm going to turn it back over to Reverend Hector as we conclude our webinar this afternoon.
Thank you.
Thank you Thank you Thank you, brother Dale and Thank you Dean for guiding this presentation.
And, yeah, Time betrayed us.
This is the end of our webinar today.
And I am grateful for each one of you that carve some time on your day and decided to spend that time with us, and please share this with your congregations share these with your families.
Let's move into action let's let's let's let's move knowledge into actions concrete actions.
Like I said at the beginning. This webinar will be available, very soon on our web website.
For sure by next week.
And NBA cares.org. And for more information about prison and jail ministries, as well as all the other ministries and excellent work that the national Benevolent Association is doing, please visit.
Visit us at our brand new MBA cares.org website, many blessings and may, may God guide you. Today, and everything.
The peace. Thank you,
guys. Peace.
Yes.