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2025-09-07T19:37:46-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Dalai Lama & The Death Penalty: Engaging Buddhist Ethics

Last updated on: September 7, 2025 at 7:37 pm By Jeff Hood

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The Dalai Lama & the Death Penalty: Compassion & Liberation “The death penalty is pure violence, a barbaric and useless violence. Dangerous even…because it can only lead to other acts of violence…as all violence does.” – The Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama’s Opposition to the Death Penalty The Dalai Lama’s opposition to the death penalty is not casual opinion. It is the consistent fruit of a life rooted in compassion (karuṇā), nonviolence (ahimsa) and the deep well of Tibetan Buddhist... Read more

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2025-09-06T13:51:23-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Priest-Penitent Privilege: A Defense from Death Row

Last updated on: September 6, 2025 at 1:51 pm By Jeff Hood

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In Defense of Priest-Penitent Privilege *Bibliography at the end of the article. Death row represents the ultimate moral, spiritual and ethical crucible. Inmates in extremely confined spaces daily face the final reckoning of their lives. Yet, even in the shadow of execution…fundamental rights and moral duties endure. Central to this is priest-penitent privilege…the inviolable protection of confidential communications between a priest (spiritual advisor) and penitent. For those condemned to die, such interactions are essential for moral reflection, reconciliation with God... Read more

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2025-09-04T11:46:25-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Epistle to Alabama Christians: Nitrogen & Anthony Boyd

Last updated on: September 4, 2025 at 11:46 am By Jeff Hood

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To Alabama Christians, Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…the crucified one, the risen one, the merciful one who judges the living and the dead. I write to you with both trembling and fire. I write as one who fears for your souls. I write because on October 23, the State of Alabama intends to kill a man named Anthony Boyd by suffocating him with nitrogen gas. You now know the date. You now... Read more

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2025-09-03T21:32:38-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Case Against the Death Penalty for Adolf Hitler

Last updated on: September 3, 2025 at 9:32 pm By Jeff Hood

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Penalty? On the Weight of Human Atrocity To say Adolf Hitler’s name is to summon the darkest chapters of human history. Trains screaming into camps. Families torn apart at arrival. Children led to their deaths. Six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Millions more…Romani people, disabled people, queer people, political opponents, prisoners of war…also swept away by systematic cruelty. Cities leveled. Nations shattered. The landscape marked with graves. If there was ever a man who seemed to deserve the death... Read more

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2025-09-03T08:13:10-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Possession, Radical Evil and the Pursuit of Justice

Last updated on: September 3, 2025 at 8:13 am By Jeff Hood

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The Mystery of Possession In recent days, the horrific shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church…where children were gathered for Mass…has forced me to once again wrestle with possession and the depths of radical evil. To imagine the terror of little ones at prayer confronted with sudden violence is almost unbearable…and to think that they were the targets of this shooting is unfathomable. Yet, this is the world we live in. This reflection on the possession of evil is my attempt to... Read more

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2025-09-02T13:55:30-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Nitrogen Executions as Moral Suffocation

Last updated on: September 2, 2025 at 1:55 pm By Jeff Hood

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On Nitrogen Executions or The Horror of Suffocating Someone to Death or On Moral Suffocation Nitrogen Executions: Forced Suffocation In quiet thought, you realize what it truly means to suffocate someone. Nitrogen executions promise clean, efficient, scientific death. But behind that sterile language lies the same moral suffocation…breath ripped away…life ended…by human hands. The act may be modern, clinical, and controlled…but the terror, the intimacy of dying and the violation of the sacred gift of breath remain unchanged. Breath Is... Read more

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2025-09-01T21:09:39-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The God Who Will Not Stay Dead: On Resurrection

Last updated on: September 1, 2025 at 9:09 pm By Jeff Hood

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*This sermon is the foundation from which a much more colorful sermon that I delivered yesterday at the funeral of Carol Orr arose (which can be found on the Facebook page of Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church). She was a very dear friend. The entire time I knew her, she demanded that I never back down from a fight. I hope I’ve made her proud. **All scripture comes from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Resurrection in... Read more

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2025-08-31T01:38:21-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Body of Death: Bioethics & Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution

Last updated on: August 31, 2025 at 1:38 am By Jeff Hood

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Listening to the Bodies: Witness Accounts of Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution Kenneth Eugene Smith On a January evening in 2024, Kenneth Eugene Smith walked into a room remade for something no one had ever seen before. The chamber at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama was stark…pale walls and fluorescent lights everywhere. Strapped to a gurney, mask over his face, Smith became the first person to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. Within moments of the gas flowing, Smith’s body... Read more

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2025-08-29T11:51:30-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Death Penalty and the Limits of Human Righteousness

Last updated on: August 29, 2025 at 11:51 am By Jeff Hood

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“They Deserve to Be Executed, Just Not by Us”: A Theological Reflection on the Death Penalty, Mercy and Each of Us The Death Penalty as Theological Ground I’m haunted by the death penalty. I’ve walked the sterile corridors of death row. The echo of my shoes bouncing against the concrete walls. I’ve sat on narrow benches in visitation rooms. The smell of metal, sweat and disinfectant pressing into my nostrils, thick and unrelenting. I’ve knelt beside men whose lives were... Read more

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2025-08-28T01:49:53-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Manifesto for the Death Penalty Abolition Movement

Last updated on: August 28, 2025 at 1:49 am By Jeff Hood

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There are ten executions scheduled in the next two months… Why the Death Penalty Still Persists in America On a quiet evening in America, somewhere behind prison walls, a clock approaches the predetermined hour. A man waits in a cell, counting breaths, knowing each one may be his last. Down the hall, technicians check the lines and guards prepare the straps, rehearsing the ritual they will call “justice.” Outside, a handful of protesters clutch candles, whisper prayers, shout pleas, and... Read more

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