{"id":11793,"date":"2024-06-24T00:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T06:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/?p=11793"},"modified":"2024-07-02T11:11:26","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:26","slug":"what-difference-does-it-make-if-romero-gonzales-prays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/what-difference-does-it-make-if-romero-gonzales-prays\/","title":{"rendered":"What Difference Does it Make if Ramiro Gonzales Prays?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Spirituality is complicated.\u00a0 For almost two decades, I\u2019ve ministered to all sorts of people.\u00a0 One\u00a0of the things that I\u2019ve come to realize is that no two people are the same.\u00a0 We are all trying to find the God that is beyond God.\u00a0 That is the entity that is beyond all comprehension that gives life meaning.\u00a0 Those who claim to know the totality of the divine are fools who should never be trusted.\u00a0 God is indescribable and that is what makes God\u2026God.\u00a0 Too often, there is a cultural phenomenon that demands certain expressions of spirituality for societal gain.\u00a0 Performance becomes spirituality and spirituality becomes performance.\u00a0 There seems to be few greater visceral manifestations of the consequences of such demands for performance than when it comes to the desperation of those facing execution.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s hard to judge the sincerity of those facing death.\u00a0 Most would do or say anything to save their life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve witnessed the desperation firsthand.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cruel game.\u00a0 You force people to perform when the truth is that they\u2019re probably going to be executed regardless of their performance.\u00a0 The desperation that those facing execution face certainly permeates and often guides the actions of those who advocate for the desperate.\u00a0 In recent years, such activity has been especially apparent in Texas.<\/p>\n
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In 2021, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) started a faith-based program for death row inmates that consists of classes, worship, fellowship and occasional special meals or people usually confined to the hopeless doldrums of solitary confinement.\u00a0 Of course, a great many want to be in this program.\u00a0 The incentives in and of themselves would be enough for anyone.\u00a0 Those who live in spaces with great concentrations of evangelicals know the bait and switch of such construction.\u00a0 Come get \u201csaved\u201d and we will hook you up with treats.<\/p>\n
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Now, TDCJ says such a program is interfaith\/nondenominational.\u00a0 Of course, that\u2019s what has to be said for the program to remain within the boundaries of the law.\u00a0 However, the pictures of baptisms, the selection\/ordination of ministers and fundamentalist preaching from within the program tell a different story.\u00a0 Such incentivization of evangelical Christianity disincentivizes every other spirituality.\u00a0 Such blatant promotion of religion is unquestionably unconstitutional and morally unconscionable.\u00a0 How can anyone who advocates for the welfare of persons on death row argue for a system that manipulates their agency and takes advantage of their desperation?<\/p>\n
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In recent years, the supposed success of the faith-based program has been used to create various manifestations of campaigns to save the lives of men facing imminent execution.\u00a0 While I don\u2019t blame those who do everything they can to save the life of a person facing execution, I do blame them for the promotion of a faith-based program that is inherently bigoted toward those who do not practice evangelical Christianity.\u00a0 Religious bigotry always begins with the preferencing of one religion over another.\u00a0 That is exactly what we are seeing in Texas.<\/p>\n
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In March of 2023, I accompanied Arthur Brown in the final few days of his life, culminating in being in the execution chamber with him when he was executed.\u00a0 During one of our final conversations, I asked him what he thought about the faith-based program.\u00a0 His response still lingers, \u201cThe faith-based program ain\u2019t about faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the manipulation of desperate people.\u00a0 Such manipulation has nothing to do with God.\u00a0 I don\u2019t fear death enough to play games with God like that.\u00a0 They shouldn\u2019t kill me because they shouldn\u2019t kill me\u2026not because they think I\u2019m a dog that\u2019s finally learned the right tricks.\u201d\u00a0 It seems that advocates are trying to convince those who make decisions about clemency that the person they are trying to save from execution is just like them and has learned the right tricks.<\/p>\n
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In October of 2023, the Texas attorneys and advocates were able to create a huge messaging campaign around Will Speer and his faith.\u00a0 What the attorneys and advocates wanted us to know is that Will Speer changed his life and was now a minister in the faith-based program.\u00a0 For nearly a decade, I\u2019ve known Speer and consider him a friend.\u00a0 Recent conversations with Speer have solidified in mind that the spiritual basis of the entire campaign (his transformation) was legitimate.\u00a0 Regardless of the legitimacy of Speer\u2019s faith conversion, the fact remains that the campaign got traction based on the promotion of his evangelical Christian faith.\u00a0 From the Baptist Standard to Christianity Today, a whole host of major Christian outlets promoted the claim that Speer had become an evangelical minister in the faith-based program and therefore should not be executed.\u00a0 Such efforts gained traction in the secular press too.<\/p>\n
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Let me make something very clear, the message was, \u201cWe can\u2019t execute an evangelical Christian minister.\u201d\u00a0 Surprisingly, the message worked. \u00a0To illustrate the injustice of it all, just a few weeks prior a faithful Jewish man named Jedidiah Murphy was executed.\u00a0 \u00a0I guess he chose the wrong faith?\u00a0 The lunacy of such a conclusion demonstrates the lunacy of creating campaigns based on \u201creligious development\u201d or better put, \u201cjailhouse religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Recently, the Texas attorneys and advocates are doing the same thing with Ramiro Gonzalez.\u00a0 I have no reason to doubt that Gonzalez\u2019s spiritual transformation in prison is legitimate.\u00a0 By all accounts, Gonzalez is an evangelical Christian minister who is very fervent in his practices.\u00a0 The ask of the current campaign is similar to the ask in the Speer campaign, \u201cDon\u2019t execute an evangelical Christian minister.\u201d\u00a0 With the execution fast approaching, we are once again seeing a burst of writing about Gonzalez and his faith.\u00a0 Such is his reward for having a faith that has currency in a place like Texas.\u00a0 Texas attorneys and advocates are obviously doing all that they can to utilize that currency.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that they know not what they do.<\/p>\n
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People are going to value what they value.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the point.\u00a0 We can\u2019t change society overnight.\u00a0 But we can change ourselves.\u00a0 Folks who advocate for those on death row should be incredibly cautious.\u00a0 The faith-based program has created a whole host of major moral problems.\u00a0 The faith-based program exists for the benefit of one manifestation of spirituality and one manifestation of spirituality only \u2013 evangelical Christianity.\u00a0 Intentionally or unintentionally, attorneys and advocates have become some of the great evangelical Christian evangelists in Texas.\u00a0 Indeed, attorneys and advocates seem to be basically promising those who participate in the faith-based program and function well as evangelical Christians that they are going to go all out to try to save their lives too.\u00a0 Such a development is very disturbing and promotes the rank bigotry that some lives matter more than others based on their spiritual location.<\/p>\n
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Furthermore, these campaigns promote a whole host of other injustices, intolerances and inequalities.\u00a0 Because the only way that such a campaign can happen is if someone fits into evangelical Christianity (i.e. the prevailing faith-manifestation in the faith-based program and in Texas in general).\u00a0 What happens when the homosexual doesn\u2019t fit?\u00a0 What happens when the Jew or Muslim or Buddhist<\/a> or Hindu doesn\u2019t fit?\u00a0 What happens if the intellectually or mentally disabled person doesn\u2019t fit?\u00a0 What happens if one holds a whole host of views or positions that are contrary to evangelical Christianity and can\u2019t fit in the faith-based program?\u00a0 When it comes to their advocacy for both Speer and Gonzalez, Texas attorneys and advocates are capitulating to a world of injustice, intolerance and inequality.<\/p>\n
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