Kelly Gissendaner: One More Post

“I'm currently sitting in the beautiful sanctuary of First United Methodist Church in Newnan. A concert on their magnificent pipe organ awaits. The stained glass windows stunningly portray Jesus, the one who came to bring redeeming forgiveness to all who come to Him. How sad that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole seems convinced that justice eliminates mercy and refused to commute the death sentence of Kelly Gissendaner. Equally sad is how many elected officials in the state government and especially the judiciary will brag about how tough they are on crime because of this. Perhaps their politics will allow that. It doesn't seem to be how Jesus behaved or thought - and neither should His followers. The stained glass windows around me weep tears of sadness. Jesus would gather us as a hen gathers her chicks but we refuse to come. And He too weeps.”

I wrote those words last night after seeing on a news feed that that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole would not commute Kelly Gissendaner’s death sentence to life in prison. I posted them on Facebook and there were lots of “likes.” It was encouraging to see so many Christian people agreeing that the State of Georgia really dropped the ball in this situation. 

One person did object to what I wrote, but his argument was so specious that I will only say by the logic expressed in that disagreement, Christians should be fine with abortion because after all the dead babies are with Jesus; and you might as well go ahead and approve of euthanasia, at least for Christians who are old and sick because they will be with Jesus also. And forget persecuted and often murdered Christians in places like Syria and the Middle East – ISIS is sending them straight to Jesus also. 

His objections reflect a kind of patriotism that places faith under the state flag of Georgia and the stars and stripes of the United States. Yet when confronted with a similar issue before Pilate, Jesus was quick to say “my kingdom is not of this world” and when Pilate asked him “Are you king of the Jews?” he replied “You say that I AM King.” (John 18:36ff) He is King - but not of this world. Thinking that some act of the state is acceptable because the state says it is, while it stands in brutal contrast to core values of the kingdom of God, can only mean that our pledge of allegiance to our nation will always trump our confession of faith that Jesus is Christ. That’s simply not orthodox faith.

So why do I think “He too weeps” in response to the murder of Kelly Gissindaner? I’m so glad you asked!

First, by the same argument that I would use to suggest abortion is morally wrong, one is put in a difficult position as a follower of Jesus in thinking the death penalty is “of God.” Forget about all the little proof texts anti-abortion people use to show opposition to abortion (they aren’t really about abortion). Scripture opposes abortion because it creates an image of life where God alone is the author, giver, and sustainer of life and abortion violates that image. 

I understand that sometimes godly law enforcement people and godly soldiers and godly civilians are put in places where lives are taken.  I’ve never met a truly godly person in that circumstance who was happy about that. But I understand it happens. In this particular case, the state had multiple options other than lethal injection. Why unnecessarily violate the premise that God alone is the author, giver, and sustainer of life?

Of course the state doesn’t have to follow God in the way that I do as a believer. So the question really is why do Christian people find themselves lining up to vote for politicians who are interested in notches on the belt of “hard on crime” rather than interested in the idea of mercy?

Second, forgiveness is a big deal to anyone who follows Jesus.  By the standards of those who preach a kind of “she did the crime, she has to die” message, the apostle Paul would have been put to death before he wrote the first word of what would become nearly one-half of the New Testament and the impact of his work as a missionary would never have come about.

No one, including Kelly Gissendaner herself, was denying that what she did was a heinous act and deserving of punishment. While I didn’t see one person suggest that her conversion was nothing more than “jail house faith,” I did see lots of women prisoners and former prisoners who spoke of her genuineness as a believer and how much she had helped them.

Just think pragmatically for a moment. Go check out the recidivism rate for prisoners in Georgia. It’s horrendous. Go check out the overcrowding of Georgia prisons – in part because of recidivism. Forget the gospel, faith, forgiveness and all that silly stuff – wouldn’t it just make good sense to keep a women like this alive and functioning inside the prisons of our state? 

Third, the use of plea arrangements by the court system in Georgia as well as other places in the United States has become a “let me get another notch on my belt” by prosecutors more interested in their next election than any sense of justice, mercy, or human decency. Kelly Gissindaner, for reasons I don’t know, took the risk of going to trial. The realization that the person who actually committed the murder was given a sentence with the possibility of parole and she was given the death penalty once convicted by a jury should cause any decent, justice-loving person pause. Is that really where we want to be as a country?

The whole plea bargain approach eliminates the long-cherished American ideal of “innocent until proven guilty.” The behavior of government and courts in Germany in the years leading up to and including the Hitler years of terror sound awfully similar sometimes. To suggest that because she went to court and lost it is wrong to show mercy is not only un-American, far more importantly it is un-Christian. When the state can threaten you with dire options if you to plead out – you can be sure that the idea of justice is but a shrinking memory of a day long since passed.

This isn’t just about Kelly Gissendaner – though if it were that would be adequate reason to be disturbed.  Rather it is ultimately about the danger of the church – followers of Jesus – going to bed with any government, including our own, that will tempt us to salute flags before we kneel at the cross. My initial blog on this situation suggested that it was the result of Sadducees who were comfortable going to bed with Rome and Pharisees who thought it was all about tradition and rules that Jesus was crucified.

I still think I’m right about that and determined that I won’t yield to the temptation to be like them. Every morning I get up and walk around three miles before leaving for work. On that walk I pass a house where there are all sorts of “look at me, I’m a Christian” indicators. Oddly, there is a flag pole on which hangs a US flag and a Georgia flag.  Much lower, underneath those two flags, there is a Christian flag. The image of subservience can’t be missed.

God forgive me if I ever get to the place where I think Georgia law is more important than the grace and mercy of Jesus.