Spirituality is complicated. For almost two decades, I’ve ministered to all sorts of people. One of the things that I’ve come to realize is that no two people are the same. We are all trying to find the God that is beyond God. That is the entity that is beyond all comprehension that gives life meaning. Those who claim to know the totality of the divine are fools who should never be trusted. God is indescribable and that is what makes God…God. Too often, there is a cultural phenomenon that demands certain expressions of spirituality for societal gain. Performance becomes spirituality and spirituality becomes performance. 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.
It’s hard to judge the sincerity of those facing death. Most would do or say anything to save their life. I’ve witnessed the desperation firsthand. It’s a cruel game. You force people to perform when the truth is that they’re probably going to be executed regardless of their performance. The desperation that those facing execution face certainly permeates and often guides the actions of those who advocate for the desperate. In recent years, such activity has been especially apparent in Texas.
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. Of course, a great many want to be in this program. The incentives in and of themselves would be enough for anyone. Those who live in spaces with great concentrations of evangelicals know the bait and switch of such construction. Come get “saved” and we will hook you up with treats.
Now, TDCJ says such a program is interfaith/nondenominational. Of course, that’s what has to be said for the program to remain within the boundaries of the law. However, the pictures of baptisms, the selection/ordination of ministers and fundamentalist preaching from within the program tell a different story. Such incentivization of evangelical Christianity disincentivizes every other spirituality. Such blatant promotion of religion is unquestionably unconstitutional and morally unconscionable. 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?
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. While I don’t 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. Religious bigotry always begins with the preferencing of one religion over another. That is exactly what we are seeing in Texas.
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. During one of our final conversations, I asked him what he thought about the faith-based program. His response still lingers, “The faith-based program ain’t about faith. It’s about the manipulation of desperate people. Such manipulation has nothing to do with God. I don’t fear death enough to play games with God like that. They shouldn’t kill me because they shouldn’t kill me…not because they think I’m a dog that’s finally learned the right tricks.” 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.
In October of 2023, the Texas attorneys and advocates were able to create a huge messaging campaign around Will Speer and his faith. 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. For nearly a decade, I’ve known Speer and consider him a friend. Recent conversations with Speer have solidified in mind that the spiritual basis of the entire campaign (his transformation) was legitimate. Regardless of the legitimacy of Speer’s faith conversion, the fact remains that the campaign got traction based on the promotion of his evangelical Christian faith. 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. Such efforts gained traction in the secular press too.
Let me make something very clear, the message was, “We can’t execute an evangelical Christian minister.” Surprisingly, the message worked. To illustrate the injustice of it all, just a few weeks prior a faithful Jewish man named Jedidiah Murphy was executed. I guess he chose the wrong faith? The lunacy of such a conclusion demonstrates the lunacy of creating campaigns based on “religious development” or better put, “jailhouse religion.”
Recently, the Texas attorneys and advocates are doing the same thing with Ramiro Gonzalez. I have no reason to doubt that Gonzalez’s spiritual transformation in prison is legitimate. By all accounts, Gonzalez is an evangelical Christian minister who is very fervent in his practices. The ask of the current campaign is similar to the ask in the Speer campaign, “Don’t execute an evangelical Christian minister.” With the execution fast approaching, we are once again seeing a burst of writing about Gonzalez and his faith. Such is his reward for having a faith that has currency in a place like Texas. Texas attorneys and advocates are obviously doing all that they can to utilize that currency. It’s clear that they know not what they do.
People are going to value what they value. That’s not the point. We can’t change society overnight. But we can change ourselves. Folks who advocate for those on death row should be incredibly cautious. The faith-based program has created a whole host of major moral problems. The faith-based program exists for the benefit of one manifestation of spirituality and one manifestation of spirituality only – evangelical Christianity. Intentionally or unintentionally, attorneys and advocates have become some of the great evangelical Christian evangelists in Texas. 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. Such a development is very disturbing and promotes the rank bigotry that some lives matter more than others based on their spiritual location.
Furthermore, these campaigns promote a whole host of bigotries. 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). What happens when the homosexual doesn’t fit? What happens when the Jew or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu doesn’t fit? What happens if the intellectually or mentally disabled person doesn’t fit? What happens if one holds a whole host of views or positions that are contrary to evangelical Christianity and can’t fit in the faith-based program? 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.
The ends don’t justify the means. Just ask any LGBTQ or Muslim or Neurodivergent or Jewish kid trying to make it through each school day in Texas. Though I pray relentlessly for Speer and Gonzlez to not be executed, the inequalities inherent in the faith-based program are evil and it is evil to try to give currency to such inequalities.
Jesus is not the reason to not execute an evangelical Christian minister. Jesus is the reason to not execute anyone. To launch and promote a campaign that uses spiritual intolerances to take advantage of societal currency is absolutely anathema to anything that Jesus ever taught and incredibly offensive to anyone even remotely serious about following Jesus.
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