Part one
The thing I like about this book is that it raises concerns on the way some countries in the world execute people for capital offences. The author is aware of the power of information and how information can used to rally the world to decry gross violation of fundamental human rights. Although execution is a powerful social tool for controlling human behavior, it hurts to read about increasing incidences of juvenile executions. Juvenile executions have been prevalent in Iran, Pakistan and the United States.
Part two
The interesting part of this story is how Christianity has permitted violence in human history. Prejean is concerned about people’s blatant disregard of Jesus’s nonviolent teachings (Prejean 122). Central in Prejean’s argument is the belief that God is not a god of vengeance. Her stance against capital punishment stands out in the text. The uninteresting thing about the reading is that people seem to embrace violence as a means to achieving some ends. I don’t find Robert Willie’s involvement in murder and brutal rape interesting. He has a long history of criminal record. He is less sympathetic and appears unapologetic about his behavior.
Part three
Prejean admits that she recognizes the theology of atonement in which Jesus’s death on the cross appeased an angry God (Prejean 150). She wonders about the kind of God who rejoices in the suffering of his people. I believe that God’s intention was to use Jesus as an embodiment of both God and man. In communicating his desire for human deliverance, God wanted to use a figure that had dual elements of God and man to serve as a link between mankind and God. The proposal by Prejean on the use of nonnegotiable alternatives to replace capital punishment is welcome provided it fulfills the need for retribution.
Work Cited
Prejean, Helen. Dead man walking: An eyewitness account of the death penalty in the United
States. Vintage, 1994.
