A Review Of Executing Grace: "How The Death Penalty Killed Jesus And Why It’s Killing Us", By Shane Claiborne -- By: Mark McGinniss

Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 21:2 (Fall 2017)
Article: A Review Of Executing Grace: "How The Death Penalty Killed Jesus And Why It’s Killing Us", By Shane Claiborne
Author: Mark McGinniss


A Review Of Executing Grace:
How The Death Penalty Killed Jesus And Why It’s Killing Us, By Shane Claiborne

Mark McGinniss

Abstract: In his newest book, Executing Grace, Shane Claiborne argues vehemently against the death penalty by putting faces on the victims (and their surviving families), the guilty, the executioner, and the system itself. It was these “faces” that caused Claiborne to change his view on capital punishment. However, he argues against capital punishment from inadequate theology, uncomfortable personal feelings, heart-wrenching stories, recent trends, inaccurate comparisons, and guilt by association. Nonetheless, his observations concerning the racial bias in the application of the death penalty as well as the miscarriage of justice for those who are innocent are worth pondering. These facts alone should give pause to a society to evaluate the methods and application of its capital punishment system. Even in light of chilling bias and innocent death, however, Claiborne’s case for killing the death penalty is not biblically sound or logically compelling.

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In a later chapter of his book Executing Grace,2 Claiborne confesses that it was the faces involved with capital punishment that caused him to change his position from advocate to passionate zealot against the death penalty. He writes, “But I have to tell you that these (history, Bible study, facts and stats) were not what changed my mind about the death

penalty. It was the people I met and their stories that changed my mind. The faces. The names” (206–7).

I have a face and name as well—Raymond. Raymond was in my church and Christian school. In the first three years of our marriage, Joy and I rented a cottage from his parents and lived on his parents’ property. Raymond was one of those fun-loving kids who believed the world was for their sole enjoyment. Even Sunday morning service was a fun place to bring a concealed snake under his shirt, a snake that preferred not to be concealed. As a youngster, he rarely showed a serious side. He wore a ready grin (some say smirk). I spent much time motivating him in his studies—generally not to much avail. School was a drudge, a dreaded necessity for Raymond. Fortunately, he did not hold school against me.

One summer when the bluefish were running right off the beach 50 yards from our houses, he came hollering for me and we crushed the fish. We caught so many that he grabbed his wheelbarrow, filled it with our catch, and walked around the neighborhood trying to sell them. Before he graduated high school his family m...

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