Short Reports on OSM Related Issues/Events

Number 2:   California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty sponsored a workshop for San Diego clergy on September 20, 2006 - "An Eye for and Eye?" San Diego Clergy Reflect on the Death Penalty


Article by Dr. Michael Peddecord, Professor Emeritus,
Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University

More that 40 area clergy took part in the September 20th workshop entitled “An Eye for an Eye? - San Diego Clergy Reflect on the Death Penalty.”  The local chapter of California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty organized the event.  After an opening prayer, the systematic legal problems in the California death penalty trial and appeals process was documented by Marjorie Cohn, professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

A panel of clergy and scholars described the positions of several faiths on the death penalty.  Rev. Scott Richardson, Dean of St. Paul’s Saints Episcopal Cathedral, reminded us that the death penalty could be viewed as contrary to the tenets of Christian love and redemption.  He described the current worldwide Anglican opposition to the death penalty as the result of an evolution that is based on tradition, review of scripture and prayerful reflection.

 

Panel Presenters: Rev. Scott Richardson, Professor Khaleel Mohammed, Rabbi Alexis Pearce, and Dr. Terence McGoldrick



Professor Khaleel Mohammed of the Religious Studies department at San Diego State University, who is a practicing Muslim, acknowledged the variety of beliefs regarding the death penalty across the Muslims and predominately Islamic countries.  He expresses the consensus of many Islamic leaders and scholars that the support for the death penalty is largely the result of a literal interpretation of selected passages in the Koran.  Pointing out the importance of reflection on context of any sacred text, he expressed the belief that when the entire Koran was read and understood, that the death penalty was counter to the forgiveness, brotherhood and mutual support that characterized the teachings of Mohammad.  

Dr. Terence McGoldrick, an adjunct faculty member in Ethics and Theology at the University of San Diego and a Business Ethics consultant, outlined the evolution of Catholic teaching.  The current opposition to the death penalty is a reflection of the sanctity of life in all of its forms.  Catholic opposition was particularly visible under Pope John Paul II. 

Rabbi Alexis Pearce, emeritus spiritual leader of Congregation Dor Hadash, reminded us that the oft used call for an “Eye for an Eye” has nothing to do with any theological support or rationale for the death penalty.  Jewish historical tradition, both ancient and modern, has contributed to opposition to the death penalty.  Rabbi Pearce also pointed out that Jesus of Nazareth was only one of many hundreds of Jewish rabbis who were executed by the Romans during that particularly bloody period in Jewish history.  Current Jewish belief, which is clearly in opposition to the death penalty, is based on Talmudic teachings and rules which were codified long before the Roman conquest of Israel.  While the Hebrew Scriptures include examples where God inflects death on the enemies of his chosen people, it is common Jewish wisdom that imposition of the death penalty is the province of the almighty and not of fallible humans.  While the Talmud does not ban executions, it includes very strict procedural rules that protect citizens and all but preclude capital punishment.  These protections are reflected in current Israeli law.
 
The panel was followed by featured Speaker, Pastor Billy Neal Moore (photo at left).  Rev. Moore, recounted some of the key events of his 16 plus on Georgia’s death row.  He described his remorse for the robbery-murder of a 77-year-old man.  He confessed to the murder which he committed while drunk and was given the death penalty in a rural Georgia county.  In prison, he wrote letters to the victim’s family apologizing for his crime.  The family was so moved by his sincere sorrow that they forgave him and regarded it their Christian duty to spare his life.  While obtaining stays of execution in the federal courts, it was eventually the parole board that commuted Billy’s death sentence to life in prison.  He recounted the support of many people of faith throughout his ordeal as well as the unexpected intervention of Mother Teresa who told the Georgia parole board that they must find in their hearts to “do what Jesus would do.”  The parole board did, his death sentence commuted to life in prison and he was eventually paroled in 1991.  He worked at a variety of jobs until he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister and undertook his present ministry which is to show that the death penalty is no solution to crime.  His mission to abolish the death penalty has taken him all over the United States.  His book, I Shall Not Die: Seventy-Two Hours on Death Watch is a compelling story of faith and hope amid the inhumanities of the death penalty and our prison system. 

Co-chairs of the CPF leadership committee, Kent Peters (MC) and Ronnie Friedman-Barone kept the events moving.  Other CPF members who helped organize the workshop were on hand to learn, and provide resources to support future efforts by clergy.  CPF members involved in planning included Jennifer Bonakdar, Rev. Anthony Currin, Tim Spann, Joseph Horejs, Michael Peddecord, Carol Ann Goldstein, and Carleen Johnson. 

Rev. Moore’s book and a list of resources are available from the Office of Social Ministry - 858-490-8323.  The statewide CPF website is www.californiapeopleoffaith.org.  The local email contact is Michael Peddecord at cpfsd@cox.net.

1. Abortion leaves many casaulties in its wake: mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, spouses, siblings, children...  Many express a need to experience healing

Come celebrate a Mass for all those affected by abortion on Wednesday, October 4 at 6:00 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Parish, 1638 Polk Avenue, San Diego, 92103-2622


2. BIRTHLINE OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY, INC. will have a "WALK FOR LIFE" on Saturday, October 14 at three locations in San Diego County 

Walks will take place at, 1) Mission Bay Park DeAnza Cove North from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 2) Rohr Park 4548 Sweetwater Rd., Chula Vista from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m, and 3) St. Therese 6016 Camino Rico San Diego, CA (at the corner of College Ave. & Navaho Dr.) starting at 8:30 a.m.  All donations support the generous work fo and free services at Birthline of San Diego County.

Walkers are needed to walk and recruit sponsors.  For more information and registration materials contact Birthline at 858-270-2491. 


3. North-County prayer witness at the Carlsbad Planned Parenthood Clinic

North County parishioners meet the third Monday of every month from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. to peacefully pray the rosary in front of the Carlsbad Planned Parenthood Clinic.  The clinic is located at 1820 Marron Rd. (in the shopping center just west of Plaza Camino Real Mall).  For more information contact Jahna White of St. Margaret Parish at 760-586-6356.


4. Prayerful witness for life at two locations (Sixth and Palm in San Diego and Pomerado Road in Poway) in San Diego County

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants weekly rosary prayer vigil from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. every Saturday at Family Planning Associates 2850 Sixth Ave, at Palm, across from Balboa Park.  Prayer warriors also needed as early as 7:30 a.m. 

Call Sue Lopez 619/990-1341 for more information.
 
2nd Saturday of the month:  20 decades of the Rosary are prayed in procession past 4 clinics following the 7:30 a.m. Mass, 15546 Pomerado Road, Poway.  For more information, call 858-748-2109.

5. St. Dismas Guild sponsors two weekly hours of prayer for the unborn in North County

Join members of St. Dismas Guild for a rosary picket at Womancare, 120 S. Craven Way, San Marcos, (across from Cal State San Marcos), Tuesdays, 9-10 a.m.

The Guild also sponsors prayer (the rosary) in front of PayLess at Mission Avenue and Escondido Blvd. 347 W. Mission on Thursdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m.  For information on these prayer vigils, call 760-751-8541.
 

6. St. Rose of Lima sponsors a regular Thursday Pro-Life Prayer Vigil in Chula Vista

Please join St. Rose of Lima parishioners every Thursday after the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Rose of Lima, Chula Vista, for a pro-life prayer vigil at the clinic located at 261 Church Street, Chula Vista.   For more information, call Evangely Aliangan, 619-427-0230.

7. St. John the Evangelist Parish in Encinitas Pro-Life Mass and Rosary held on the first Monday of each month.

The first Monday of every month is designated Pro-Life Monday at St. John the Evangelist Church, 1001 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas.  The 8:00 a.m. Mass will be followed by a Rosary for Life.  For more information, please call Helene McIlhon at 858-756-0622.

8. Most Precious Blood Parish Rosary Prayer Vigils held on Wednesdays each week

The Pro-Life Prayer Group from Most Precious Blood sponsors a Rosary Prayer Vigil in front of the Clinica Medica abortion facility at 1550 Broadway, Chula Vista every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m.  For more information, please call Shirley Henry at 619-420-7096 or Luis Mendoza at 619-300-5563.
 

9. The ministry associated with the Clinica Medica abortion facility in Chula Vista is seeking sidewalk counselors for Wednesday mornings - training will be provided

The CLINICA MEDICA abortion facility in Chula Vista is now performing abortions on Wednesday mornings.  Please contact Luis Mendoza, a Missionary of The Gospel of Life Lay Associate, at 619-300-5563, with questions or to share interest in this ministry.

THE CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT
For Shame?
Why Christians should welcome, rather than stigmatize, unwed mothers and their children.
by Amy Laura Hall | posted 09/15/2006 09:30 a.m.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, had a way with words. In 1922, she wrote a book chapter titled "The Cruelty of Charity." Charity toward the poor, especially toward poor immigrants, she opined, only "encourages the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others, which brings with it … a dead weight of human waste."

In an age when upstanding Congregationalists and Unitarians were urging Americans to produce Fewer and Better Babies (Eugenics Publishing House, 35th edition, 1929), Sanger was in step with the times. By mid-century, most mainstream Protestant leaders agreed that the nation needed to calibrate carefully the number and type of babies—and immigrants—allowed.

One central means for ensuring the careful calibration of procreation was shame. Indeed, the author of Fewer and Better Babies anticipated that working-class parents who produced more than two children would eventually be considered "anti-social, as criminal members of the community." The anti-immigration and birth-control movements during the first half of the 20th century were linked by the sense that some people were beneath human dignity and would pollute "native stock American" bloodlines. The growing consensus during this era was summed up by the words of a Methodist clergyman from Missouri, writing for the Methodist Quarterly Review: "We should demand that each child born is worthy of a place in our midst."

Yet the most blatant use of shame I have found in my work on the history of reproduction and domesticity in the U.S. does not come from the eugenicists of 60 years ago. It comes from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a 21st-century effort. Pictures posted in high schools and featured in teen magazines show a Latina girl with "CHEAP" emblazoned across her body. The African American girl is labeled "REJECT," the Asian girl "DIRTY," and the working-class white girl "NOBODY." The very fine print places these labels in a different context—recommending "cheap" condoms, for example. But the overwhelming effect of the design is bold-print humiliation, suggesting that teenage mothers are cheap, dirty nobodies, social rejects with no future and with little hope for their children. The stark photos are reminiscent of social-hygiene posters from the eugenic era, cultivating a potent combination of disdain and fear.

Possibly the most troubling of the posters features a white boy whose sexual activity resulted in an unexpected pregnancy. He is labeled "USELESS," and the fine print reads: "My scholarship is USELESS. Now I need a job to support my baby." Taken together, the posters convey a deeply problematic message. The college boy who leaves behind his scholarship to take care of the CHEAP REJECT's baby is USELESS.

The board of directors for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy includes CEOs from major corporations and leaders from both political parties, representing a broad consensus across the United States, as well as leading members of the black and Hispanic communities. The urgency of eliminating teenage pregnancy is one of the few matters on which conservatives and liberals agree, and the stakes are deemed sufficiently high to warrant the use of brute shame.

Sexy Doublespeak
Another national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy is sponsored by the Candie's Foundation, linked to a trendy line of handbags, sunglasses, bikinis, and sandals. The foundation's website speaks a predictable, nonsensical language of free-flowing, responsible sex appeal. "Think of what you can achieve if you don't conceive"—this runs as a refrain as various celebrities vogue for the camera. Candie's encourages viewers to "be sexy" (no doubt with the aid of Candie's accessories), but not to have sex. This directive is always followed with a caveat: If you do have sex, use birth control, or else you will suffer "the devastating consequences."

One public service announcement produced by Candie's makes it clear that the consequence that can render sex devastating is, in fact, a human life. With a young couple about to "do this" in the back seat of a car, former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy arrives to deliver a crying baby into the girl's arms. The boy exits the car in a hurry. Jenny leaves, too, sneering at the girl with knowing disgust. "Welcome to reality," are her departing words. The girl is left holding the crying baby, alone, clearly frightened, in the back seat of the car.

Is this truly reality—a world where teenage mothers who conceive are abandoned to "devastating consequences"? Perhaps. I sometimes think so when I hear stories of evangelical families who cannot bear the shame of an unplanned pregnancy, as I read thinly veiled warnings in the media about the growing number of young, Latina mothers in the U.S., and as I dig through the archives of meticulously planned reproduction as marketed to mid-20th-century Americans. Throughout that history of planning and parenthood, the word illegitimate bears multiple layers of stigma and shame.

But I have come to believe that Christians are called to be a counterculture for the common good in no small part by refusing to declare any life in our midst illegitimate.

Risky Commitment
Christians are called to a very different kind of double-speak from Candie's bikini-chastity chic. We are called to encourage sexual discipline outside and inside of marriage, while also affirming, in the very same breath, that no pregnancy is outside of God's reach.

This does not mean that Christians cannot say it would have been preferable had this young woman not shared herself intimately with a boy who hardly knew how to appreciate the intricate beauty of her body and the vulnerability of her love. Christians are surely called to teach girls and young women that their bodies are not primarily "in waiting" for sex with a man, but rather actively in service today for the work of the Holy Spirit. But as we affirm the blessings of holy chastity, we must also consider the incipient life embedded inside an image-bearer of God as within the purview of God's providence. A young couple's coupling in the backseat is morally barren (even if ultimately procreative), because it is outside the sacramental gift of marriage. Yet the pregnancy conceived by such a couple in the backseat (even if it is ill-conceived) is well within the reach of God's profligate grace.

During the last century in the United States, many mainline Protestant leaders, committed to the eugenics movement, deemed it their business to determine which births were with the grain of God's plan for the evolving progress of human history and which births were a drag on the movement forward. Christians are called to more humility and more confidence than that—more humility about the grievous harm that has been done in the name of social progress, and more confidence in God's ability to turn even regrettable human choices to good.

Happily, many Christian churches are already offering a different "welcome to reality" than the one offered by Jenny McCarthy. These congregations, neighborhoods, and kinship networks name the girls in the poster shame-campaign to be children of promise, worthy recipients of hands-on care and communal sacrifice. They refuse the calculus of life that draws a distinction between accidental and providential babies, between the right sorts of people and those sorts of people with teenage mothers.

There are such congregations, but I believe that, in answer to God's call, there could be many more.

Such advocacy, born of holy double-speak, is a stretch for many in my cohort of Christianity. But it is not so much a stretch for many African American congregations and Latino Catholic communities. It is my prayer that more mainstream evangelicals, in both "red" America and "blue" America, will cross over into risky solidarity with a third color of Americans.

We could do so by advocating for and working within alternative high schools where pregnant girls may continue their education. We could work for maternity leave and flexible schedules at all levels of education and enterprise, especially at institutions overtly committed to Christian witness. To be a people committed to the incalculable gift of life may mean myriad commitments that interrupt our plans for our own families. It may mean that a young couple without children find themselves babysitting a child not their blood kin several evenings a week, rather than watching their favorite science fiction series on DVD. A single man may find himself fixing a young single mother's clogged sink on a lunch break or building her toddler a swing set during a holiday weekend. For many mothers and fathers, it may mean adapting their entire life and career to care daily for an unexpected grandchild. And by my own political reckoning, witnessing for the common good not only means hands-on local action, but also advocating for systematic acts of mercy through a matrix of services to offer single mothers a safety net of care.

After hearing me give a talk on abortion, eugenics, and teenage pregnancy, my oldest daughter, with whom I had not yet initiated a talk about birds and bees, looked up at me and said frankly, "Mom, if God gives me a baby before I am married, I won't worry. I know that you and Dad would take care of it so that I could stay in school."

After taking a deep breath and squeezing back tears of sheer parental terror, I agreed that she was right, that we would help her and her baby no matter what. I pray that the situation will not arise, but I also pray that should it arise, her father and I, as well as the congregation into which she has been baptized, will be worthy of her confidence, for to fail her would be contrary to who we hope to be. To fail her would be the true shame.

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September 2006, Vol. 50, No. 9, Page 40