Two influential Reverends from the United States will deliver a sermon entitled, ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill: A Christian Perspective on the Death Penalty’ on Thursday, December 4, at 7:30 PM at the Emmaus Centre on the St. Augustine’s College campus. The event is being presented by the Bahamas Chapter of Amnesty International.
Reverend Graylan Scott Hagler, of Washington, D.C., and Pastor James L. Demus III, of Chicago, Illinois, are prominent social activists who have played key roles in successful campaigns against capital punishment in their home districts.
Reverend Hagler is Senior Minister of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) in Washington, D.C., and National President of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice (MRSEJ), a U.S.-wide clergy organisation within the UCC.
In the 1990s, Rev. Hagler was instrumental in a campaign that prevented the U.S. Congress from imposing the death penalty on the District of Columbia. Hagler explained that Congress had tried to institute the penalty even though the citizens of the District had voted it down through several referenda.
To show their opposition to capital punishment, the churches in Washington, D. C. placed signs on their properties bearing the words from Exodus and the Ten Commandments: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” That tactic proved to be particularly effective and, according to Reverend Hagler, many of those signs can still be found on the churches today.
The Reverend has also led numerous public demonstrations and speak-outs against the death penalty across the United States, and has been interviewed countless times on the subject by U.S. and international media.
Rev. Demus is Senior Pastor of Park Manor Christian Church, one of the largest African-American congregations in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), an international denomination. He was recently named Executive Director of the Chicago South Side Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Pastor Demus worked very closely with the former Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, who in 2000 instituted a historic moratorium on the death penalty in that State.
The Governor postponed all scheduled lethal injections indefinitely, pending an investigation, after it became evident that more executions had been overturned than carried out since capital punishment was reinstated in Illinois in 1977.
“There is a flaw in the system, without question, and it needs to be studied,” the Governor told CNN at the time.
“The moratorium in Illinois gave great credence to our position, which is that the death penalty is not only morally bankrupt but, particularly in the United States, racist in character,” said Rev. Hagler. “It is not infallible: the only entity that is infallible, from a religious perspective, is God. The State, or an individual, cannot attempt to replace God.”
At the Emmaus Centre, Reverends Hagler and Demus will speak about their experiences and also address the subject of capital punishment from a theological and a moral perspective.
Their presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and all interested members of the public are warmly invited to attend.
“We feel very privileged that these two distinguished men of the cloth have agreed to come to Nassau to address the Bahamian public on this crucial subject, and look forward to a very inspiring and thought-provoking evening,” said R. E. Barnes, President of the Bahamas Chapter of Amnesty International.
For more information about this event, or to find out more about Amnesty International, please call 327-0807.
