Jesus On Trial In Texas
Q & A with Mark Osler, Professor, Baylor Law School, Waco, TX
What if Jesus were sentenced under Texas death-penalty laws? Would he still be executed? That question has led Baylor Law School professor Mark Osler to stage the trial of Christ under the rules of Texas law for a Waco congregation.
The death penalty opponent and sentencing guidelines expert summarized his thoughts in a book published last year, Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment.
Q. You staged the trial of Christ under the laws of Texas at a Baptist church in Waco as an untenured professor. What surprised you most about how that played out?
A. Among many surprises, one of the most striking was the willingness of people in the congregation to consider this very old question in anew light. Many, if not most, had not thought about the modern death penalty in the context of Christ’s execution, but once that idea was presented, even those who had participated in capital murder juries (there were two in that congregation) eagerly engaged in the exercise. This is consistent with what I have seen generally in talking about the book—people of faith who may disagree with me have been uniformly warm and receptive to genuine and heartfelt discussion, largely because it is a debate in which we begin with a common set of beliefs about the source of all knowledge.
Q. Given that there is generally a lack of discussion on this issue in Texas, then, do you see people of faith as possibly playing a major role? Should this discussion be taking place in more faith communities?
A. When we talk about our society choosing to kill our own citizens, we are talking about a moral issue, and people of faith so often lead the way in those discussions. In fact, people of faith have already done so, especially within the Catholic Church; I am struck by how important this issue is to many Catholics and humbled by the sincerity with which they wrestle with these questions.
Q. In your book, you say that the “troubling account of Jesus as a criminal defendant should be part of the discussion” about the death penalty. Why? Ancient law and a death sentence carried out within hours doesn’t really equate to our deliberative and slow process for executing heinous murderers, does it?
A. Part of my own spiritual journey with writing this book was finding that, in many ways, Christ’s experience does equate with our own process and its problems. For example, one constant in the Gospel accounts is the mob of people calling for death who seem to follow Jesus at each step. This mob influences the political actors, Pontius Pilate and Herod, as they decline to stop the execution, wrong as it is.
Too often, the flaws in our own process (especially in Texas) are the result of having it all driven by an elected district attorney, an elected district court judge, an elected Court of Criminal Appeals, and an elected governor (considering clemency), all of whom know sparing the life of a capital defendant is likely to turn the anger of the population against them, regardless of the real problems in a case.
Q. Yes, but pilate refused to pardon a holy man, a preacher. Texas officials are asked to show mercy to murderers. Does making this comparison risk offending some Christians?
A. The risk is there. Jesus was unimaginably good, and the murderers are unimaginably bad. Still, Jesus taught us that when we visit those in prison, we visit him. He expressly compared himself to those in Huntsville, and without the caveat of identifying only the innocent prisoners. If I compare Jesus to prisoners, I do so at his invitation, and without the pretense that I am talking about the innocent or honorable. So often, Christ taught us things that defy our own impulses, and this is one of them for me. Yet, despite my own inner resistence, I feel called to defer to Christ.
Q. Do you believe Jesus—and by extension God, his father—wanted his followers to oppose the death penalty?
A. I do believe that. I discern God’s will largely through the Bible, and I believe that God wrote the story that Jesus lived out on Earth. That means that God chose the roles Jesus played for a reason, to teach us and show us what is important. Doesn’t it matter, then, that God chose Jesus to be a capital defendant? Just as I believe that God intended great meaning in having Jesus be born in a manger and sought out by wise men, I think that God also crafted the story of Jesus’ death. That part of the Gospels shows us how wrong we can be when we, as a society, choose to take a life. Is the fundamental nature of man so different now than it was in Jesus time?
This article was adapted from an extended Q & A transcript of an interview with Professor Mark Osler by a Dallas Morning News reporter and can be read at dallasnews.com/deathpenaltyblog.
