Now Is Not The Time For Complacency
By Tina Bailey
My name is Tina Bailey and I have served for more than 20 years in Bali, Indonesia under the auspices of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, where my husband, Jonathan, and I focus on spiritual expression through music, dance and visual arts both inside and outside the local Christian community.
While serving in Indonesia, I have seen first-hand the damage done by the death penalty. I held vigil with the family of Myuran Sukumaran as he was being executed. I saw the pain in the eyes of prison guards who grieved that a man who they had witnessed being transformed, and had helped others experience that same transformation was about to be executed. I saw the impact of those who lost hope — losing hope because they no longer believed there was any reason to change when such change clearly did not make a difference.
The death penalty creates many concentric circles of trauma that lasts long after the execution takes place. As one who shares my faith convictions, Pastor Griffen knows this. Many are condemned without proper evidence. Many truly reform their lives but find no mercy. When we condone the death of another person, we take on the role of God. This should not be so.
From my experience walking the journey with a death row inmate, I came to firmly believe that Justice must be paired with Mercy. I hold deeply to the words from Micah 6:8 – “Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly With Your God.” If any of those is missing, we run the risk of doing great harm to one another.
I stand here today in support of my Baptist colleague and brother in Christ, Judge Wendell Griffen. I strongly support his right to religious freedom, to cling tightly to his religious convictions opposed to the taking of human life. Religious freedom is the bedrock principle upon which our society was built. It is our First Freedom. It is the cornerstone of our Baptist beliefs.
As the popular saying goes, “When anyone’s religious liberty is denied, everyone’s is in jeopardy.” Judge Griffen’s religious liberty is under attack at the hands of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline Commission — all because Judge Griffen had the audacity to participate in a prayer vigil on Good Friday in front of the Governor’s Mansion as the state was planning to execute eight inmates. He did so in his role as a Baptist pastor and alongside his congregation, members of New Millennium Church.
Judge Griffen deserves our support and prayers. We are called do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Judge Griffen’s religious freedom is in jeopardy and so is ours. Now is not the time for complacency. It is time for the fierce urgency of prophetic hope. Our nation’s First Freedom has never mattered more.
Tina Bailey is a representative of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. She lives in Denpassar, Bali in the nation of Indonesia and can be reached at: jonathan.tina.bailey@worldpersonnel.org
