Sister Helen Prejean wakes up the first-ever DNC interfaith gathering!

[tannybogus]

<snip>
But I think nearly everyone who attended this DNC interfaith gathering would agree that it was Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and the well-known author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, who really preached. Her assigned topic was "Our Sacred Responsibility to Our Nation" and the Sister didn't waste time on interfaith niceties. Instead, she asked, "What do we see by the dawn's early light?" We see the death penalty, she said, applied in a racist, classist fashion to those who are the most vulnerable. And it doesn't make us any safer.

Sister Helen didn't really shout, but you could have heard a pin drop in the large theater when she leaned over the podium and said that what the death penalty reveals about the soul of America is that we have come to believe that violence can solve all our problems. Hence we torture, we make war and we steadily become less safe.

If we actually taught peace instead of war, she argued, and chose negotiation over bombing, and quit executing people in prison "death houses," then, "When we go to China and lecture them about human rights, we could hold our heads up." She was interrupted at that point and several other times in her address by sustained applause.

When she finished, she received a standing ovation that went on and on. As the clapping died down, the middle aged white man in the plaid shirt and string tie sitting next to me said quietly, almost to himself, "That's what I came to hear."

Me, too.

It will be interesting to see, in these next days at the Democratic National Convention, if there are any connections that get made between this interfaith gathering and the regular convention events. There are also faith panels on Tuesday and Thursday.
And what, I wonder, do the other convention delegates think of all this emphasis on faith? I plan to ask around and see what they say.
<snip>
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_brooks_thistlethwaite/2008/08/amen_at_the

That I would like to have heard!

[ixion]

1. oh goody. more religion and politics

just what we need. :eyes: :sarcasm:

[SpiralHawk]

8. I didn't hear any religion & politics. I heard ethics & politics

Real ethics, not phony republicon hypocritical so-called diaper-wrapped 'family values."

So I say, right on, Sister.

[dflprincess]

13. A DNC sponsered "interfaith gathering"

sounds like religion and politics to me. I'm curious, what faiths were included? And were non-believers invited to speak? I ask this as both a believer in both God and in the separation of church and state.

[HelenWheels]

2. Why couldn't she speak as an expert on the death penalty

and leave the religion out of it. Although, from the OP it sounds like she might have done just that and it was billed as religion so to appease the republicans.

[gratuitous]

4. She IS a nun

Sort of hard to "leave the religion out of it" in that case.

And since the vast majority of Americans claim some sort of religious observance, putting a counterargument to the death penalty in language those Americans can understand sounds like a smart move to me.

[HelenWheels]

7. So what if she's a nun

That goes back to the same argument that if you don't have religion you can't be moral. She'd be against the death penalty whether she had a god in her life or not.

People are moral because they are, if there were concrete proof tomorrow that there was no god they wouldn't change their behavior.

[gratuitous]

9. Hanh?

Did I miss something? Did Sister Prejean say that people who don't have religion can't be moral? Who said that, and what was the context? Methinks you've lumped a whole lot people into a classification who don't necessarily belong there.

All I'm saying is that as a nun, Helen Prejean necessarily puts things into a religious context, just like she necessarily would put it into a female context: It's who she is. I'm reading from your posts that she should deny who she is. If you have a counterargument to the death penalty that doesn't have a religious context, by all means make it. Just recognize that in this country you're talking to a very small segment of the population.

[HelenWheels]

12. I'm not saying she should deny who she is

Actually I'm saying the opposite. Her religion is just part of her. Her objection to capital punishment is supported by her beliefs it isn't the reason for it.

By basing ones argument on a religion it makes it null and void for those of different beliefs.

I wasn't saying that she personally believes atheists are immoral but that is the general assumption that is made when people discount non believers. Moral beliefs are supported by peoples religion, religion is not the reason people are moral.

[undeterred]

3. She's wonderful.

She cured my ambivalence on the death penalty. And she speaks as who she is, a woman of faith.

[auntAgonist]

5. I'm currently reading her book "Death of Innocents"

She is an incredible person and writer.

aA

[undeterred]

6. Susan Sarandon and Sean Pean

both turned in Oscar worthy performances in Dead Man walking. Passionately political actors who were perfect for their roles. I've never seen her speak in person, but I was teaching a class using Sister Helen's book and the death penalty issue became crystal clear for me. She made it crystal clear for me and its a rare person who can do that.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. I would have liked to have heard it, too. Sr. Helen...

is an incredible speaker.

Two things bother me, though. First, the minor matter of the bigoted idiots who bitch about "religion" while ignoring Prejean's message-- she was brought to her convictions partly through her religion but her convictions and message have absolutely nothing to do with religion.

And the major matter of both Obama and Biden supporting the death penalty, with Biden actually having written the law to expand its use in the Federal courts. I have no doubt that the two of them will do far better than the present occupants in the matter of human rights and liberties, but they do fall down with a heavy thud on this one particular issue.

[MBS]

11. I heard her speech (on CNN livestream) and she was eloquent. n/t