I was up early on a rainy Sunday morning this week to drive to Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, a small town tucked away on the Cumberland Plateau. The occasion was Pleasant Hill Community Church’s (UCC) annual Abolition Sunday, and I was invited to preach at the service.

This congregation has held an Abolition Sunday now since two of its members attended People of Faith Against the Death Penalty’s Kairos Conference a few years ago in Atlanta. This national conference encouraged congregations to get more involved in working to end the death penalty by educating their members and taking action.  The two individuals from Pleasant Hill took the challenge to heart, and now their congregation is actively engaged in working to end the death penalty in Tennessee with letter writing campaigns, educational forums, participation in TADP’s Justice Day on the Hill, and of course, Abolition Sunday!

And just a few weeks ago now, the Tennessee Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church passed a resolution asking the Tennessee General Assembly and Governor Haslam “to issue a stay on all Tennessee court ordered executions, and to seek alternatives ways to achieve healing and restorative justice for all those who suffer because of violent crimes.”  Through a blog post, Nashville area UMC Bishop Bill McAlilly challenged the recent reinstatement of the electric chair in Tennessee and urged United Methodists to contact their lawmakers expressing their opposition to the death penalty. This blog post led to a rally by Methodists from across the state in Nashville to show lawmakers and citizens alike that this is an issue about which people of faith have something to say.

This engagement by more and more congregations from various denominations statewide demonstrates that Tennesseans are deeply concerned about the recent decisions by our leaders concerning the death penalty and that we seek a better way forward.  It is time to redirect our focus from maintaining a broken death penalty system, to instead focusing our energy and resources on better supporting murder victim’s families, educating our young people, and treating those who struggle with mental illness and substance abuse–all of which will do far more to meet the needs and reduce the violence in our communities than the death penalty ever will.

If you want your congregation to become more educated and engaged on the death penalty in Tennessee, please let us know. We can provide you with the tools and resources to get started.

Photo of Pleasant Hill Community Church

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