Antone's Nightclub
Where Would Jesus Stand on the Jena 6?
RECEIVED Thu., Oct. 4, 2007
Dear Editor,
I just wanted to send a message thanking you for detailing the entire controversy of the Jena 6 [“Austinites Mobilize in Support of the Jena 6,” News, Sept. 28]. I watched the national media for about an hour during a press conference, and they never once explained the controversy in the detail you provided.
I heard the prosecutor talk about his lord Jesus Christ in the press conference and a pastor's rebuttal about the prosecutor's Jesus and his Jesus (the pastor's). The whole discussion made me think about where Jesus would stand in such proceedings.
Was Jesus a powerful prosecutor (Pilate) or the accused? Did Jesus forgive sins or condemn others for their sins? Was Jesus imprisoned and accused or the accuser (prosecutor)?
The one crime that Jesus ever held up to being worthy of the death penalty was harming a child (Mark 9:42). A self-inflicted penalty but a death penalty none the less. Is a 17-year-old a child? I don't have an answer for that.
The prosecutor should not be trying to sanctify his work in the name of Jesus. God in his infinite wisdom made sure that no man could rightly justify any kind of oppression of any man or woman, just or unjust, in Jesus' name. A life of service and in the end oppressed and killed should make us all consider how we treat others and who we are most like.
My thanks to the pastor for wisely asking the right question and making others consider the difference.
I just wanted to send a message thanking you for detailing the entire controversy of the Jena 6 [“Austinites Mobilize in Support of the Jena 6,” News, Sept. 28]. I watched the national media for about an hour during a press conference, and they never once explained the controversy in the detail you provided.
I heard the prosecutor talk about his lord Jesus Christ in the press conference and a pastor's rebuttal about the prosecutor's Jesus and his Jesus (the pastor's). The whole discussion made me think about where Jesus would stand in such proceedings.
Was Jesus a powerful prosecutor (Pilate) or the accused? Did Jesus forgive sins or condemn others for their sins? Was Jesus imprisoned and accused or the accuser (prosecutor)?
The one crime that Jesus ever held up to being worthy of the death penalty was harming a child (Mark 9:42). A self-inflicted penalty but a death penalty none the less. Is a 17-year-old a child? I don't have an answer for that.
The prosecutor should not be trying to sanctify his work in the name of Jesus. God in his infinite wisdom made sure that no man could rightly justify any kind of oppression of any man or woman, just or unjust, in Jesus' name. A life of service and in the end oppressed and killed should make us all consider how we treat others and who we are most like.
My thanks to the pastor for wisely asking the right question and making others consider the difference.
Kelly Trujillo
Round Rock
Round Rock