RE: Pastor reflects on Texas Death Row ministry
This was a fairly typical anti-death penalty article in one, familiar manner: less than 1 percent (it is often 0 percent) of the article mentioned the innocent murder victim’s name and left out all the life and loves of that person, Pablo Castro. More than 99 percent of the article was about murderers and their suffering on Death Row.
The primary reason Rev. Dana Moore finds death row inmates “ordinary” is because they are on Death Row, where they have no access to illegal drugs nor innocents to rob, rape and murder, although they do occasionally murder in prison—or after escape or release—becoming not ordinary again.
Rev. Moore wrongly puts the death penalty only in the context of the Old Testament, when death penalty support within the New Testament is overwhelming as well, with many additional reasons for support today, primarily justice as always has been the case. Genesis 9:5-6, Jesus with St. Dismas, and the Holy Ghost with Ananias and Sapphira are just a few examples.
I admire Rev. Moore’s specific ministry, which is duplicated on Death Rows throughout the country, but I never have seen one for the surviving loved ones of those who have been murdered in a capital, death-eligible murder. Why is that? Their suffering is horrendous.
The Baptist Standard might present an article interviewing the children of innocent murder victim Pablo Castro, just as Rev. Moore may start that new ministry. I respect Moore’s calling, which he must follow. Sometimes they adjust.
Dudley Sharp
Houston, Texas
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