Pax Christi Texas

I pray for the day when Texas effectively addresses the root causes of crime – when it understands that the best way to be “tough on crime” is to properly fund and manage programs that reduce poverty, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental disabilities.

I pray for the day when Texas compassionately cares for the victims of crime – when our institutions and churches have effective programs to help victims with their pain and suffering.

I pray for the day when Texas replaces its current system of “retributive justice” with “restorative justice” which seeks to restore the victim, the offender and the community back to wholeness after a crime has been committed.

I pray for the day when all people will be treated fairly and humanely by the criminal justice system, when the poor will receive as high quality legal defense as the rich, and when all prisoners are treated humanely and provided opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.

I pray for the day when Texas realizes that the criminal justice system is a human system that makes mistakes, that innocent people have been sent to prison, including death row, and that the system can never be adequately fixed so that fatal errors won’t be made.

I pray for the day when Texas no longer executes its citizens, when the pastors of churches will stand before their congregations and say, “All life is sacred. We do not have the right to take human life. Only God has that right”, and when the politicians of the state will stand before their constituents and say, “We can provide justice and protect society without taking human life. This is what we should do as a civilized society”.

David Atwood