Last evening I started to watch the movie _Dead Man Walking_ on Netflix { thank goodness for Netflix, correct?} I'll finish the movie this evening, but wanted to offer a review while the plot is still fresh in my head.
Anyhow, if you are unfamiliar with the movie's plot, it concerns a nun { played excellently by Susan Sarandon} who is contacted by a Louisiana death row inmate { played by Sean Penn} for some last-chance help in preparing himself for a meeting with his clemency board. She agrees , and travels to Louisiana State Prison in Angola { one of the most notoriously violent prisons in the USA} to meet him.
Without giving away too much of the plot, I can say that this movie makes me think deeply about the death penalty. Normally I like to think that I am against capital punishment, but the inmate in the movie is so deplorable that part of me seeks vengeance against him & others in real life who commit crimes of unabashed senseless violence .
The nun in the movie struggles with these same issues: she seeks to reconcile the life & teachings of Jesus Christ with the everyday world in which she lives. She struggles to understand the inmate & what might have made him commit these crimes yet faces reproach from the media regarding her choice to help this violent criminal.
She asks herself : What would Jesus do? What should SHE do in order to follow Him, to Whom she has given her entire earthly life. Like myself, the character is town between sympathy for the families of the inmate's victims and seeking to see dignity in EVERY human . She maintains a balance in the movie that many people in her life do not understand.
Is it human nature to seek retribution ? Is it ok for any government to routinely & systematically put to death people? Is the " justice system" in this nation truly fair to everyone? I do not know the answers to any of these questions. But I do know that all of we Christ-followers must prayerfully seek what it means for each of us to follow Him.
Amen.
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