Executing Grace audiobook

BOOM! Shane Claiborne just dropped the mic. I already agreed with his views on the death penalty, but I learned a lot from this book. Claiborne supports his statements not only with the Bible but also a great deal of historical and legal research, so Christians and non-Christians alike will get a lot out of it.

Second book in a row I’ve read about the death penalty and it completely cements my opposition to it. Fantastic book and the facts and stories Shane uses evoked a ton of emotions in me. We as a culture truly need to rethink the death penalty. Anyone and everyone should read this.

PLEASE read this book.

Great overview of the need to get rid of the death penalty. Not that I needed to be converted to this position, but this book provided so many personal stories that were beautifully redemptive.

** spoiler alert ** Shane Claiborne does a masterful job dismantling the pervasive default death penalty advocacy so prominent among many evangelicals and fundamentalists. The outline of the book made his argument very persuasive. Starting with the perspectives of the victims (surviving family members of those murdered), proceeding to pertinent biblical material (rooted in grace throughout), Jesus' execution, early Christian leaders unambiguous stance against the death penalty, the decline in support for state sponsored execution, the inequalities of execution by race, as well as, the history of lynching in the US, the "Death Penalty's Hall of Shame" (which include botched executions, wrongful executions, as well as, mental illness and execution), putting a face on the issue and the innocent, and the awful toll executions take on those administering it. The concluding chapter is a vision of justice and the dream of the death of execution. Before reading this book I was ambivalent concerning the death penalty. No longer! Claiborne's new vision of justice is one the should be explored and enacted if the administration of justice is to ever recover it's redemptive value and move beyond further violence, retribution, and vengeance.

I want to read this ten more times to really digest it all. He says chapter 9 is R-rated, but I think the entire book is. I was sick to my stomach, then I had chills, I cried and laughed and screamed. This book is so necessary to any conversation on revenge, redemption, forgiveness, justice, and even atonement. I am so thankful to Shane Claiborne for the work and research and hard conversations it took to make this.

Absolutely fantastic. Filled to bursting with grace, tempered with realism, breathing hope. Do yourself a favor and, as you read it, take a moment on every new page to read aloud the names of the executed that scroll along the bottom. Look them up when a name catches your attention. Pray for them, their families, and the victims of the crimes they were executed for. Pray for the end of the death penalty in America.

I’ll tell you right off the bat, the only thing that I disliked about this book was the fact that it had to end. That’s saying something. I have a degree in Criminal Justice, and so when I read a book about the death penalty or the criminal justice system, the bar to impress me is pretty darn high. Not to mention, I’ve done a lot of reading and investigation about the death penalty over the years. It’s always had kind of a macabre fascination with it. I remember when I was younger I’d read about it from the college textbooks that my dad would bring home. I’ve also written two position papers on it, one in high school, and one in college at Weber State. In high school I was for it, but by the time I hit college, especially the second time around, I was done with it. If you’ve read blogs of mine on this issue, you’ll know why I loved this book.If you’re not familiar with Shane Claiborne, he’s a Christian activist/author, the Director of “Red Letter Christians,”and the founding member of “The Simple Way,” a radical faith community in inner-city Philadelphia. Shane is one of those people who thinks that all those things that Jesus said about loving your neighbor and loving your enemies weren’t just suggestions, and that we ought to try to live those words. He and others like Craig Greenfield really inspire me.Part of the premise of this book is to evaluate why Christians in America seem to love the death penalty. As he says, “the death penalty has not survived in spite of Christians, but because of us.” That’s really kind of sad. Why would we support the legalized murder of another human being? After all, our Lord and Savior was executed by the state, so why should we be in favor of that?To answer this, Claiborne dives head first into the Bible to explore the scripture and theology, from the Old Testament and the New, that is used to justify the Death Penalty. Of course anyone with a passing familiarity with the Bible knows about the death penalty in the Old Testament, which touts “An eye for an eye,” and all of those things in the Law of Moses that can get you executed. However, when you really start to dig into it, the Old Testament, as bloody and violent as it often is, doesn’t record all that many executions. After all, why didn’t God execute Cain after he murdered Abel? In fact God actually protected Cain from those who would take vengeance on him (Genesis 4: 15-16). Moses murdered a man and wasn’t executed. Same thing with King David. If God was really all about the death penalty, why weren’t these men killed for their high crimes? Claiborne gets into this and also discusses the history and theology of “An eye for an eye,” as well as Romans 13 which is often used as a justification for the death penalty in the New Testament. (Spoiler Alert: both Claiborne and the early church fathers read that passage very differently).Claiborne then moves onto some of the theology behind the Atonement of Christ on the Cross, and a discussion about how the Crucified Christ became a symbol of solidarity and hope with the African American community that suffered through the lynch mobs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s one of the most powerful parts of the book, and really helps to strengthen his case for Christians to be against the death penalty.With his theological underpinnings discussed and his case made, he switches gears to the death penalty in the modern United States and how we administer it. The facts he presents are damning. There are around 3,000 inmates awaiting execution in the USA. Meanwhile, 156 death row inmates have been exonerated and found innocent since 1973. Of course, it would be dumb to think that our courts have caught all the errors, and it’s a certainty that we have executed innocent people in the United States. The United States is 5th in the world in executions performed every year behind only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Hardly the kind of company we want to keep. Meanwhile, since 1976, 92.8 percent of executions have taken place in just 15 of the 50 states, largely in the “Bible Belt.” Also, 85% of US counties have not executed anyone in the last 45 years, and 80% of counties in America have no one on their state’s death row. In fact if we took out Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, then we’d be left with very few executions in the USA every year. Meanwhile polls are starting to show that when presented with an alternative like life in prison, a majority of Americans are now against the death penalty. Could the death penalty be dying?Claiborne hopes so, and so do I. Throughout the book he recounts the horrors of botched executions, cases where people who were almost certainly innocent have been executed, stories of former wardens and prison officials who are forever haunted by their participation in the machinery of death, and of many, MANY people who are working to defeat this sentence and save people from state-approved homicide.Of course, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking, “but what about the victims and their families? Shouldn’t they have a say somewhere in here?” Yes, Claiborne says, they should. However, he spends a whole chapter talking about how actually quite a few families of victims are against the death penalty, and about how some of them have even been threatened by the state for daring to speak out against it. It’s not as black and white as it looks. Life isn’t usually that way, and death almost never is.However, perhaps the most moving parts of the book are the personal stories that Claiborne shares throughout it. These are real stories of grace, radical grace. There are stories of murderers finding forgiveness and grace, of victims moving beyond pain and violence to reach out and extend that grace to criminals, and about men and women who have still gone to their deaths after receiving that grace for themselves.I have to give this book 5 stars. I really think that every Christian, every person of faith, should read it. I think if you do, you’ll be hard pressed to come away from it without at least having your opinions and thoughts on the death penalty truly challenged.

I’d give this book four stars if I were solely evaluating Claiborne’s work on theological depth and rhetorical style—his chapters on Scripture and the death penalty left something to be desired, and I’m not the target audience for his breezy, informal prose. But Shane Claiborne’s remarkable ability is not theological or stylistic; Claiborne has written a book that feels simultaneously like an insurmountable Christian case against the death penalty (which persuasively draws on human stories of suffering) and a call to arms. At the end of the day, Claiborne is an activist. While this may not persuade the Christians still inexplicably gung-ho about death, Claiborne is preaching to the choir very effectively, seeking to make abolitionists of Christian evangelicals. If you are already unsure whether killing is the answer to killing, Claiborne will make an activist out of you—and that’s a very good thing.

I especially recommend this book to Christians, but really to anybody. It offers many different perspectives - victims, victim's families, offenders, wardens, officers, judges, etc. and demonstrates how the death penalty is not in line with the teachings of Christ, and is not just, fair, or practical from a non-Christian perspective either. It's time to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

If you support the death penalty, I recommend you read this.

Such an important conversation handled with Grace and humility. Highly recommend.

I was already anti death penalty but this really gave me a bigger perspective and validated my decision to stay that way. 💯

This should be a required reading for everyone!

Definitely one of the harder books I’ve read this year. It’s hard mainly bc everything in this book is still happening to people. I’ve read a lot of books that have convinced me our justice system doesn’t work a lot of the time, but this one definitely takes the cake. I loved all the stories of grace, forgiveness and reconciliation that he shared. He was honest in saying that these were the stories that changed his mind about the death penalty, and I can see why. There is such a better way.

This is a must read for everyone -period. The death penalty is one of the greatest evils in our world and the fact we continue to let it live should haunt us -especially Christians. Shane Claiborne does an excellent job laying out all the different angles of the death penalty and why we should say it's time to let death die.

I have often wondered about the genesis of evangelical support for the death penalty, and Shane Claiborne gives a comprehensive history of the change from an abhorrence of the death penalty to ardent support. This book appalled me and it uplifted me--horrified at what we do in the name of justice, and likewise inspired by the work of devout abolitionists. May we somehow remember the truth of the gospel: we are created in the image of God and life is sacred. This book will stay with me for a very long time, and I pray I am faithful in any action God calls me to undertake. Thank you, Shane. A beautiful work.