How can God love us all the same?

I am hooked on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books. With my Kindle, it is too easy to just download the next book as soon as I’ve finished the last one. It’s like Criminal Minds: They start the next episode as soon as the last one ends and I get stuck staying up watching television longer than I had planned.

The appeal of the books and the show is that the really horrible people always get caught—often killed—by the good guys and the world is left a better place. I cheer. Those people deserved it; I love the good guys.

I do know the difference between fiction and reality, but what about the death penalty? In real life, it should not be in our power to decide who lives and who dies.

I was mentally and emotionally immersed in the death penalty this past week – mostly around Troy Davis, the Georgia inmate who lost his last appeal and was murdered on Sept. 21. His execution drew international attention, with more than 1 million people signing petitions calling for clemency. After all the protests, prayers and hopes, he was killed by the state at 11:30 p.m. EDT.

In the same week, Texas carried out two executions without too much notice. I think what drew so much attention to Davis was that slight glimmer of a doubt that he was guilty. Seven of the nine people who said they witnessed him shooting a Savannah, Ga., police officer withdrew or recanted their testimony. That shadow of a doubt should have been enough to keep him from the death penalty, but that is really just my personal opinion. Death is the one thing you can’t take back.

I am glad The United Methodist Church has been a leader in trying to eliminate the death penalty in the United States since 1956. Many United Methodists participate in the debates and vigils, and in the halls of justice when the death penalty is debated in their states.

I wrestle with the belief that God loves us all equally. That God loves “the bad guys” as much as God loves the "good guys."

I do know the truth from fiction. I know that no matter how much more I think some people deserve redemption, so does every other person in this world.

Clean water is precious gift from God

Recently I was asked to talk about access to clean water for a highly energetic and inquisitive group of kids attending a mission week camp at a local United Methodist church.

The young woman leading the children through the week found several articles I have written on the subject. She planned many interesting activities for the kids including a “water walk” to bring home the reality of how far people have to walk to find water as well as a Lemon:Aid stand that raised $300 for blood:water mission. (http://www.bloodwatermission.com/)

Speaking is not something I am good at, but I do know how to change disgusting, dirty water into clean drinking water. I watched it done in Haiti by the man who invented the PUR packets, Greg Allgood. It is impressive stuff.

The hardest part of the demonstration for me was finding really dirty water. The irony was not lost on me. It would have been so simple to just turn on the kitchen faucet and fill up a two-gallon container of water. I finally settled on getting the water from the creek behind my house. It really didn’t look bad enough, even after I added a little dirt. Nowhere near the filth of that water in Haiti.

Lugging two gallons of water was no easy task either. Luckily, the church had an elevator. It made me feel inadequate when I thought of all the children toting bigger buckets than mine, one in each hand and another one on their heads walking calmly down a dusty road.

In addition to the demonstration, I also showed the children several pictures taken by friend and co-worker Mike DuBose from Africa and Haiti of filthy water along roadsides and inside villages. They saw photos of children their age carrying those heavy loads of water, playing in the sewage water and struggling to pump water from wells.

One child observed, “They must be very strong.”

It is hard to convey how really horrible the lack of clean water is for so many millions of people. Kenya is suffering from a crippling drought. Water is being rationed and each household is limited to 10.4 (U.S.) gallons of water a day. Compare that to the average American household of four that can use 400 gallons of water a day.

I still remember former United Methodist Bishop Joao S. Machado from Mozambique crying over a story he was telling about people drinking muddy brown water from a ditch in a village he had just visited. “I don’t know how those people are alive with water like that,” he said.

I don’t know either. They must be very strong.

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