Just A Few Questions

Have you ever stopped to wonder about the life of a prisoner? A death row prisoner? Being confined 23 hours a day in a 6x9 cage. Think you can handle it? Can you begin to imagine the roller coaster ride of emotions and physical toil they must endure, knowing that they will one day be killed, euthanized like some animal; strapped to a gurney as lethal doses of poisons are injected to course through the i.v. placed in your veins, chasing out every flicker of hope and condemning a life that could have been... to walk through the valley of death? Can you accept something like that happening to a friend, a family member, a loved one? Them having to say goodbye, and then watching the tears that are shed for no longer being able to laugh, smile or talk to you? Could you deal with that?

I often wonder how to reach the persons on death row to help them raise the consciousness level regarding the topic afterlife. And often I ask myself would it make a difference int he whole?

Nanner

------------------------------
A letter written to a person on death row by the father of the man whom the
person on death row had killed:

You are probably surprised that I, of all people, am writing a letter to
you, but I ask you to read it in its entirety and consider its request
seriously. As the father of the man whom you took part in murdering, I have
something very important to say to you. I forgive you. With all my heart, I
forgive you. I realize it may be hard for you to believe, but I really do.
At your trial, when you confessed to your part in the events that cost my
son his life and asked for my forgiveness, I immediately granted you that
forgiving love from my heart.

I can only hope you believe me and will accept my forgiveness. But this is
not all I have to say to you. I want to make you an offer: I want you to
become my adopted child. You see, my son who died was my only child, and I
now want to share my life with you and leave my riches to you.

This may not make sense to you or anyone else, but I believe you are worth
the offer.

I have arranged matters so that if you will receive my offer of forgiveness,
not only will you be pardoned for your crime, but you also will be set free
from your imprisonment, and your sentence of death will be dismissed. At
that point, you will become my adopted child and heir to all my riches.

I realize this is a risky offer for me to make to you -- you might be
tempted to reject my offer completely -- but I make it to you without
reservation. Also, I realize it may seem foolish to make such an offer to
one who cost my son his life, but I have a great love and an unchangeable
forgiveness in my heart for you.

Finally, you may be concerned that once you accept my offer you may do
something to cause you to be denied your rights as an heir to my wealth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If I can forgive you for your part
in my son's death, I can forgive you for anything. I know you never will be
perfect, but you do not have to be perfect to receive my offer.

Besides, I believe that once you have accepted my offer and begin to
experience the riches that will come to you from me, that your primary
(though not always) response will be gratitude and loyalty. Some would call
me foolish for my offer to you, but I wish for you to call me your father.

Love,
God

                                           Author Unknown

[quote author=Nanner link=1198767897/0#0 date=1198767897]Just A Few Questions

Have you ever stopped to wonder about the life of a prisoner? A death row prisoner? Being confined 23 hours a day in a 6x9 cage. Think you can handle it? Can you begin to imagine the roller coaster ride of emotions and physical toil they must endure, knowing that they will one day be killed, euthanized like some animal; strapped to a gurney as lethal doses of poisons are injected to course through the i.v. placed in your veins, chasing out every flicker of hope and condemning a life that could have been... to walk through the valley of death? Can you accept something like that happening to a friend, a family member, a loved one? Them having to say goodbye, and then watching the tears that are shed for no longer being able to laugh, smile or talk to you? Could you deal with that?

I often wonder how to reach the persons on death row to help them raise the consciousness level regarding the topic afterlife. And often I ask myself would it make a difference int he whole?

Nanner

------------------------------
A letter written to a person on death row by the father of the man whom the
person on death row had killed:

You are probably surprised that I, of all people, am writing a letter to
you, but I ask you to read it in its entirety and consider its request
seriously. As the father of the man whom you took part in murdering, I have
something very important to say to you. I forgive you. With all my heart, I
forgive you. I realize it may be hard for you to believe, but I really do.
At your trial, when you confessed to your part in the events that cost my
son his life and asked for my forgiveness, I immediately granted you that
forgiving love from my heart.

I can only hope you believe me and will accept my forgiveness. But this is
not all I have to say to you. I want to make you an offer: I want you to
become my adopted child. You see, my son who died was my only child, and I
now want to share my life with you and leave my riches to you.

This may not make sense to you or anyone else, but I believe you are worth
the offer.

I have arranged matters so that if you will receive my offer of forgiveness,
not only will you be pardoned for your crime, but you also will be set free
from your imprisonment, and your sentence of death will be dismissed. At
that point, you will become my adopted child and heir to all my riches.

I realize this is a risky offer for me to make to you -- you might be
tempted to reject my offer completely -- but I make it to you without
reservation. Also, I realize it may seem foolish to make such an offer to
one who cost my son his life, but I have a great love and an unchangeable
forgiveness in my heart for you.

Finally, you may be concerned that once you accept my offer you may do
something to cause you to be denied your rights as an heir to my wealth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If I can forgive you for your part
in my son's death, I can forgive you for anything. I know you never will be
perfect, but you do not have to be perfect to receive my offer.

Besides, I believe that once you have accepted my offer and begin to
experience the riches that will come to you from me, that your primary
(though not always) response will be gratitude and loyalty. Some would call
me foolish for my offer to you, but I wish for you to call me your father.

Love,
God

                                           Author Unknown

*****************
So I took part in murdering J.C., eh?
(Was it with the lead pipe? Or the candlestick maybe?
Conservatory or lounge..?)
Funny thing, didn't know I was around 2K years ago. I be
gettin' old, sure enough (but not THAT old.)
But it must be said, that the doctrine of "substitutionary
atonement" is one of the stupidest, most misbegotten
notions ever dreamed up by human churchmen. (It even
beats the one about Jesus being a cracker you can
eat. Is there no end to human idiocy?)

B-scholar

Hi StJ-
I have a couple of articles in the Forensic Therapist around 2003 dealing with problems in training people to cope with the problems of the world. The penal system is one of the poorest options available. Currently Missouri is showing off their Juvenile Justice system, in which they are treating young offenders as people and obtaining excellent results.

I also did a field study which included penal applications of learning theory: Armentrout, D (1987). An Attributive Systems Model of the Generation of Knowledge. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. The metric for quantification of the learning rate is a departure from the usual head count of recidivists, and considers their time in the program, the number of failures per unit time, and the rate at which they are overcoming prior failures. Initial work was done with a methadone treatment population, and extended to published data for criminal recidivists.

There must be somebody else working in this area. The NAFC (National Association of Forensic Counelors) is the organization the publishes the Forensic Therapist. They would be a good place to dig for more information.

dave

Nanna,

Come to the crime capital of the world South Africa, we have less than a quarter of the USA population and almost double the murder rate. Some 30 to 40 thousands murders a year and note should be taken that America is considered by the world as a violent society.

There is no death penalty in South Africa and I agree murdering the murderer brings one down to their troubled level and solves nothing...

Forgiveness is the greatest human quality. The cause of this increasing worldwide phenomenon is the abandonment of moral absolutes that directed the lives of many of our forebears.

The solution lies somewhere deep within the human psyche

Love

Alan.

I dont want to swap the subject but this ties into it somewhat. (Deathrow and Afterlife)  Recently I have looked at pictures in the net out of the years 1933 to 1949 and my heart cries. My heart cries because I have come to learn that the soul crosses over in consciousness also seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling and remembering and thus can create its own "hell". There were approx. 60 Million cross overs during that timeframe, 2 Million of which were jewish, the 58 million rest were germans, russians, englishman, polisch, american, frenchman etc.

The pictures of the war displayed on the net are most likely not all the pictures in exsistence but draw a big picture for me that taints my belief in mankind. I mean to me its extremely horrid.

So I asked Peter on www.jenseits-de.org the pertinant question and I wish Bruce would comment on this subject as well. I wasn`t happy with Peters answer, however I am inclined to stick with the conversation to get the root of it there as well.

The souls of current death row and those 60 million souls whom obviously lived their own certain death row during the dates of 1933-49 can be "earth bound". They could be living in their own hell still 70 earth years later!  These souls need peace, sh*t we all need this strange thing called PEACE! To me having peace doesnt mean to turn my head and ignore, but it means to do something for that soul, so to do something for myself in the same instance.

During those days mentioned above "mankind" displayed the root of its evil by allowing it to even happen and some one out there please, please, please show me that mankind has learned from this experience, show me where we are doing things better now, tell me something which soothens my heart enough to where my faith in the love of mankind can be reconstituted.

Can anyone out there tell me that they really truely believe that people of today will get up and speak out in an angry voice if given the situation again to murder each other like that again? 


Nanner