The Gospel According to Saul

The state of California executed Tookie this morning.

They killed him despite the truces he brokered. Despite his five nominations for the Nobel Prize. Despite his personal transformation. None of that mattered. What mattered were his crimes.

Stanley Williams's crimes were legion. Destructive. No one thinks we should forget them. But to not acknowledge his rehabilitation is deliberately blind. Murderously blind.

The President, too, is an admitted criminal. Leaving aside his morally criminal activities in the White House, he is on record as a criminal: a cocaine user and a drunk driver. But he cuts off all discussion of his former activities by invoking the code words: "born again."

Being "born again" allows Bush to dissociate himself completely from that other guy who liked to drink, score some blow, and make it with the townie girls that the Skull and Bones brought in.

This born again rhetoric comes from Paul. Before Paul's conversion, he had been Saul, a Pharisee who tortured, imprisoned, and murdered religious minorities. After his conversion, he devoted his life to ministry. The story of the conversion and the idea of Pauline grace is the touchstone of evangelical Christianity. Paul took his spiritual second chance and committed himself to preaching to often hostile audiences.

Like Paul, Stanley Tookie Williams has also walked the walk. His "conversion" wasn't simply a personal revelation or a rhetorical tool. It transformed him and he gave his life over to ministry.

Unlike Bush, who after his conversion, started to torture, imprison, and murder religious minorities. Saul would be proud.

Rest in Peace, Stanley Williams.