Good afternoon. My name is Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood. I am standing right outside of the Governors office here in Texas. We just dropped off a faith leader sign on letter with over 550 signatures of Texas faith leaders…who are committed to abolishing the death penalty. I am so proud to be standing with people who are willing to put their careers, their livelihoods, their wellbeings on the line for this cause. I ask that other faith leaders not only join us in their comfort…but walk out of your churches, walk out of your offices, walk out of the safety of your surroundings to get more deeply involved. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as our selves….friends, we cannot accomplish this and execute people. This past summer, I walked over 200 miles from Livingston to Huntsville to bring awareness to the immorality of the death penalty. I was inspired to walk by a Buddhist monk named Tashi Nyami at a prayer breakfast last spring. Tashi told us, “If we want to change the world, then we have to place our body in the conversation.” With my walk in mind, I know that every step all of these faith leaders are taking here today is one step closer we all take to abolishing the death penalty. Today is about advocacy. Tomorrow must be about advocacy. The next day and all the days after that must be about advocacy until we finish this thing. Not one more. Not one more execution in this state. Wednesday, Manuel Vasquez is supposed to be executed. I pray to God that that day will be a day of tremendous beauty when our legislators and governor wake up to the immorality of the death penalty and stop executing people. We can save Vasquez’s life and we can save the lives of others. No more! Note one more! Not one more! Not one more!
Amen.