*Text of the above OpEd is below.
August 18, 2024
Clemency for Emmanuel Littlejohn: An Open Letter to Governor Kevin Stitt
Dear Governor Kevin Stitt,
There are hours that try our souls. We don’t necessarily know what to do. We are left to exist in a place where only the most fervent of prayers will do. Presently, I exist in such a space. Throughout my days, I’m haunted by the possibility that you might not choose to grant clemency to a soul under my care, Emmanuel Littlejohn.
When I considered how to make this appeal to you, I thought about trying to do what a lawyer or a mitigator or judge or any number of other professionals might and give you all the favorable facts, figures and arguments. But such efforts have little meaning when one is searching for the voice of God. One could give me a whole world of evidence…but the verifiable undeniable voice of God reigns supreme. I suspect the same is true with you.
Just a few years ago, I was surprised at the boldness of your words.
“Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus…”
Honestly, I thought you might have just gotten a little carried away. Maybe exaggerated? But in speech after speech, you’ve made it crystal clear that you’re determined to fiercely dedicate the State of Oklahoma and your administration to Jesus. With regard to your upcoming clemency decision for Littlejohn, I hope your still dedicated. If so, there is absolutely no way that Littlejohn will be executed. The voice of God has already spoken on this matter.
You remember the story. In the scriptures, Jesus only attended one execution other than his own.
Early one morning, people started to gather around Jesus.
Officials brought someone who’d committed a capital offense to Jesus. The officials loudly declared, “We’re commanded to stone those who commit such offenses! What do you say?”
They asked these questions to test and see if Jesus was who he claimed to be. But Jesus refused to answer. Instead, Jesus simply bent down and started writing in the dirt. The officials refused to stop. Then Jesus declared, “Let any of you who is without sin throw the first stone.” Again, he stooped down and wrote in the ground.
The officials left in shame. Then, Jesus looked to the condemned and said, “Go and sin no more.”
Jesus was the arbiter of clemency. Indeed…in the Book of John (of course paraphrased from 8:1-11), Jesus made it crystal clear who he’s standing with (or for that matter who he is stooping down in the dirt with). The story is about a woman caught in adultery (a capital offense in his day), but it could just as easily be written about Emmanuel Littlejohn.
Think about it.
I don’t doubt that you yearn as I do to hear the verifiable undeniable voice of God. While I believe that we can hear in all sorts of ways, I think that scripture does still speak to our present hour. Jesus’ ministrations of clemency in an hour of execution speak.
I’ve prayed many hours over this very passage. It’s almost as if God has taken me there from time to time. The ideations have been so visceral that it’s as if the dirt is still on my feet when I open my eyes. When the story is juxtaposed with the present desperation facing Littlejohn, a simple truth emerges.
Jesus makes it clear that one can either do the slaying or the praying.
But you can’t do both.
When the clemency decision arose, Jesus got in the dirt with the condemned.
Too often, we think that decisions to save another are based on the preparation of the person to be saved or whether someone deserves to be saved or whether someone is ready to be saved or on all sorts of other variables. In Romans 5:8, the Apostle Paul turns such thinking on its’ head, “Jesus died for all of us…Jesus saved all of us…while we were yet sinners.” I do believe that on a temporal and celestial level Littlejohn is included in that number. Governor, I am asking you to see Emmanuel Littlejohn as Jesus would…a child of God worthy of dying for. Of course, I’m not asking you to die for anybody. I’m simply asking that you live for Jesus. I’m simply asking that you share the mercy that you have known.
Governor, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Littlejohn is a sinner just like you. In the economy of God, the two of you are not different…sinners desperately in need of grace.
In this desperate hour of clemency, Governor you have a chance to show the world what our faith is all about.
Clemency.
With the utmost sincerity.
The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Spiritual Advisor, Emmanuel Littlejohn
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