On November 17, 2022, Kenneth Smith survived a botched lethal injection execution.
I serve as Kenny’s spiritual advisor and seek to help guide him to a place of healing.
Soul injuries occur when one engages evil so severely that it causes them to be detached from their very soul.
For millennia, a variety of religious traditions have understood the trichotomy of body, consciousness and soul. The fundamental idea is that there is something that exists outside of our physical conscious presence that defines who we are spiritually. Problems with modern psychiatry and psychology often arise out of the assumption that one’s consciousness is the same thing as one’s soul. For many, this is a fatal mistake. In misdiagnosing the problem, one is unable to provide any semblance of treatment or work toward healing.
Imagine being surrounded by evil. Literally, demons sawing and gnawing at your flesh. Some might argue that it is dehumanizing to call them demons. The best argument is that they dehumanized themselves. They gave up their right to be called a child of God. That’s not to say that such a right can’t be restored…but in the moment…they are demons…they are the very enemies of God.
When you’re strapped to a gurney, your dignity is already gone. You can try to maintain your dignity all that you want, but the straps are going to win. At the very least though, one can continue to pray. Until you can’t…
When you desperately try to pray and nothing comes out, this is the epicenter of the injury to the soul. This is the place where the soul begins to die. Jesus is not unfamiliar with such a space. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is led to an evil place where God is absent and his prayers begin to fail. Demons surround. The only thing Jesus knows to do is hold on…but hold on to what? How does the soul survive? The only way forward is forward. There is no turning around.
For many, death becomes an escape. But what happens when you can’t die? You walk around amongst mortals…but your soul is somewhere else. How do you treat such an injury? How do you heal?
Injuries to the soul must be treated just like any other injury. Therapy can teach the soul how to breathe again. You beat the demons back by taking away their power…living beyond them. Gratitude becomes a means of deflecting the temptation to shut down. Right loving leads to right breathing…and right breathing leads to the rediscovery of the soul.
Sadly, the State of Alabama seems determined to make sure that Kenny Smith doesn’t have time for any healing, as it plans to try to execute him again by the untested method of nitrogen hypoxia on January 25, 2024.
Will you join us in trying to stop the barbarity of it all?
Sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-kenneth-smith
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In