When I was in seminary, my dad had a chance to meet Sister Helen Prejean, known especially for her work toward abolishing the death penalty. He came home with a signed copy for me of her famous book, later made into a movie, Dead Man Walking. In the front cover it says, “To Johanna: Choose life—across the board!”

I was moved by the sentiment at the time, and even more so after reading the book, which I read with rapt interest, gasping and shaking my head throughout. I finished it wondering how anyone could support the death penalty.

Sr. Prejean’s charge to me in that book came to be a guide for not only my views on the death penalty, but all the ethical debates people of faith face. Which choice is the one that brings the most life to the most people? What does life look like in each case? Is life limited only to a beating heart and inflating lungs? What about quality of life? What about liberty and pursuit of happiness—can life exist without access to these as well? 

Life and blessings, or death and adversity?

When I came across Deuteronomy 30:15-20 for the first time as a preacher, of course Sr. Prejean’s words came to mind. MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai. More exhorts the Israelites to “choose life” as they prepare to enter the Promised Land, the land they have been longing for and moving toward for the past 40 years:

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

It seems an easy choice, when you put it that way! Life and death, blessings and curses … I choose life and blessings, thank you very much!

But we know it is not always an easy choice, in practice. It wasn’t for the Israelites, who struggled mightily to follow God’s law, especially as they settled into this new-to-them land. Death and curses sound bad, but, it turns out, what that option falsely promises is awfully alluring for our broken humanity. 

Choosing life and blessings isn’t always easy for us, either. The world is complicated. Every issue has far more than two sides. As I’ve sometimes joked, “We have as many opinions in my congregation on that issue as we have people to hold them!”

Choosing life in the civic realm

I’ve been thinking about Sr. Prejean’s—and Moses’s—charge to choose life a lotNephew of Abraham and Sarah. More lately. As I write this, federal agents are aggressively searching for immigrants and refugees throughout the US, even those who are here legally or are in process, and detaining and/or deporting them, separating families and sending people back to unsafe places or even certain death. 

In addition, the social safety net and essential government services that support the most vulnerable are being decimated in the name of government efficiency. People are living in fear for their health, their lives, their safety, and all the while the extremely rich are getting richer even as middle- and lower-class Americans struggle to afford groceries, rent, and utilities.

And much of this is being done by people claiming faith in Christ, whose consistent command was to love and care for our neighbor in need.

Each of these situations has multiple sides, of course. Each side could argue they are “choosing life”—life for someone, at least. Though it may not be life for the people I would have prioritized. Or, perhaps, the people JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More would have.

So … whose life do we choose?

Before Moses offers this catchy phrase, he gives more context: 

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments … then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you … But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish.” (verses 15-18)

To choose life, then, is to choose what God commands. That seems obvious, at least for someone seeking to live a godly life. Yet we are, too often, tempted to follow our own “commandments,” our own guts, and act according to our own fears rather than love of neighbor. These quickly become the “other gods” Moses warns us not to serve. 

It’s a dead-end street that does not lead to life.“Choose life—across the board.” I will continue to let Sr. Prejean’s words be my guide, seeking to check myself to be sure the life and blessings I seek are of God, and not of me. And I will pray that others might also be guided by this, so that together, we as God’s people can find our way out of “death and adversity,” and ever closer to the “life and prosperity” that comes from “loving God and obeying him.”