Dead Man Walking
According to Gregory Baum, social sin's committed out of collective blindness and group egotism, neither of which are produced deliberately or freely. Baum refers to social sin as residing in a group, a community, a people. In Sister Helen Prejean's book, "Dead Man Walking", we witness many instances of social sin. Our collective blindness towards the poor is illustrated when Sister Prejean moves to St. Thomas to "stand on the side of the poor". Here we are privy to unjust systems which create a fast track to prison or death row. The majority of people on the outside are not even aware of the daily struggle to exist. The media barely notices when tragedy happens here and they turn a blind eye when the police treat residents horribly. Sister Prejean summed it up nicely in an interview: "You know there's poverty and racism, but to be there, living amongst the people, seeing how the police treat them, that's a whole other thing" (Commonweal Vol.127 Issue 17).Dead Man Walking also enlightens us to society's social sin towards the death penalt
Here Sister Helen notices the severance of personal values from public duty which makes it easier for people to be sure what they're doing is for the good of society. When Sister Prejean initially goes to Angola Prison she must be interviewed by the prison chaplain before she can become Pat Sonnier's spiritual advisor. " Everyone can argue that they're just doing their job. The head of the Department of Correction, C. Sister Prejean finds examples of social sin in both of her role of nun/social worker in St. By talking about the inmates this way he can tolerate the degradation of people he sees and justify it in his heart. His ideology is that the death row inmates are not human, therefore, the inhumanity of the death penalty is justified. The only chance these people have of survival is to turn to a life of crime. Thomas's Housing project (our treatment of the poor), and within the penal system at Angola (our treatment of death row inmates). The death penalty has become a simplistic solution to crime which is carried out like a secret ritual in the middle of the night, far away from our cozy beds. Thomas and her role of spiritual advisor to death row inmates. Paul Phelps, verbally acknowledges this collective blindness. She says it very eloquently: "Who killed this man?" - "Nobody.
Common topics in this essay:
Sister Prejean,
St Thomas,
Thomas's Housing,
Dead Walking,
Pat Sonnier's,
Paul Phelps,
Gregory Baum,
Sister Helen,
social sin,
sister prejean,
death penalty,
Angola Prison,
death row,
death row inmates,
collective blindness,
st thomas,
row inmates,
dead walking,
Vol127 Issue,
personal convictions,
police treat,
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Acceptance Essays
