Latino evangelical leaders are calling on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of Donald David Dillbeck, who was convicted of fatally stabbing a woman after escaping from custody while serving a life sentence for killing a Lee County deputy.Dillbeck’s attorneys have argued that his neurobehavioral disorder—which they say is similar to an intellectual disability and related to alcohol exposure before birth—should exempt him from execution under constitutional law, according to news reports.
Latino Christian leaders, as part of their faith-led effort dubbed “Evangélicos for Justice,” are urging the governor—who signed Dillbeck’s death warrant on January 23—to consider his disability and to offer him clemency. By enacting the death penalty on Dillbeck, they say, the state is undermining “our values and respect for all life.”
Dillbeck, who was convicted in the 1990 murder of Faye Vann in Tallahassee, is scheduled to die February 23 by lethal injection.
“As pastors and Christian leaders, we do believe all life is sacred, the life of victims and their oppressors. We want justice for everyone, which is why we believe that Donald Dillbeck should spend the remainder of his days in prison. We also believe that his life should be spared,” according to a letter on the “Evangélicos for Justice” website addressed to DeSantis.
Among those who signed the letter are Bishop Angel Marcial, president of the Florida Fellowship of Hispanic Councils and Evangelical Institutions; the Rev. Irene Familia, president of the Pastors Association of Volusia County; and the Rev. Ivan García, president of the Fellowship of Evangelical Ministers of Tampa. Signers also included Black clergy leaders, such as Bishop Derrick L. McRae, president of the African American Council of Christian Clergy, and the Rev. Frank Madison Reid III, with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Agustin Quiles, with the Florida Fellowship of Hispanic Bishops and Evangelical Institutions, is part of the campaign and said Latino evangelicals are denouncing the execution because “we value life, from the womb to the tomb.”
Donald David DillbeckMarcial noted the importance of their Latino evangelical effort advocating for Dillbeck, who is white. Latino evangelicals should use their “prophetic voice” for Dillbeck because “we are committed to life,” Marcial told Religion News Service.
Dillbeck is “in need of an act of mercy” considering his upbringing and diagnosis, Marcial said.
“We believe in life at all levels and in all circumstances,” he added.
To Celeste Fitzgerald, who for years has advocated against the death penalty, seeing Latino and Black leaders rallying behind Dillbeck speaks “to the history of the death penalty.”
The death penalty is not a “punishment of the wealthy,” or the “worst of the worst,” said Fitzgerald, of Florida. It’s a punishment, she said, “we reserve for the poor, for people who are marginalized … for the most broken and traumatized.”
In 2016, 78.5 percent of Americans serving life sentences in federal prison were people of color, according to a 2019 report from the Center for American Progress.
“I think people in the Black and brown communities, they feel that and they’re speaking up more and more,” said Fitzgerald, who served as director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “You can’t really take the death penalty out of the context of the criminal justice system.”
Evangélicos for Justice also stands in opposition to a pair of bills in the Florida Legislature that aim to strip away the requirement of unanimous jury recommendations before death sentences can be imposed.
Marcial said that, if passed, this legislation would set the state back. “It will hurt a lot of people, especially the humble and the poor” who do not have means to defend themselves, he said.
Evangélicos for Justice joins organizations such as Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Amnesty International, and the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops in calling for Dillbeck’s stay of execution.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The deluge of tributearticles reminds us that John Calvin’s 500th birthday is right around the corner. This week, Christians around the world will observe July 10, 1509, as a turning point in world history. The man who ridiculed relics and requested no tribute in death might shudder at the notoriety. But he would certainly appreciate learning how his voluminous writings have circulated the globe and equipped generations of gospel ministers.
Calvin might also like to know that his life’s work still beckons church leaders today to call for reform. Historian and pastor Charles Hambrick-Stowe appealed to his legacy to encourage reform-minded mainline ministers during the UCC General Synod on June 28. A scholar with impressivebreadth of expertise, Hambrick-Stowe now shepherds the flock as senior pastor of First Congregational Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Speaking for the Faithful and Welcoming luncheon, Hambrick-Stowe reviewed the heart of Calvin’s theological vision for ministry and recapped what Congregationalists have lost by neglecting this key component of their heritage.
Calvin taught that salvation comes by faith alone through Jesus Christ, not by anything we do, Hambrick-Stowe explained. He bowed to the authority of Scripture, not to the papal office. And he sought to reform both the civil sphere and church life under a God who exercises sovereignty over all things. Yet the mention of Calvin’s name elicits shrugs and shame in the UCC today, Hambrick-Stowe lamented.
“For many decades now in our denomination, Calvin has been seen — at best — as an embarrassment, the crusty old uncle that you wish would stop coming to family gatherings,” he explained. “If Presbyterians still wanted to engage in conversation with Calvin that was their business, we were too progressive-minded for that and it wasn’t too hard to ignore him as we adapted ourselves to modern, more supposedly relevant ways of thinking.”
Today, the UCC engages in a wide variety of social reform efforts, exercising belief through charitable behavior. This activist tendency stems from the Calvinist legacy, according to Hambrick-Stowe. Yet something is missing, he insisted.
“But — and this, it seems to me, is the spiritual problem of the United Church of Christ — our commitment to faithful living is no longer rooted in a theology of redemption,” Hambrick-Stowe said. “In many places and at many organizational levels of the church, the very concept of justification and sanctification are ignored or even rejected as obsolete, meaningless, or hurtful doctrines. Salvation is construed as getting in touch with your true self, perhaps especially your true gendered self, so if there is a theological emphasis at all it is on the doctrine of creation (‘God doesn’t create junk’) and, with regard to Jesus, the doctrine of the Incarnation, God-with-us, validating us just as we are. But . . . the Fall? Atonement? Reconciliation of sinful humanity with the God of holiness? Word that Christ died for our sins? Who in our churches knows what any of this means anymore?”
What a treasure it would be if, centuries later, Calvin’s ecclesial descendants rediscovered his gift for pairing justification with sanctification. These are the great truths of Scripture that launched a Reformation 500 years ago and bring reformation still today.
“This is not dry doctrine, not mere dogma,” Hambrick-Stowe said. “It is a vital expression of the Christian narrative. Our story as believers. God’s story of human redemption. As preachers, when we get people into the biblical narrative, that gospel gets into the people. God’s story becomes our story. Throughout the world people are finding hope in this gospel and as that happens churches are thriving. That is the hope for our people and our churches, whatever the future of the United Church of Christ as a denomination.”
Public domain image of John Calvin: Leipzig 1854 via Wikimedia Commons.
