Pastor's Page for Oct. 26, 2003: Lionel Tate

Matthew 28:19 says it: “Go.” Go and make disciples of all men …

Being in the Kingdom means we come to a location to get fed and strengthened, and then, as the Word clearly says, we “go” out to help spread the word to others.

In my heart, I feel there’s a need for us to “go” and help a young man named Lionel Tate.

Lionel Tate was 12 years old when, according to news reports, he was wrestling with his little cousin, supposedly imitating what he had seen on television, and ended up killing her.

He was put on trial, tried as an adult, and was convicted of first degree murder. According to Florida law, where Lionel lived, any adult convicted of murder must be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Not even the grieved parents of the little girl who was killed wanted Lionel to go to prison for life. There isn’t anything about this sentence that’s right. I think of the two little boys who actually admitted killing their parents, but because they claimed they had been sexually abused by a guy who coerced them into the killing, they were let go. I mean, they bashed their parents’ heads in, if I remember correctly.

Those little boys were white. Lionel Tate is black.

That doesn’t have to mean anything, but it probably does. Juries don’t tend to lend a sympathetic ear toward black children, no matter what extenuating circumstances might be presented. No matter how dressed up our kids might get for trial, juries still tend to see social deviants who cannot be helped, rather than kids who have made mistakes.

I think that’s what happened in the Lionel Tate case.

I can’t rest. Every time I think about that kid being in that prison, I get uncomfortable. I think it has to be God telling me to do something. So, I’m going to.

What I ask from you is to pray that God lead me, but ultimately that a way is found to get Lionel Tate out of prison.

Your participation at least in that way is a way of “going,” as the Gospel mandates we do.

Have a good week.

Pastor Smith