There is one big misunderstanding of the monastics leaving society.

The question for me is not are we political, but how are we political? We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage.

Violence is for those who have lost their imagination.

The death penalty has succeeded in America, not in spite of Christians, but because of us. The Bible Belt is the Death Belt. Wherever Christians are most concentrated is where executions are happening, and that's deeply troubling to me.

There are some Christians who totally disengage from politics and set their minds on heaven so much that their faith is so heavenly minded that it is no earthly good.

Believe in miracles. And live in a way that might necessitate one.

It's unilaterally true that it costs more to maintain the death penalty than the alternatives to it, and we can leverage more resources to victims families. We can do all sorts of creative ways of healing the pain that people have done by channeling the energy and resources to other more redemptive forms of justice.