Description
This book is about three death row men and their experiences in living life and trying to avoid hell. Each of the three death row men’s experience is viewed through a different moral lesson found in the three parables of the Christian Bible’s Book of Matthew, Chapter 25. These moral lessons sound simple. But moral lessons always get a bit tricky when applied to the human endeavor. And there is nothing trickier than the lives of death row men. While taught by Jesus, who believed in hell, the application of the moral lessons are relevant to all readers, not just Christians. Who are these death row men? All three are associated with the death row inside a state prison, Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Jack Trawick, on death row for 15 years, was executed. Jimmy Davis, Jr., who observed his 25th anniversary on death row a few years ago, still awaits execution. The third death row man, this author, is a free-world volunteer on death row. I do not physically live there but, as you will see, I reside there in substantive ways. Each death row man presents an intimate, sometimes disturbing and even horrifying, story of struggle with God’s moral expectations on how to live and, thereby, avoid hell.
Each death row man presents an intimate, sometimes disturbing and even horrifying, story of struggle with God’s moral expectations on how to live and, thereby, avoid hell. In Jack Trawick’s story, analysis centers on the expectation of doing good deeds. With Jimmy Davis, Jr., the expectation is to use his talents. In my story, the expectation is to follow Jesus where He lives on death row.
The book title comes from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In Act 2 Scene 2, Macbeth awakes screaming from a nightmare:
I thought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth is murdering sleep.’ Innocent sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life’s feast, and the most nourishing.
Kevin Cooney, Ph.D., President, Wilberforce International Institute St. Paul, Minnesota –
Heaven is real. Hell is real. We are all destined for one or the other. Dr. Slack reminds us that we do not have to be on death row to be worried about hell and that there is hope for even those on death row. We are all on a spiritual death row until we find Christ. Sleep the Sleep of the Innocent is not for the faint of heart. It deals with real people including the one in the mirror. Sleep the Sleep of the Innocent is the rare combination of being a page turner while being thought provoking at the same time. It reminds us of who we are and what we are without Christ. Better yet it challenges us to be what we can be with Christ.