Showing results by author "Jeff Hood" in All Categories

On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on a Minneapolis street. Her only crime was standing with her community, witnessing immigration enforcement unfold in her neighborhood. The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood watched the video of her death until his eyes burned. He could not look away. He could not be silent. In Jesus Melts ICE, Hood examines ten Gospel passages...ten teachings from Jesus himself...that stand in direct opposition to everything our immigration enforcement system represents. Through careful examination of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he demonstrates ...

This is a book born in the spaces most of us try not to see...prison yards, death rows, the narrow hallways outside execution chambers and the living rooms of families who will never stop crying. I’ve held the hands of men moments before the state killed them. I’ve sat with wardens, families of victims and grieving mothers...carrying the weight of a system that thinks it has the authority to end life in God’s name. And I’ve realized that when the state kills, it is not only the condemned who die...it is the witness of the church, the imagination of mercy and the gospel itself. ...

In a world governed by an all-seeing Network, recognition is the condition for existence. Those who fall outside its patterns are not punished or imprisoned, they are severed. Their names fade. Their histories collapse. Their lives are quietly withdrawn from the record. What remains is not death as execution but death as disappearance. Severed. follows one such erasure through crystalline cities, bureaucratic rituals and acts of attention that refuse to vanish. Blending speculative fiction with theological inquiry, the novel interrogates what power demands, what faith resists and what it ...

Historia Divina: A contemplation of Divine History. Vietnamese Buddhist Nun Nhất Chi Mai self-immolated in front of the Tu Nghiem Pagoda in Saigon, Vietnam. In a vision, Christ revealed to me the beauty of the flames. Though the vision is mine...it is also yours. In fact, I constructed this text for you to join me. As you proceed through this text, I invite you to stop to breathe prayers as you finish the thoughts on every page. Just as I did. The beauty will find you. Just as it did me. *This book is intentionally spread out to give you room to meditate/write on every page.

We’re born. We exist. We die. It all seems so clear. Of course, we all know that it’s not. Throughout our lives, we’re doomed to ponder what it all means. Like anyone else, I ponder. For whatever reason, I’ve found great meaning in the final words of those who’ve been executed. Perhaps, it’s because I’ve known so many of them. At present, I’ve seen nine different people executed. Their final words have never left me. In this small volume meant to coincide with the season of Lent, I offer parts of the final words of the last forty people executed in the United States as sort ...

When violence meets violence, what does justice actually demand? In December 2024, Luigi Mangione was arrested for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Within weeks, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty...making Mangione the test case for the Trump administration's revived capital punishment agenda. The internet erupted. Some celebrated Mangione as a folk hero striking back against a predatory healthcare system. Others demanded his execution. Both responses missed everything that matters. The People v. Luigi Mangione refuses ...

“'Only cowards kill in a closet.' That was my reply when somebody asked me what I thought about the execution taking place in such a remote space at such an odd time of the day. I’ll never forget the coldness of the day. It was cold inside. It was cold outside. No jacket could ever have protected me against it. I watched a man’s face turn every color of the rainbow right before my eyes. I wasn’t alone. In what was perhaps the most bizarre part, dozens of Oklahomans had gathered to witness the execution live. I felt like I was part of some sort of dystopian climax of a bad film. Yet,...

Eleven executions. Eleven crossings. This spiritual advisor has witnessed what no theology prepared him for — the God who shows up in the death chamber, not to save, but to be present. He has held the hands of the dying, breathed with them through their final hours and seen something in their eyes that cannot be explained by neuroscience or religion or any framework he possesses. This book is a spirituality, written for the condemned — for the people sitting in concrete boxes right now, waiting for the state to kill them. It offers no false hope, no requirement of innocence, no ...

What happens when a condemned man finally speaks the truth of his life—and only God can hear? The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood has stood in execution chambers across five states and witnessed eleven human beings take their final breaths. He has held the hands of the condemned as poison entered their veins and nitrogen filled their lungs. In those sacred final moments, he has heard confessions of profound remorse...the kind of raw spiritual honesty that emerges only when eternity is seconds away. Priest-Penitent Privilege: A Defense from Death Row is both a rigorous scholarly work and a passionate ...

Historia Divina: A contemplative encounter with Divine History. Baltimore Quaker Norman Morrison self-immolated on November 2, 1965. In a vision, Christ revealed to me the beauty of the flames. Though the vision is mine…it is also yours. In fact, I constructed this text for you to join me. As you proceed through this text, I invite you to stop to breathe prayers as you finish the thoughts on every page. Just as I did. The beauty will find you. Just as it did me. *This book is intentionally spread out to create room for written meditation.

Historia Divina: A contemplative encounter with Divine History. On March 16, 1965 in Detroit, 82-year-old Quaker peace activist Alice Herz self-immolated. In a vision, Christ revealed to me the beauty of the flames. Though the vision is mine...it is also yours. In fact, I constructed this text for you to join me. As you proceed through this text, I invite you to stop to breathe prayers as you finish the thoughts on every page. Just as I did. The beauty will find you. Just as it did me. *This book is intentionally spread out to create space for written meditation.

Nobody alive was closer to the first nitrogen hypoxia execution than Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood was. As Kenneth Smith’s spiritual adviser, Dr. Hood saw every horrific second before, during, and after the curtains closed. This collection of writings takes the reader through the buildup to the execution, includes a detailed description of the execution itself, and illustrates the campaign afterward to try to stop future nitrogen executions.

Jeff Hood has witnessed eleven executions. He has held the hands of condemned men while the state killed them. He has smelled what the cleaning crew can't scrub out. He has sat in hotel rooms afterward, unable to move. This book is not for lawmakers. It is not for judges. It is not for people who debate capital punishment over dinner. This book is for the people who actually do it. The corrections officers. The execution team members. The people who strap bodies down, check the lines, fit the masks and watch human beings die because the state asked them to and they said yes. Hood doesn't ...

From the introduction... This theology is not one that should be read the same by every person because every person is different and, therefore, every polyamorous experience and sets of encounters are going to be divergent. And so lastly, I'll ask this almost rhetorical and loaded question: What was surprising about doing this project? For me, part of the resulting all-encompassing answer is going be the case in most situations. This is my first time actually completing a project keeping in mind very candidly that I am a cisgender heterosexual male who is monogamous, while my primary ...

Historia Divina: A contemplation of Divine History. American Student George Winne, Jr. self-immolated at Revelle Plaza on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, USA. In a vision, Christ revealed to me the beauty of the flames. Though the vision is mine...it is also yours. In fact, I constructed this text for you to join me. As you proceed through this text, I invite you to stop to breathe prayers as you finish the thoughts on every page. Just as I did. The beauty will find you. Just as it did me. *This book is intentionally spread out to create room for meditation/writing.

Tangibility is both the fundamental question and the fundamental answer of human existence. It speaks of who we were. It speaks of who we are. It speaks of who we are to become. But what is it saying? Everything.

The death penalty both obscures and defines. I don’t know for certain what Steven Nelson did or didn’t do. I do know that he was my dear friend. For Steven’s gift of friendship, I am deeply grateful. These writings were, are and continue to be my attempt to engage the Steven that I came to know. The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood March 15, 2025

The Seven Last Words of Christ echo most loudly in the chambers that we choose to execute in. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” -Luke 23:34 “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” -Luke 23:43 “Woman, Behold your Son…Behold your mother.” -John 19:26-27 “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” -Mark 15:34 “I thirst.” -John 19:28 “It is finished.” -John 19:30 “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” -Luke 23:46 “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” -Luke 23:34

"I want to work with people who would join me…cheering…across the street while the white Jesus exploded. When I founded The New Theology School a number of years ago, I did so with the idea of training and fostering community amongst people who were willing to stand up to the false Gods of traditional religion…who were willing to boldly stand on the side of justice. In time, the community started to grow. In such a space, I met Dr. Yoel Omowale. After hearing his yearning for a world beyond white spirituality and all its’ erasures, I knew I’d found a coconspirator. When we started...

David Hosier is scheduled to be executed on June 11, 2024. The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood serves as David Hosier’s spiritual advisor. This commentary flowed out of their work together in Jonah.