The startling story of Willie Earl Green will be told in the days ahead as part of an extraordinary Special Report on CNN tomorrow and Thursday evening at 9 p.m ET.
The report has to do with life at San Quentin prison, where CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien and producer Stan Wilson visited for “CNN Presents: Black in America”. To be honest with you, that preview of content would not normally arouse my interest. I am just not that stimulated by the idea of learning more about life in a place of punishment.

We have been discussing punishment here on this blog for the past couple of days, and I have been asking about God’s role in punishing human beings for their ‘sins.’ Then along comes this report from CNN–and a news piece, in written form, on CNN.com about the upcoming show.
The news piece was part of CNN’s “Behind the Scenes” series, in which CNN correspondents and producers share their experiences in covering news, and analyze the stories behind the events on which they report.
I took a moment to read the CNN report on the Internet, and it shook my up a bit, because it included the story of a man who seems to have more forgiveness in his heart for someone who has done him a grievous wrong than God is said to have for those who are said to have done Him wrong.
The account from which I quote below was written by the producer of the upcoming CNN Special Report, Stan Wilson.
“Green was serving 33 years to life for the murder, robbery and burglary of a Los Angeles woman in 1983 but always proclaimed his innocence,” Wilson tell us.
“He earned a liberal arts degree in prison and tutored hundreds of others. Green’s conviction was on appeal when we met, so I took a few notes but concluded that there was little chance his case would be overturned.”
Wilson says that about one month later he was surprised to learn that Green’s case was indeed thrown out.
“A Los Angeles judge set the graying 56-year-old free, ruling that the prosecution’s star witness, Willie Finley, lied to a jury during key portions of his testimony,” Wilson reports.
Then Wilson quotes Willie Earl Green:
‘”I was once a freedom marcher in Mississippi fighting for civil rights and social justice during the Martin Luther King Jr. era,” Green told me during his final days in prison. “I would never ponder harming anyone, let alone kill a human being, after spending my early life fighting for nonviolent social change the way King taught us.”‘
CNN cameras were present at Green’s release hearing, he says, “and we captured Green’s reunion with his wife, Mary, a breast cancer survivor. On June 19, Green was invited back to San Quentin to deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class of 2008. He received a three-minute standing ovation from more than 300 inmates, prison officials and relatives. Green was a tutor of this year’s valedictorian and emphasized the value of education.”
“I learned never give up, never give up hope, and never allow anyone to define you,” Wilson says that Green told the audience.
“He told me he felt guilty about leaving his friends behind, but the experience was much different,” Wilson’s report says. “This time,” Green allows, “the sound of the prison gates closing was a good ‘cling’.”
Wilson’s remarkable written report at CNN.com concluded its section of Green with this…
“Ninety days after his release, Green told me that he is slowly adjusting to life and that he’s not bitter. ‘I don’t hate anybody,’ he said. ‘I don’t hate Willie Finley for doing what he did. I forgive him, too’.”
First, I want to commend Stan Wilson and Soledad O’Brien and CNN for finding and sharing this remarkable story — which includes a larger topic: education inside prison walls.
But then, I want to ask a question. How is it that Willie Earl Green has more compassion for the man who wrongly placed him behind bars for years and years — and the God who I keep hearing about on this website condemns men and women to everlasting torture routinely, simply for being Jewish? Or Muslim? Or Hindu? Or Buddhist? Or Mormon? Or anything besides Christian?
And this question, too, please…How can God ask and expect us to be compassionate and forgiving when He is not?
You know, I can understand how people can believe in a God who punishes someone who did something absolutely horrible while on earth. An Adolph Hitler, for instance. But how can anyone believe that God sends souls to unending and indescribable suffering in hell for choosing the ‘wrong’ religion–?
I mean, does anyone really and truly believe this? And for those who do, can anyone give a reason why? I have asked and begged for someone to help me understand this. So far, no one has come up with an answer that goes much beyond “Christ said this is how it is.” But why? Why?
Why would God judge and condemn someone who was a wonderful person, lived a good life, never hurt anyone, and lived according to the Golden Rule, simply because that person was a practicing member of the Ba’ha’ii faith? Or lived in Japan and honored the Shinto tradition? Or belonged to no organized religion at all?
This website — Beliefnet.com — is filled with people who believe just that. They write every day on this Internet site, and they believe that God says if you are not a Christian, you will be judged at the moment of your death and condemned to everlasting, eternal, unending and horrific suffering in hell. That includes Grandma Moses, if she was not a Christian. And, presumably, Mahatma Gandhi. I mean, you may win the Nobel Peace Prize, but God says “Go to hell.”