A Prayer for Clarance

Clarance Goode, Jr. has asked for one thing from the people who read his story: that they not forget him. Prayer is where that begins. Pray for him by name. Pray for him out loud, in your congregations, at your tables, in the places where the people of Oklahoma gather. Pray for the truth to be seen by the people with the power to act on it. Pray for La Kendra, for his children, for his grandchildren, for his wider family and his supporters. Pray for the people who lied, because they are carrying something too. Then pray with your hands: write the governor, write the Pardon and Parole Board, tell someone else what you know. Here is a prayer to start with.

God of the innocent,

you know what happened at the Thompson house.

You were there.

You know who fired the shots, who told the lies, who planted the bullets.

You know Clarance was not there.

Be with him tonight in McAlester.

Be with him in the cell where the state keeps him.

Be with him when the phone does not ring.

Be with him when the photographs of his children arrive and he cannot hold the people in them.

Give him what you gave the prophets in prison: a voice that does not go quiet.

Keep his faith stubborn.

Keep his hope alive.

Keep his truth whole.

Be with La Kendra, who has stood for thirty years.

Be with his children, his grandchildren, his wider family.

Be with the supporters who carry his name into the world.

Open the eyes of the courts.

Open the ears of the governor.

Open the mouths of the people who know the truth but have not said it.

Soften the hearts of the ones who lied.

Stop the machinery.

Give Oklahoma the courage to admit what it has done.

Give us the courage to say his name until it does.

Clarance Goode, Jr. is innocent.

You know it.

Let the world know it too.

Amen.