Hello and welcome to the Maxwell Institute podcast, where we seek out faith illuminating scholarship.

I'm Rosalind Welch, Associate Director at the Institute.

This season we're exploring the questions we should be asking.

Thanks for joining us. A couple of years ago in general conference, Elder Dale G. Renland spoke

about a man whose name will be familiar to many. He said this. Someone who has been anxiously

engaged in combating unfairness is attorney Brian Stevenson.

His legal practice in the United States is dedicated to defending the wrongly accused, ending excessive punishment, and protecting basic human rights.

Elder Runland continued, Mr. Stevenson observed that self-righteousness, fear, and anger have caused even Christians

to hurl stones at people who stumble. He then said, we can't simply watch that happen,

and he encouraged the congregants to become stone catchers. I'm talking today with Professor

Michaelin Steele, a member of the faculty at the J. Rubin Clark Law School about Brian

Stevenson and his best-selling book, Just Mercy. As Elder Renlon said, Stevenson has spent his

career assisting people in some of the worst circumstances I can imagine, those on death row or

facing a life sentence. He's also a Christian and his faith in Jesus and love

of the Bible are on full display in his book. Professor Steele helped me see what Stevenson's work

with imprisoned people can teach all of us about mercy and justice. This is something she knows firsthand

from her own experience ministering to incarcerated

women in her community. As she says, we're in a web of hurt and brokenness, but we're also

together in a web of healing and mercy. Too often, though, we look away from that web, or choose

not to see our brothers and sisters in their lowest moments.

Or we simply don't know how to make the connections we want to make. How to get proximate,

as Stevenson puts it, is a question we should be asking. And it's the topic of our conversation

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