As you may have heard last fall, Lutheran Church of the Savior participated in the ELCA's study "Hearing the Cries: Faith and Criminal Justice." A group of congregation members met over a few weeks, culminating in a workshop with the ELCA's Director for Racial Justice Ministries, Judith Roberts, when our Bishop and other folks from our Synod joined us to learn about and discuss the study. We offered feedback on our experience of the study and of the wider state of criminal justice as it relates to our life together in Jesus Christ.
I am happy to announce that tomorrow, Thursday March 15th, 2012, the Criminal Justice Task Force will publicly respond to our comments, as well as those from around the church, by issuing a Draft Social Statement. Find it here. Relatedly, LivingLutheran.com today featured an article about how one group of Lutheran congregations has responded in a concrete way to the needs of the incarcerated.
When we publicized and hosted our meeting in the fall, I received a great amount of feedback from around Michigan. Many were excited that we were talking about this at all, and many had questions and concerns. Some congregations contacted me hoping to launch prison ministries in their areas; others wanted to know how to study and provide feedback.
Some felt that the study, Social Statement (official ELCA documents on social issues) and draft were nothing more than bureaucratic talk designed to assuage our guilt without making us confront the realities of the lives of the incarcerated, the accused, victims of crime and workers in the criminal justice system. They said, "Don't talk to me about talking; join me in doing ministry with these important, often-neglected populations."
I appreciate this willingness to jump right into work with people in need, but I do think there remains an important place for deliberation, reflection, and conversation about the entire complicated mess that is our American criminal justice system. Caring, compassionate ministry and service to the incarcerated are vitally important, and I commend those who choose to undertake that difficult work. It is equally important, I think, that we ask the difficult questions about the systems that cause those folks to commit crimes and become incarcerated in the first place. Having worked directly with ex-offenders, I believe we must directly confront the systemic structures - societal, legal, judicial - that make us the most heavily-incarcerated nation in the world.
My prayer is that the Draft Social Statement that comes out tomorrow provides resources to those working toward a more just criminal justice system from all angles, supporting prison ministries, clarifying avenues for advocacy, offering suggestions for ministering to victims and workers such as police, judges, corrections officers and the rest of the law side of criminal justice.
Stay tuned for more on how Lutheran Church of the Savior will partner with the wider church to address these issues, both by engaging the Draft Statement and in concrete actions in our community.
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