“Jesus for President!” So proclaims a progressive Christian movement aiming to tweak the national conscience. Recent trend lines in the country suggest an even more provocative tagline for our consideration: “Jesus for Parole.”
That’s right. Jesus is imprisoned ”” at least in the view of an increasingly vocal set of Christians spurred into action by some deeply troubling truths about America and our bursting-at-the-seams prison system.
The concern seems as well placed as it is challenging. The United States has crossed, for the first time, a dismal threshold: One out of every 100 American adults is in prison, according to the Pew Center on the States. Five states have reached the point where they are spending as much or more on corrections than they do on higher education systems. To place it all in perspective, consider that America has approximately 5% of the world population but about 25% of the world’s prison population.
The fact that violent crime, according to the Justice Department, has dropped over the same three decades of surging prison-population growth poses a complex tangle: Is less crime the product of get-tough enforcement and sentencing, or are we just incarcerating more low-level offenders who don’t need to be in prison? Probably some of both. But whatever the case, the situation is enough to chew on the conscience of any follower of a religion that emphasizes compassion and redemption. Multitudes of Americans are languishing in prison ”” and it’s all suggestive of something deeper afflicting the soul of the nation.
Our denomination has begun & continues to support an excellent, honest, Christ-centered ministry behind bars: “Kairos”. Kairos (“God’s special/high Time”) is modeled on the three day experience of Cursillo, Happening, etc. The talks- given by a wide ecumenical team of “free-world”-ers, – include topics such as “Choices” (and their consequences, material & spiritual) and “the Church” (“*We* are the Church”…prisoners learn to say, as they build the Body of Christ)
within the prison environment.
Although many biblical references to those who are “imprisoned” probably relate more to Prisoners of War, slaves by conquest, rather thann those who are law-breakers, nevertheless, it is clear that Jesus intends us to visit, encourage and love tenderly those who are behind bars.