T
he ELCA Criminal Justice Task Force will release a draft of the proposed social statement “Hear- ing the Cries” on March 15 (www.
elca.org/criminaljustice). Social statements express the
church’s biblical and confessional understanding related to significant issues. ELCA members can use them for teaching and moral guid- ance. While social statements govern church policy, they don’t bind an individual member’s conscience. In January, The Lutheran spoke with Roger Willer, director for studies in the Office of the Presiding Bishop, about the proposed social statement, which could come before the 2013 Churchwide Assembly.
The Lutheran: What’s the ELCA’s current position on criminal justice? Willer: The ELCA doesn’t yet have a comprehensive teaching and social policy document on criminal justice. A 1991 statement on the death penalty and a 1994 message on com- munity violence offer limited reflec- tion on the system as a whole.
Why have a statement now? Seven ELCA synods asked for this statement. The U.S. has the highest percentage of incarcerated people of any country in the world. Leaders from (former) Justice John Paul Ste- vens to legal scholar Michelle Alex- ander (author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Col- orblindness) are calling the system broken. The timing puts the ELCA in the forefront of Christians contribut- ing to public deliberation today. As a church we are motivated by
God’s call to be in the world and to bear one another’s burdens. Jesus tells us that ministry to people in prison is ministry to him (Matthew 25:40). We depend on Scripture and the knowledge of ELCA members in the criminal justice system to help us think about these things from the van- tage point of faith.
Who benefits from this work? All of us. All of us are connected to the criminal justice system, whether or not we or a family mem- ber or a friend are an inmate, a police officer, a judge, a victim of a crime and so on. It’s not someone else’s job to talk about this.
Many people have told me how grateful they are that the ELCA is doing this because they are related to someone who is incarcerated or a victim, but they don’t feel safe talk- ing about it. There’s a sense of “this happens, but it’s not supposed to happen to me.” There’s a feeling of helplessness, of having to bear this alone. For them, our work is breaking the silence.
Is that a reference to the study’s title, “Hearing the Cries”? Yes. Our society is often deaf to the many voices that cry out— whether voices of victims, the con- victed, the families or even police who feel underappreciated. The church’s role is to insist that those cries be heard.
What might be in the draft? The ELCA
Criminal Justice Task
What do you know about criminal justice?
Read the ELCA’s draft social statement, ready
March 15 By Elizabeth Hunter
Force has talked about the relation- ship between gospel and law, the church and civil authority. They’ve discussed Christian callings within the justice system and how Martin Luther’s seven marks of the church relate. The impact of national drug policy, racial disparities in incarcera- tion rates and sentencing, juvenile detention and the privatization of pris- ons have also come up.
What actions can we take? People across the ELCA are doing good things. If we can lift up some of these things in The Lutheran and other outlets, and others can replicate or help to carry out those ministries, that’s a pretty good place to start.
Four things you might not know • Most U.S. crime is not violent and crime rates have been dropping since the early 1990s. • The U.S. has the highest incarcera- tion rate in the world. • Most offenses don’t result in arrest. • Only a small percentage of crimi- nal cases involve jury trials.
Hunter is a section editor of The Lutheran.
Source: “Hearing the Cries,” ELCA Criminal Justice Study.
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