Paging though an old notebook tonight, from reading that I did in 1998, I came upon a quotation from Abraham Joshua Heschel that made me realize the limitations of this blog.
In Idols in the Temple (1962), Heschel wrote: "If self-expression is the only goal, it can never be achieved. The self gains when losing itself in the not-self, in the contemplation of the world, for example. Self-expression depends upon self-attachment to what is greater than the self."
When I read these words, I felt an implicit critique of my creative stance toward this blog in the 2 1/2 years I've been writing it. It's been primarily about my own self-expression, and only secondarily about seeking a viable forum for dialog about criminal justice reform.
Having felt the weight of the great rabbi's words, I shall endeavor to position my blog as a more useful vehicle for engagement with the world. This will include enewed emphasis on sentencing reform, as well as on the work of Prison Congregations of America, on whose board I serve.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Bowie's Pilate Makes a World-Weary Case for Deterrence
David Bowe’s postmodern Pontius Pilate, in Scorcese’s film of Kazantzakis’ Last Temptation of Christ, is a world-weary, ironic figure. After his half-hearted interrogation elicits little from the arrested Jesus, Pilate sits down on the stone bench next to his prisoner.
Trying to get Jesus to see Roman reason, he points out that any insurrection, real or imagined, is punishable by death on the cross. The accumulating skulls at the execution site, known as Golgotha, are supposed to deter any form of rebellion, whether spiritual or political.
Three thousand of those ought to be enough, Pilate asserts, for the occupied Jews to give up all hope of challenging entrenched Roman power.
Jesus remains unmoved and Pilate does not even both to ask, as in the Gospels, What is Truth? Instead, Pilate allows Jesus to be brutally beaten and taken out to The Place of the Skull.
Fortunately, in this case, deterrence did not work. The death and resurrection of a man condemned as a criminal redeemed the world.
Trying to get Jesus to see Roman reason, he points out that any insurrection, real or imagined, is punishable by death on the cross. The accumulating skulls at the execution site, known as Golgotha, are supposed to deter any form of rebellion, whether spiritual or political.
Three thousand of those ought to be enough, Pilate asserts, for the occupied Jews to give up all hope of challenging entrenched Roman power.
Jesus remains unmoved and Pilate does not even both to ask, as in the Gospels, What is Truth? Instead, Pilate allows Jesus to be brutally beaten and taken out to The Place of the Skull.
Fortunately, in this case, deterrence did not work. The death and resurrection of a man condemned as a criminal redeemed the world.
Born Free? Not Here, For Those in Chains
Class consciousness is not Americans’ strong suit. In a country founded by overthrowing royal rule, we like to subscribe to the myth that most of us are middle class.
George Washington and the others did succeed in casting off King George. But of course the country was not born fully free; the slaves remained in bondage, despite the Constitution.
Today, there is another sense in which, to paraphrase Rousseau, people are often born in chains in the self-styled Land of the Free. The mass incarceration of the past thirty years has especially impacted those at the bottom of the economic order and kept them behind bars.
Bruce Western and Becky Pettit discuss this phenomenon in their essay in Daedalus on “Incarceration and Social Inequality.” Mass incarceration, they point out, “deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginal in society.”
In that sense, I would argue, mass incarceration is profoundly anti-Christian. Jesus came to proclaim a preferential option for the poor. But we have come to accept deep, entrenched poverty that tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation.
To be sure, crime does involve personal choices, not merely social structures. But those choices are exercised in a culture in which the odds are against those from the lower economic depths.
George Washington and the others did succeed in casting off King George. But of course the country was not born fully free; the slaves remained in bondage, despite the Constitution.
Today, there is another sense in which, to paraphrase Rousseau, people are often born in chains in the self-styled Land of the Free. The mass incarceration of the past thirty years has especially impacted those at the bottom of the economic order and kept them behind bars.
Bruce Western and Becky Pettit discuss this phenomenon in their essay in Daedalus on “Incarceration and Social Inequality.” Mass incarceration, they point out, “deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginal in society.”
In that sense, I would argue, mass incarceration is profoundly anti-Christian. Jesus came to proclaim a preferential option for the poor. But we have come to accept deep, entrenched poverty that tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation.
To be sure, crime does involve personal choices, not merely social structures. But those choices are exercised in a culture in which the odds are against those from the lower economic depths.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sex Offenders in Minnesota
I have not written often enough about sex offenders in this blog.
After all, sex offenders comprise almost a third (31 percent) of Minnesota’s roughly 9500 inmates. And that percentage is only of the prison population. The substantial civil commitment contingent up at Moose Lake isn’t counted in the criminal numbers.
Recently, the Star Trib has tried to initiate a debate about the sex offender civil commitment program’s effectiveness — or lack thereof. The sticker price is high ($120,000 per year) and the results are questionable (virtually no one has ever been released).
Gail Rosenblum’s column offers illuminative context on the debate. She points out that respected researchers are trying to transcend the typical labeling of sex offenders, Instead, it may make more sense to focus on the commonalties that those convicted of sex offenses share with all other offenders.
After all, sex offenders comprise almost a third (31 percent) of Minnesota’s roughly 9500 inmates. And that percentage is only of the prison population. The substantial civil commitment contingent up at Moose Lake isn’t counted in the criminal numbers.
Recently, the Star Trib has tried to initiate a debate about the sex offender civil commitment program’s effectiveness — or lack thereof. The sticker price is high ($120,000 per year) and the results are questionable (virtually no one has ever been released).
Gail Rosenblum’s column offers illuminative context on the debate. She points out that respected researchers are trying to transcend the typical labeling of sex offenders, Instead, it may make more sense to focus on the commonalties that those convicted of sex offenses share with all other offenders.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Self-Selection in the Suburbs on Sunday Morning
After Daedalus devoted its Summer 2010 issue to the phenomenon of mass incarceration, I decided to start subscribing to the journal.
I did it the old-fashioned way, by sending in a check. So it took a while before my first issue arrived.
Now, however, I’ve received the Winter and Spring issues, a two-part exploration of Race in the Age of Obama. The editors have assembled over 400 pages of learned discussion, by some two dozen authors, on many different aspects of the status of race in American society.
Perusing the titles tonight, I was reminded of just how suburban my life has become. At work, I interact regularly with colleagues from diverse racial backgrounds. Yet in my private life, including my church life, I am so often insulated from a proper awareness of racial dynamics by the lulling effect of white suburbia.
Why is Sunday morning the most segregated time of the week? There is nothing new about this reality. But it's important to keep asking the question.
I did it the old-fashioned way, by sending in a check. So it took a while before my first issue arrived.
Now, however, I’ve received the Winter and Spring issues, a two-part exploration of Race in the Age of Obama. The editors have assembled over 400 pages of learned discussion, by some two dozen authors, on many different aspects of the status of race in American society.
Perusing the titles tonight, I was reminded of just how suburban my life has become. At work, I interact regularly with colleagues from diverse racial backgrounds. Yet in my private life, including my church life, I am so often insulated from a proper awareness of racial dynamics by the lulling effect of white suburbia.
Why is Sunday morning the most segregated time of the week? There is nothing new about this reality. But it's important to keep asking the question.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
CSI: The Cross
On Tuesday in Holy Week, my son Micah and I attended a one-hour class on first communion. Shepherd of the Valley, an ELCA Lutheran congregation in Apple Valley, Minn., aims this class at fifth graders. Others are welcome, however, including children younger than fifth grade who seem ready to receive the Lord’s Supper and have parental permission to do so.
The kids were full of questions about many different aspects of the Eucharist, from the grand-theological (Why did Jesus die?) to the nuts and bolts practical (Where do you get the bread?). After the questions were duly noted on a whiteboard, Pastor Randy Brandt ran through short answers to each one.
I’m titling this post “CSI: The Cross” because one question the children asked was, “How did the Cross cause death?” Pastor Randy’s answer was that, with the arms nailed to the cross-beam, it becomes increasingly impossible to breath. It is a slow death by asphyxiation — a form of torture that the Romans intended as a brutal deterrent to any rebellion against their occupying rule.
Palestine, under Roman rule, had no prohibtion against cruel and unusual punishment.
The kids were full of questions about many different aspects of the Eucharist, from the grand-theological (Why did Jesus die?) to the nuts and bolts practical (Where do you get the bread?). After the questions were duly noted on a whiteboard, Pastor Randy Brandt ran through short answers to each one.
I’m titling this post “CSI: The Cross” because one question the children asked was, “How did the Cross cause death?” Pastor Randy’s answer was that, with the arms nailed to the cross-beam, it becomes increasingly impossible to breath. It is a slow death by asphyxiation — a form of torture that the Romans intended as a brutal deterrent to any rebellion against their occupying rule.
Palestine, under Roman rule, had no prohibtion against cruel and unusual punishment.
A Police Presence at a Suburban Target
A suburban SuperTarget, at 8 p.m. on a week night. My son and I pull up in our minivan, listening to the baseball game on the radio.
We’ve parked in this large lot countless times before. This time, however, the scene is a bit different. Three Apple Valley police vehicles are parked in front of one of the two entrances to the store.
Presumably the police presence was to investigate a report of shoplifting?
We’ve parked in this large lot countless times before. This time, however, the scene is a bit different. Three Apple Valley police vehicles are parked in front of one of the two entrances to the store.
Presumably the police presence was to investigate a report of shoplifting?
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