Draft Social Statement
on Criminal Justice
Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America
Summary
The ELCA
Task Force on Criminal Justice has written this draft as one of the steps
toward the development of a social statement that may be considered by the 2013
ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Draft social statements have no official standing as
statements of the ELCA. They are a means to invite participation by all in the
process toward the creation of a statement.
ELCA social
statements are theological and teaching documents. They assist the ELCA and its
members to reach informed judgments on social issues from a perspective of
faith. They are intended to cultivate individual and community deliberation as
well as to guide moral formation. They
govern this church’s institutional policy in terms of its social witness and
guide its work as a public church. Social statements are developed through an
extensive process of deliberation involving the whole church and are adopted by
a two-thirds majority of an ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
In a
nutshell the statement says:
The ELCA
affirms the fundamental principles of the U.S. criminal justice system but also
hears the cries that reflect the system’s serious deficiencies. Drawing from
the biblical witness to God’s wondrously rich forms of love and justice, the
ELCA is compelled by a “holy yearning” to address the need for change and
improvement. The ELCA through its members and various expressions are called to
strengthen or take up responsive ministries. In addition, drawing on evidence
and data, the ELCA is compelled to speak publically to commend positive efforts
and to identify areas in the criminal justice system that require reform.
The
following summarize key ideas from each section:
I Prologue
It is deeply
alarming that the United States of America ranks among the top two or three countries
in the world in percentage of individuals under the control of the criminal
justice system. (1 out of 31 of all adults, and, for people of color, as high
as 1 out of 11.)
• Christians
are called to confess that the church, as individuals and through its various organizations,
has fallen short in responding to crime — both in terms of its harms and the problems
in the justice system. We ask God’s aid in opening our hearts to the cries of
our neighbors, and pray for guidance to speak and work more prophetically and
actively toward earthly justice.
II Justice
• God seeks
wholeness for humankind — biblical shalom — but God’s strategy of governing human
life is expressed in Scripture and experienced as a twofold work. On the one
hand, human beings experience God’s deep care through receiving grace-filled
righteousness, shared in the gospel about Jesus Christ, received in faith and
partially seen in the lived reality of the church as a gospel community. At the
same time, human beings experience God’s deep care through the gifts of law and
civil forms of justice. This care is expressed through institutions and systems
that, when properly operating, provide for protection, order and the
flourishing of society.
• The ELCA
affirms the fundamental principles of the U.S. criminal justice system, such as
due process of law and the presumption of legal innocence. We honor those in
the system who through their service help it to operate with fairness and a
measure of human care.
• In
assessing the current system, this church also recognizes serious deficiencies.
Budgetary constraints and persistent inequalities based on race and class frequently
challenge its basic principles and impose significant costs on all involved in
the system, and on society as a whole.
• This
church gives thanks for and yet also recognizes serious flaws in the exercise
of law enforcement, the judicial system, and the correctional system. It
commends work being done in responding to systemic racial disparities, the
rights of victims and other problems, though it continues to believe that a
great deal more must be done.
III Yearning for ever-fuller justice
• Sin and crime
are different but related categories. Although both often characterize acts
that cause great injury to others and even the self, sin represents an offense
against God, while crime represents an offense against the state. Nonetheless,
Christians yearn for the day when both will be fully overcome in God’s great
love.
• In the
meantime, drawing from the biblical witness to God’s wondrously rich forms of
justice the ELCA is compelled by a “holy yearning.” That yearning leads toward recommitting
itself to wise responses of love as a denomination and speaking publically about
paths to greater justice.
IV Wise responses of love
• This
section in the Draft primarily addresses people of faith and specifically
members of the ELCA, and asks them to respond in ministry creatively and wisely
in ways that promote human flourishing.
• God’s
“yes” to us just as we are is without condition. The Bible imagines at least
three ways of responding in faith with a grateful “yes” to the world’s needs
by: seeking wisdom, welcoming the stranger, and bearing the burdens of others.
• The
ministry and compassion of members of this church to those in the criminal
justice system should be expressed concretely by four practices: hearing the
cries of those affected; accompaniment, hospitality, and advocacy.
V Paths to greater justice
• This
section in the Draft addresses all people, seeking to join with other people of
good will to affirm positive trends and recommend means of reform in the
criminal justice system, as guided by evidence and data.
• Positive
trends to affirm include efforts at sentencing reform, reentry programming, restorative
justice and victim’s rights.
• The most
pressing need for reform concerns the very high levels of incarceration in the
U.S. Incarceration should be reserved for serious and violent offenders who
pose a danger to society. The system should make greater use of alternative
forms of sentencing that have been demonstrated to be successful.
• Research
shows that race frequently influences decision-making at numerous points in the
criminal justice system in ways that disadvantage people of color and
cumulatively contribute to racial disparity in incarceration. Significant
actions must be taken to address this continuing problem.
• Any
comprehensive assessment of the criminal justice system must attend to national
drug policy because that policy has a marked effect on all aspects of the
system. The ELCA calls for careful attention to the full costs and consequences
of the current policy, and openness to changes where they would enhance the
welfare of the community.
• On
theological grounds regarding the proper role of government, as well as for humanitarian
reasons and questions about true cost effectiveness, the ELCA opposes current trends
that would increase privatization of the criminal justice system.
• Other
areas for reform include practices regarding juvenile offenders, collateral
sanctions, rehabilitation, and encouragement for alternative strategies to
enhance public safety and lower crime rates.
VI Conclusion: a new paradigm
• It must be
remembered that those involved in the criminal justice system are human beings,
created in the image of God and worthy of compassionate response and better
alternatives. A transformation of perspective is needed in this society that
will challenge a logic that equates more punitive responses to crime with more
just ones.
• In God the
ELCA places our hope for the fullness of justice promised only by the gospel. And
to God we owe our thanks for human reason and its abilities to discern — with prudence
and creativity — how our communities might reflect in this time the justice of
the law. The ELCA therefore recommits itself to ministry with, for, to and
among the many, many people whose voices cry out for justice in our criminal justice
system. “For what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
