We need to change the way we do "church" or get out of the church and start being Jesus to the world. Both would be ideal.
More than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., a number that has quadrupled since the 1980s. If current incarceration trends continue, one in every three black males born in America today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life, compared with one in six Latino males, and one in 17 white males, according to a recent report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based justice reform group.
Of the countless drug related convictions each year, almost half are for low-level offenders. Almost all low-level offenders come from poverty and almost all of them end up in prison accounting for much of the incarcerated since 1980. While I don't condone their offense, I understand why they do what they do. Instead of trying to help these people, we stigmatize them. If they are not hardened before incarceration, they will certainly have plenty of opportunity while in prison. In a very real sense, the "war on drugs" has become a war on the poor.
Consider your own life for a moment. How many of us would choose an easier way to make more money if we were shown how to do it? How many of us already take a non-drug related easy way out? The poor have a choice. They can make an "honest living" by flipping burgers or make a whole lot more money by selling something else. Perhaps we are not so different.
As we remember the death and resurrection of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, let us remember those in need. Let's follow up our songs of praise this weekend with outstretched arms to men and women in need. How do we find them? They are the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, the addicts, and they will likely not be sitting next to you at church this Sunday.
Why aren't they in church? That's an excellent question!
More than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., a number that has quadrupled since the 1980s. If current incarceration trends continue, one in every three black males born in America today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life, compared with one in six Latino males, and one in 17 white males, according to a recent report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based justice reform group.
Of the countless drug related convictions each year, almost half are for low-level offenders. Almost all low-level offenders come from poverty and almost all of them end up in prison accounting for much of the incarcerated since 1980. While I don't condone their offense, I understand why they do what they do. Instead of trying to help these people, we stigmatize them. If they are not hardened before incarceration, they will certainly have plenty of opportunity while in prison. In a very real sense, the "war on drugs" has become a war on the poor.
Consider your own life for a moment. How many of us would choose an easier way to make more money if we were shown how to do it? How many of us already take a non-drug related easy way out? The poor have a choice. They can make an "honest living" by flipping burgers or make a whole lot more money by selling something else. Perhaps we are not so different.
As we remember the death and resurrection of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, let us remember those in need. Let's follow up our songs of praise this weekend with outstretched arms to men and women in need. How do we find them? They are the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, the addicts, and they will likely not be sitting next to you at church this Sunday.
Why aren't they in church? That's an excellent question!
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