I find myself, like so many other people, trying to make sense of the stories of racial injustice that have filled my world and the narrative of my country, my people, and my communities. Often I wonder how it could still be happening.
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), working with police chiefs and mayors, have raised the concern that following a steady decline in violent crime that began in the early 1990s, the nation’s cities are experiencing an increasing violent crime trend.
Living in an individualist culture, we tend to have a very individualistic view of sin. We think of our specific actions or attitudes. And we need to do that because there is such a thing as personal sin.
How we do the work of justice is characterized by a particular attitude of the heart. In order for us to be people who steward our power for a lifestyle of justice, we have to understand that we do it with a healthy, deliberate, studied recognition of the paradox of our power.
It’s time for the Church to pay attention to justice, because justice is close to the heart of God. Doing justice is a critical part of every Christian’s vocational call. It is, according to Micah 6:8, something that “the Lord requires of us.”
“Justice mission” is part of the essential calling of the Church corporately as we seek to follow in Christ’s footsteps, imitating His Kingdom mission. Justice is, according to Micah 6:8, something that “the Lord requires of us.” But what does it mean to do justice? How is this lived out?
“Jailhouse religion”—the sudden desperate piety of an inmate who’s up against it and hopes that God will somehow bail him out.I’m reminded of an inmate who spent 90 percent of his time in disciplinary confinement until he got “saved.”
The Indiana General Assembly took the unusual step today of endorsing unanimously a reentry program for women leaving prison that was conceived and developed by the women themselves. The program, Constructing Our Future, calls for women to be trained in building trades and spend time while incarcerated rehabilitating some of the thousands of abandoned homes in Indianapolis.
For several years, Indiana has ranked among the top five states of methamphetamine production, leading law enforcement officials and legislators to search for answers to halt the spread of production and use. Through its Meth Free project, Sagamore helped the State of Indiana to become a leader in the fight against methamphetamine production and usage.
Before Mitch Daniels was elected Governor in 2004, Indiana was in the midst of trends toward building more prisons, increasing corrections spending, and yet an increasing recidivism rate among inmates. The Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC) was in dire need of major reforms.