Justice Restores

Candidly, I put very little stock in what the Bible has to say. I do not begrudge anyone who finds comfort within the pages, but for me it was weaponized, and I will always see it that way. Surely, my sentiments are not for lack of familiarity with its contents. In fact, it could be that familiarity breeds contempt.

That being said, I have been pondering again about justice... particularly the INjustice of our criminal justice system - demonstrated for all of us in the obscene Facebook post from Attica's Corrections Officer Gregory C. Foster, happily condoned by several other COs... and how true, worthwhile justice repairs, restores, and heals. To my chagrin, my familiarity with scripture brought to mind Isaiah chapter 58. At first I chided myself for reverting to trauma pathways. Then, I started thinking more about the actual content of the chapter (and how the Irwins interpreted it for their own gain and control.) I began to wonder at the irony of our current political climate. Why does it seem Evangelical Christianity as an entity is in favor of mass incarceration and of punitive, vengeful practices cloaked as justice? Perhaps, it is their view of God as also being punitive and vengeful. But, that is a topic for another post, I suppose. Why aren't all Christians socialists? Why aren't all Christians abolitionists? (Case in point, Pastor Greg (is it the name??) Locke recently screamed from the pulpit that Christians cannot be Democrats.)

How is it that we as a society have been so lazy in our methods of criminal justice? How does imprisoning a human fix the ills of society? Why not bring back debtors prison? I say it is all rubbish! Imprisonment is nothing but a power play, a demonstration of racism in so many forms; a decision that one human life is more important than an another; that one human life is not worth our time and effort to ensure their basic inalienable rights. We imprison one because the life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness of another was threatened, but we fail to consider whether the offender's basic rights were secured as well. We cannot expect harm [most would call it crime - but crime is defined by the whim of the government] to be lessened against our fellow humans while we pretend that the inalienable rights listed by the Constitution are truly secured to every human. We too frequently confuse rights and privileges. Rights are not conferred - they simply exist. Privileges can be earned, granted, and rescinded.

Anyway, back to Isaiah. Chapter 58 is only 14 verses. It's a mystery how a sermon on a select few of these verses could drag on for 3 hours. Again, I digress. Below, I include the text of the chapter in the New King James Version, as that is the version I have greatest contempt for familiarity with. (The final 2 verses change direction slightly, and I do not include them in this particular "thought study," though I include them as part of the chapter here - given in the NASB version since it makes a bit more sense.)

 “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’

“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
⁴ Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?

⁶ “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
¹² Those from among you Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

¹³ “If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
¹⁴ Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”