I have recently written a series on the COVID-19 crisis in prisons, the Church’s response, and discerning the call to abolition for The Living Church, and in conjunction with that was interviewed on their podcast as well:
Hannah Bowman interview on the Living Church podcast
This crisis continues to be most acute for our incarcerated siblings, and I ask for your continued prayers and activism for them. Remember those in prison as though in prison with them (Heb. 13:3).
As our country also grapples with the scourge of police violence against Black people, it is time for every white Christian to turn away from white supremacy and move past promises of reform to a commitment to prison and police abolition. At this time, we hear again God’s words to the prophet Ezekiel: “Why will you die? … For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone.” God has no pleasure in the death occurring from coronavirus in our prisons or the deaths occurring from police violence in our communities — deaths that we are inflicting on each other and ourselves by our reliance on the inhumane practices of racialized policing and incarceration.
It is time for us all to obey the divine command that follows (Ezekiel 18:32): “Turn, then, and live.” Turn to abolition, and live.