John 13:31–35
There are a thousand permutations of the idea that a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable, but the biblical variation of this sentiment is in our Gospel lesson for this week. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Although in the middle of John’s Gospel, Jesus was delivering his final teachings to his disciples when he said this, passing along the words necessary for them to continue his work. Jesus sets up the measurement of faithfulness for his followers: love displayed to one another.
Abolitionists in New York have been persistently and consistently pointing out how the state fails this measure, a reality that has been particularly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prisons by their very nature propagate and spread infectious diseases, exposing everyone within their walls to the danger of infection. On top of that baseline danger, some prisoners in New York prisons have been denied booster shots for months, they have not been provided proper personal protective equipment (PPE), and testing has been dismally unavailable. Addressing these problems doesn’t even begin to touch on the inadequate levels of essential medical care and services in prisons – a problem that existed long before COVID-19.
Such treatment certainly fails Jesus’ ‘new commandment’ in the Gospel lesson. No love has been shared in this catastrophic situation. Beyond it, however, a system of incarceration like the one in the United States is fundamentally incapable of showing love. When the only way to rectify wrongs is through committing more (and often more egregious!) wrongs, love cannot exist. When so many innocents are victims of this system, which does nothing to restore or promote life but only to destroy it, love cannot exist. How else can a Christian look upon such an institution than say, “This must end.”
I’ve seen criticism leveled at both police and prison abolitionists that they are not taking criminal justice issues seriously enough with demands to defund and abolish these institutions of violence and destruction. While solutions are undoubtedly complicated, when I considered our Gospel lesson for this week, I couldn’t help but think those critics are the ones not taking Jesus seriously enough.
Wesley Spears-Newsome (he/him/his) is a writer and Baptist pastor in North Carolina.