Amos 8:1–12, Psalm 52
The Revised Common Lectionary pairs Amos’ vision of a basket of summer fruit (8:1-12, NRSV) with a psalm of equally apocalyptic warning (Psalm 52). Contemporary Americans relegate these sort of warnings to fringe churches, street preachers, and conspiracy theorists at their peril.
God offered a stark warning of what was to come in Amos, which he had to deliver to Israel. “The songs of the temple shall become wailings,” God warned. “The dead bodies shall be many ,cast out in every place” (8:3). Psalm 52 likewise admonished, “God will break you down forever” (v. 5). But why is God bringing about or at least consenting to these catastrophes?
Both Amos and the psalmist provide answers. Amos, from Judah, warns the Israelites that they have “trample[d] the needy,” brought “to ruin the poor of the land.” They have committed economic injustices by falsifying balances, tricking buyers, and exploiting the poor and needy (8:5-6). The psalmist decries those who “trust in abundant riches” and seek “refuge in wealth,” becoming evildoers who ignore God (52:7). And God promises, “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds” (Amos 8:7).
One of the pillars that props up the prison industrial complex is profit. There has been vast amounts of money to be made in the building and maintenance of prisons. GEO Group and Core Civic, leading builders and operators of private prisons in the United States, made a combined total revenue of almost $4,000,000,000 in 2021 (that’s $4 billion, but I believe it’s helpful to write it out). GEO Group and Core Civic aren’t the only companies profiting off private prisons and we can’t limit the financial gains of the prison industrial complex to private prisons. Public prisons and jails enrich vendors and operators, as well.
I once heard on very good authority of a church that received 40% of its budget from one donor every year. This donor made all his money providing uniforms and other sundries to prisons. Our own Christian institutions are propped up by, in many cases, the same money that God condemns in Amos and the psalms. When we talk about the abolition of prisons, we need to understand that means cleaning up our own houses, too, not just the houses of the wealthy and powerful.
When confronted with these realities, the far reaching profits of prisons, the temptation is to throw up our hands and despair of ever trying to extricate ourselves from it or abolish the system itself. Amos and the psalmist, however, claimed that we ignore their warnings at our peril. How will God see us if we turn our eyes away from the profit we gain from prisons? How will God judge those benefiting off the oppression of God’s children? God says, “Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds,” so we need to act accordingly.
Wesley Spears-Newsome (he/him/his)is a writer and Baptist pastor in North Carolina. You can find more of his work at wespearsnewsome.com.