The goal of Christians for Abolition is to organize people for abolition from a perspective that is:
- Christian: A commitment to prison abolition does not arise only from universal understandings of human rights, but from specific belief in the revelation of the nature of God through the man Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection.
- Mainline: The audience for Christians for Abolition is primarily the mainline, progressive Christian churches in the US. These are churches that are historically rich, white, and liberal. Mainline Christians have commitments to criminal justice reform as one of various progressive causes—but for the most part have not made the paradigm shift to abolitionism. Recognizing our own privilege, the goal of Christians for Abolition is to organize the mainline churches to support work being done on prison abolition by those marginalized groups most affected by mass incarceration. Because mainline churches are disproportionately white, one goal is, in part, to bring these communities into solidarity and real allyship with ongoing movements, following the leadership of BIPOC organizers. Christians for Abolition also tries to spotlight Black abolitionist voices—to be very clear that the Black church has its own tradition of liberationist and abolitionist theology—but the role of white Christians is “calling in” people from our own traditions to anti-racist abolitionist work.
- Intersectional: Prison abolition is only one aspect of many interconnected struggles for justice in our society, and efforts must take into account the complex ways our current criminal justice system affects people at the intersection of their various identities, including race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
Do you want to join us? Right now Christians for Abolition is a website/resource hub, updated by Hannah Bowman with guest posts from supporters of the work . But we are seeking churches to affiliate with our goals and build out the organization. More information in our introductory letter. Join the movement for liberation!
About our founder and director, Hannah Bowman:
Hannah Bowman is a graduate student in theology, literary agent, prison abolitionist, and restorative justice practitioner.
The founder and director of Christians for Abolition, Hannah writes and teaches on the Christian theology supporting prison abolition. She has developed extensive educational materials on the Christians for Abolition website and written for Sojourners, National Catholic Reporter, The Living Church, Earth and Altar, Episcopal Café, and The Hour about prison abolition and theology. Her scholarly writing has appeared in Political Theology, the Anglican Theological Review, and Crucible. She has taught guest classes at the Institute for Christian Studies, participated in programming for the Institute for Christian Socialism, and appeared on various podcasts including The Magnificast, Theology and Socialism, Public Theologians, A Peoples’ Theology, and The Living Church podcast.
Hannah has also worked with the LA pilot Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) program, in collaboration with the Fresno Community Justice Center. COSA is a restorative-justice re-entry model in which a circle of 3–5 volunteers meets weekly with an individual returning from prison or civil commitment; COSA LA intentionally serves people who have been incarcerated for serious harm, including sexual harm. Additionally, from 2016 to 2020, Hannah was a lay chaplain in the LA County Jails with Prism Restorative Justice.