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God’s Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America
An incisive look at how evangelical Christians shaped—and were shaped by—the American criminal justice system.
America incarcerates on a massive scale. Despite recent reforms, the United States locks up large numbers of people—disproportionately poor and nonwhite—for long periods and offers little opportunity for restoration. Aaron Griffith reveals a key component in the origins of American mass incarceration: evangelical Christianity.
Evangelicals in the postwar era made crime concern a major religious issue and found new platforms for shaping public life through punitive politics. Religious leaders like Billy Graham and David Wilkerson mobilized fears of lawbreaking and concern for offenders to sharpen appeals for Christian conversion, setting the stage for evangelicals who began advocating tough-on-crime politics in the 1960s. Building on religious campaigns for public safety earlier in the twentieth century, some preachers and politicians pushed for “law and order,” urging support for harsh sentences and expanded policing. Other evangelicals saw crime as a missionary opportunity, launching innovative ministries that reshaped the practice of religion in prisons. From the 1980s on, evangelicals were instrumental in popularizing criminal justice reform, making it a central cause in the compassionate conservative movement. At every stage in their work, evangelicals framed their efforts as colorblind, which only masked racial inequality in incarceration and delayed real change.
Today evangelicals play an ambiguous role in reform, pressing for reduced imprisonment while backing law-and-order politicians. God’s Law and Order shows that we cannot understand the criminal justice system without accounting for evangelicalism’s impact on its historical development.
America incarcerates on a massive scale. Despite recent reforms, the United States locks up large numbers of people—disproportionately poor and nonwhite—for long periods and offers little opportunity for restoration. Aaron Griffith reveals a key component in the origins of American mass incarceration: evangelical Christianity.
Evangelicals in the postwar era made crime concern a major religious issue and found new platforms for shaping public life through punitive politics. Religious leaders like Billy Graham and David Wilkerson mobilized fears of lawbreaking and concern for offenders to sharpen appeals for Christian conversion, setting the stage for evangelicals who began advocating tough-on-crime politics in the 1960s. Building on religious campaigns for public safety earlier in the twentieth century, some preachers and politicians pushed for “law and order,” urging support for harsh sentences and expanded policing. Other evangelicals saw crime as a missionary opportunity, launching innovative ministries that reshaped the practice of religion in prisons. From the 1980s on, evangelicals were instrumental in popularizing criminal justice reform, making it a central cause in the compassionate conservative movement. At every stage in their work, evangelicals framed their efforts as colorblind, which only masked racial inequality in incarceration and delayed real change.
Today evangelicals play an ambiguous role in reform, pressing for reduced imprisonment while backing law-and-order politicians. God’s Law and Order shows that we cannot understand the criminal justice system without accounting for evangelicalism’s impact on its historical development.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published November 10, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 18, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I appreciated Griffith's nuance in portraying the different ways evangelicals responded to the threat of crime and the solution of incarceration throughout the twentieth century. As an evangelical, I find in this book both emulable actions and warning signs. Griffith does the historian's work of reminding us that history is always being written, and tides always being turned. And in the end, he points to a specifically evangelical way of doing justice in the era of mass incarceration.
June 27, 2021
A very excellent (and excellently-researched) look at an under-appreciated aspect of the past century and American-Evangelical culture. Griffith's work sheds light on some deep tensions under Evangelicals' attitudes towards harsh criminal punishment (on a societal level) but sympathy, redemption and conversion (on an individual level). He challenges (I think successfully) the popular notion that evangelical attitudes towards criminal punishment were merely a "backlash" to changing demographics, and have rather been built in to evangelical culture consistently since the early 1900s.
In general, the book is pretty well-organized, following major events and figures from the early 1900s up through the late 90s and early 2000s, however, a few decades (esp. the 70s) get more attention than others. I particularly liked Griffith's very nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of Chuck Colson, and the ways in which he tried to encourage prison reform policies in an era in which Evangelicals were especially suspicious of that type of politicking. I also appreciated the deft way that Griffith handles the topic of 'race' throughout. He never ignores it, giving it significant attention, but also doesn't let it become the only simplistic analytical lens. That's a tough balance to strike.
Lastly, this is definitely a solidly-academic read. Don't expect a breezy, popular-level history (though Griffith does a commendable job at utilizing anecdote and biography to keep the readers' attention). There are a few sections that get just a bit bogged down in historical research, but nothing that derails the project. This is a great read for someone who is willing to do a little heavy lifting to gain nuanced understanding of an important element of American evangelicalism throughout the 1900s.
In general, the book is pretty well-organized, following major events and figures from the early 1900s up through the late 90s and early 2000s, however, a few decades (esp. the 70s) get more attention than others. I particularly liked Griffith's very nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of Chuck Colson, and the ways in which he tried to encourage prison reform policies in an era in which Evangelicals were especially suspicious of that type of politicking. I also appreciated the deft way that Griffith handles the topic of 'race' throughout. He never ignores it, giving it significant attention, but also doesn't let it become the only simplistic analytical lens. That's a tough balance to strike.
Lastly, this is definitely a solidly-academic read. Don't expect a breezy, popular-level history (though Griffith does a commendable job at utilizing anecdote and biography to keep the readers' attention). There are a few sections that get just a bit bogged down in historical research, but nothing that derails the project. This is a great read for someone who is willing to do a little heavy lifting to gain nuanced understanding of an important element of American evangelicalism throughout the 1900s.
November 25, 2020
Griffith's book is a valuable study of evangelical prison ministry and the various ideological underpinnings of that ministry. Griffith highlights to dedication and compassion of many engaged in this hard ministry while also showing some of the shortcomings. The basic tension is the motivating compassion and preaching of God's forgiveness through Christ with the vengeful theology fostered in many evangelical traditions. Griffith shows how many individuals and small groups such a street gangs were brought to Christ but that these same evangelicals more often than not failed to see and accept the environmental factors that were also root causes. The stress on personal responsibility is well-taken but it is important to see how social factors can compromise the freedom to exert such responsibility. Most tragically, most of the evangelicals whose ministry is recounted failed to see the importance of systemic racism. It needs to be said, though, that liberals are more blind to the same thing than they (we) think. (See "White Fragility.") In the latter portion of the book, the prison ministry of Charles Colson is studied in much detail with all its complexities. A political ally of Nixon, he was busted by the Watergate affair and did 7 months jail time, an experience that turned a ruthless politician into a passionate advocate of incarcerated persons. Griffith offers important challenges to evangelicals in the area of prison ministry but liberal persons should take this book as a serious challenge as well. After all, it is evangelical Christians who have shown up a lot more than most other people. Above all, Griffith shows us how hard it is for all of us stress God's mercy in the face of serious crime in a way that protects everybody from the devastating effects of crime on us all. Highly recommended.
February 10, 2022
A MUST read, especially for Wheaton College students.
April 20, 2021
really helpful exploration of evangelical prison ministry, law and order politics, the rise of prisons, and the way that evangelicalism's growth was tied up into all of the above. Griffith also keeps his eye on the racialized consequences of it all, intended and not.
May 2, 2023
Strong overview that syncs trends in evangelicalism with trends in punishment. While Griffith allows his subjects to speak their perspectives, the text is nuanced in understanding how race and politics shape these structures.
September 10, 2021
Griffith’s first book plumbs the depths of how evangelicalism’s rise in the mid-twentieth century overlapped with and connected to the expansion of the criminal punishment system. Along with briefly restating the historical trends he highlights, I will show how Griffith’s work contextualizes our current political moment, revealing yet again how there is “nothing new under the sun.”
First, Griffith explains how evangelicals increased their engagement in criminal justice matters during the latter half of the twentieth century...
{For the full review see it at The Other Journal: https://theotherjournal.com/2021/09/0...}
First, Griffith explains how evangelicals increased their engagement in criminal justice matters during the latter half of the twentieth century...
{For the full review see it at The Other Journal: https://theotherjournal.com/2021/09/0...}
February 23, 2021
Griffith's book is a well-researched and in-depth assessment of evangelical theology-as-politics in the U.S. criminal justice system. He writes with clarity and nuance about the complicated relationship of evangelicals who both affirmed human dignity as the basis for conversion while also maintaining unswerving allegiance to law and order. This book is an insightful analysis of how evangelical personal salvation becomes embedded in the criminal justice system, and how efforts to enact programs of moral and religious conversion often required cooperation and exacerbation of brutal and dehumanizing forms of punishment. The chapter on Colson was a fascinating look at the political results when these conflicts come to a head in evangelical prison ministry.
December 4, 2022
Fascinating account of evangelicals relationship to crime, prisons, prison ministry, "law and order," and even restorative justice. Covers figures from Billy Graham to Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship; Nicki Cruz and David Wilkerson, Tom Skinner, Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell, and more. It's a fascinating book with quite a few angles that I had never considered before.
February 23, 2021
Good insightful information but a dry academic read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews