Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores

by Dominique DuBois Gilliard

The church has adopted and supported a meritocratic ethic that declares people get what they deserve. This worldview has subconsciously fostered an unquestioning allegiance to the state, and it has led the church to unwittingly consent to and affirm that crime is primarily a legal offense committed against the state rather than a sin that relationally harms individuals and communities, infringing on the shalom that God intends for us all. Our understanding of God’s wrath colors our response to crime. We have read of God’s vengeance toward sin and legislatively translated it into zero-tolerance policies. There are many problems with this; primarily, we need to understand God is perfect, and we are fallible. God is the only righteous, impartial, and just judge. Only God can purely define, respond to, and legislate sin while also knowing the nature of a person’s heart. As fallen people, our judgment is never completely pure; everyone is embedded in culture and has conformed to the patterns of this world to some degree. Consequently, when it comes to enforcing no-tolerance policies, the officials commissioned to enforce and govern these policies are often unable to do so without bias—whether conscious or subconscious.