Hastings: Let the light shine
“Your light must shine before others so that they may see your good acts and give praise to your Abba God in heaven.” — Matthew 5:16 The Inclusive Bible
After celebrating light in the darkest season of the year, many places still need a shining light. One of those places is our country’s mass incarceration system.
Our country has 5% of the earth’s people but 20% of earth’s prisoners. There has been a 500% increase in incarceration, mostly Black and Brown, and an 800% increase in women’s incarceration, even though crime rates are down. This has occurred since the 1970s when state hospitals were closed. For most health crises people are taken to a health care facility. For brain health crises, people are taken to prisons which are not equipped for brain health care — or for rehabilitation and restoration of people to the communities where they will someday be our co-workers and neighbors.
Norway is one country shining a light in this realm of darkness, reducing recidivism rates. The Norwegian model focuses on rehabilitation and job training and second chances. This approach creates a less-hostile, more community-based environment for people serving time as well as staff. The mutual goal is to better help incarcerated people reintegrate into society.
Several states are already looking to the Norwegian model, re-purposing a factory into a center for innovation, providing social services and breaking cycles of crime. Many charities are operating housing facilities for those released from prison to help rebuild lives. The light of justice has a ripple effect as community by community, a grassroots movement grows until it becomes the norm.
Of those who are building new systems of justice, Jesus says, “Those who are just will shine like the sun ... in the kindom of their Abba God.”*
So let the light shine!
*Matthew 13:43 The Inclusive Bible
The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master’s degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: Let the light shine
