by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

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Readings

Matthew 25:34-40

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you- gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

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We can all feel trapped at times, whether due to a pandemic, a work environment, a relationship, or an internal oppression or depression; most of us know something about feelings of imprisonment. Our society is slowly coming around to inviting more tools to help us through these situations and moments. And yet there’s an exceedingly long way to go and many improvements we can make to better enable and empower people – from promoting more effective psychological and spiritual tools to just becoming more aware of the unrightfully oppressive natures of our economic, social, and justice systems. In a way, we can see an embodiment of our collective oppression in the “least of these:” the disregard and unrehabilitative attitudes we hold for the truly imprisoned, which are often the poor and the disempowered.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” is our typical attitude toward convicted and imprisoned people – except, of course, if that’s us or includes a loved one. But perhaps, in our collective quarantine, we may identify a little closer with being trapped in a room, albeit with much more freedom, community engagement, and escapism at our fingertips. And if we were to truly think about the healing that God seeks to empower in each of us, perhaps our interests in rehabilitation, addiction counseling, and general positive transformation would make us more attuned to how our system fails us and others.

Despite the superficial promise, we know that our mass incarcerating systems do not do much to rehabilitate people. And even though there are exceptions, these systems are largely designed to perpetuate themselves – often becoming tools of vengeance instead of rehabilitative investment, they tend to perpetuate violence, often leveling their gaze at minority minor offenders to “teach a lesson.” Lacking any rehabilitative counseling, people with criminal records often have little to no job prospects after imprisonment and have sometimes become newly connected with larger criminal organizations and attitudes. This, on top of sometimes already existing addictive attitudes and hurtful motives that haven’t been truly addressed.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, much like global warming or the proliferation of human trafficking, that many of our societies today tacitly endorse state-sponsored cruelty and exploitation throughout our justice system. Indeed, we may not like to think of our systems as embodying these things, and yet we know that especially in the U.S., our prisoners are forced to work without pay ($1 a day doesn’t count) – which is otherwise known as slavery. We know that abuse and addiction proliferates within the incarceration system and that minorities receive drastically harsher sentencing and arrest rates for similar rates of crime, and that there is little to no effort within the system toward true healing. However, within our scarcity-centered economic and political systems (also called oligarchies), this can make sense to us, “How can we afford rehabilitation for ‘criminals’ if we can’t afford it for ourselves?” But there are many reasons that an answer to this question centres on, “How can we afford not to, for all of us?” To truly embody the Spirit of God in society, we have to be willing to do the healing, compassionate work of God, for ourselves and others – otherwise we’re told that we’ll continue to fall.

Historically, when our religions have come to focus more on “being in” than “being whole” we’ve lost the thread of God’s repeated message of transformation (or perhaps never had it), as espoused by Christ, Krishna, Allah, the Buddhas, and on. Living virtuously and crafting a diverse, healthy society where the stranger and the outcast can be compassionately engaged and healed is at the core of God’s message since ancient days, from Zoroastrianism to our many indigenous spiritualities. But when society becomes more focused on “me-ism” than the All of I Am, racism, bigotry, and judgmental rejection proliferates and hooks into our anger, agitation, lust, and affection for domination. Our cruelty and judgment toward “the other” become so natural to us, we miss that we have them, as well as the obvious hypocrisy and wounds within.

Looking at the roots of our systems often gives us insight into the spiritual roots of them, an awareness that we should cultivate in order to heal. It’s easy to research the history of how the U.S. prison system began as a heavily invested effort to re-enslave black Americans to shore up the very same plantations and organizations that had come to rely on free labor. The records tell us that when the prisoner collectors were about to reach town, the newly expanded police forces would round up black American men on trumped-up charges like “walking through town without proof of work,” loitering, and on. Immediately, these re-enslaved free men would be sent into mines, plantations, city work crews, and factories to continue their back-breaking enrichment of the U.S. and particularly, the rich. Many never left the mines afterward or died quickly due to extreme conditions and punishments, as a rented-out imprisoned man was worth less than an asset to be bought and sold, like a slave, and could be easily replaced with no added fees. It wasn’t until these conditions started to impact white prisoners in the 1950s and hit newspapers before some of these more murderous practices were curtailed.

Emanuel Swedenborg believed that most if not all of us are enslaved to the oppressive forces of deep-seated selfishness and the many ways it proliferates throughout society. To him and his reading of scripture, working to free ourselves spiritually and becoming freeing and healing in our actions are at the core of healthy engagement with life and with God, no matter our religion. Vengeance, oppressiveness, and dismissive judgment constitute aspects of hell, according to Swedenborg, and so any type of justice system must instead focus on what we would like for ourselves: rehabilitation, compassion, and health.

We hear something similar from Christ, who says what we do to the least of beings, we do to him (and ultimately, ourselves). And further, that we must work to let the captives free – both spiritually and physically. Christ’s ministry was one of freeing people, and he drew a direct line between spiritual freedom and striving to embrace and uplift the imprisoned. But it can be hard. Like for the rich man in Jesus’ parable, it’s hard to walk away from modes of living that we’re invested in even when it’s God’s will for us for our health and freedom. Further, we can feel powerless in the face of these systems and in the face of our own habits and customs. And yet, for any change to occur, for us to find that bright new day when we the captives have been set free, we must find compassion and desire healing in our hearts – only then will we each start to truly find the spiritual and social practices that will free us.

Peace and freedom to you,

Rev. Cory

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