Grace is amazing — or can be. It depends on the God giving it. The grace that is truly amazing flows from a vulnerable God of love, expressing that love by showering grace freely toward all in an ever-widening flood….
Christians’ promotion of corporal punishment harms bodies, minds and the gospel
“Spanking? Well, you know, the Bible says, ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.’” Actually, it doesn’t. The harsh teacher Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow spoke this popular misquotation of Proverbs 13:24. Even the website of…
Americans are not safer because of failed prison policies, but there is a better way, speakers urge
The nation’s criminal legal system fails to lower crime rates or bring healing to victims and communities because its chief aim is retaliation instead of restoration, according to an expert on alternatives to mass incarceration. Courts, jails and prisons utilize…
Here’s why Americans are so obsessed with getting ‘tough on crime’
Americans have consistently lacked confidence in the United States criminal justice system and, once again, a majority views it as not tough enough. A national debate, ongoing for at least a century, attempts to solve the problem of crime. Ironically, we…
What I learned working in a Texas prison: Retribution, not reformation
I served as a pastor for 33 years and then worked nearly six years as a counselor at the most high-profile maximum-security prison in Texas. There, I ran the mental health department, nestled in the prison infirmary, which serves all…
New book connects views on crime and punishment to faith perspectives
Donald Trump’s infamous Bible photo-op in front of a church last June was an appeal to white evangelicals’ belief that crime, punishment and faith are intertwined, author and historian Aaron Griffith said. That worldview came into even starker relief when…
God of love?
It seems that most every time I write something about God not hating gays or about what early Christians believed about hell, I get a healthy amount of reaction from people who feel that it is their duty, their holy…