Faith and Mass Incarceration: An Annotated Bibliography

Written by Alan Bean

By Dr. Charles Kiker

I thought it would be helpful to list some works I have read which I feel would be helpful in understanding the topic and in working to end the New Jim Crow.

1. First would have to be the recent work by Michelle Alexander,

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Ms. Alexander argues convincingly that the criminal justice system at all levels, including the Supreme Court, especially in regard to the war on drugs, has effectively instituted a new Jim Crow by incarcerating young African Americans and those of Hispanic origin vastly disproportionate to their numbers.

2. The trilogy by Walter Wink:

Naming the Powers

Unmasking the Powers

Engaging the PowersIt has been several years since I read these books, and I have given them away to someone who I think might make better use of them than I. But I do remember that Wink holds that the powers take the shape of earthly realms that are unfriendly to the kingdom of God, and that the gospel is subversive to the powers.

3. Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination. Brueggemann

shows that Hebrew thought started out as freedom loving Exodus counterculture to Egyptian royal consciousness and royal privilege. But this soon gave way to a new royal privilege which reached its apex under Solomon. The prophets, culminating in Jesus, were subversive to this royal privilege.

4. The books by Jesus scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic

Crossan are important. They emphasize the kingdom of God on earth more than going to heaven when you die by and by. Borg has written, among others, The Heart of Christianity. Crossan’s most recent book is The Greatest Prayer. They have coauthored books on Paul. The kingdom of God on earth is important to the issue of mass incarceration because the kingdom of God is set over against the ruling powers which perpetrate mass incarceration.

5. I include The Naked Anabaptist by Stuart Murray because I have a kind of spiritual/intellectual love affair with these non-Constantinian followers of the way. The author outlines core convictions of anabaptism, including “Anabaptists are committed to . . . working for justice.” Anabaptists are more aware than most Christians of the demise of Christendom, to a great extent because they have never been a part of the Constantian captivity of the church. Workers for peace and justice have much to learn from our Anabaptist sisters and brothers.

6. Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith, is another who notes the demise of Christendom and the accrual of much non-Jesus stuff into Christianity.

7. Wesley J. Wildman and Stephen C. Garner have recently coauthored a couple of books worthy of mention in this connection: Lost in the Middle and Found in the Middle. Reading the books, at times I felt that I was in a muddle in the middle. (Sorry, Wes and Steve, you left yourselves wide open for that one.) The “Lost” book is valuable for the political/theological demographics showing that the vast majority of Americans are not at the political or religious extremes, but in a broad, moderate middle. “Found” tries to outline how this can work for creating a moderate space within congregations and even denominations. I wonder if prophetic advocacy such as will be required can thrive in a moderate middle congregation. I am convinced that it will take a faith movement to unseat the new Jim Crow. Perhaps this “liberal-evangelical” setting (as the authors sometimes call it) is our natural home.

8. I think the most important book from the faith side of the mass incarceration dilemma is A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren. McLaren argues cogently for looking forward to Jesus from the standpoint of Moses, Abraham and the prophets, rather than looking back to Jesus through Luther, Calvin, Augustine and even Paul. He argues for reading the Bible as a library of books in conversation with each other as over against an unamendable constitution.

These are books which would be required reading were I teaching a college or seminary course on faith and mass incarceration.

I would really like to see a weekend conference on this topic, sponsored by Friends of Justice, with Michelle Alexander, Brian McLaren, and Alan Bean as the keynoters.

Dr. Charles Kiker

Retired Minister, founding member of Friends of Justice

12 thoughts on “Faith and Mass Incarceration: An Annotated Bibliography”

  1. Charles.

    I suggest you add to the list Nate Blakeslee’s “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town”.

    It is an excellent illustration of the sloppiness of the processes by which poor blacks end up doing long sentences for drug crimes and the fact that they are highly probably innocent of the crimes with which they are accused is absolutely irrelevant.

  2. Blakeslee’s book is hereby added, also Alan Bean, “Taking out the Trash in Tulia, Texas.”

  3. Carlyle, the books I posted initially, other than Michelle Alexander’s book which is absolutely essential to the issue, were books that I thought were of some importance regarding the faith side of the equation. I did not go into the sociological/criminological side of the equation. “Texas Tough” should be added, probably scores of magazine articles and blog posts. “Grits for Breakfast” regularly has posts that are relevant to the topic.

  5. We will definitely have to give this some thought. I will be seeing Ms. Alexander today (she’s in Dallas for a talk); maybe I will pass along the suggestion and see what she thinks. I could also reach out to Brian McLaren, and possibly John Grisham.
    Alan

  7. Michelle’s article just came out in February Sojourner’s magazine. I wonder if we could mail copies of it to every US senator and representative ? It does a good job of highlighting the injustice.

  8. Charles & Alan.

    Not all people buy books or use the library, however much of the same informationis available on the web as articles in magazines and blogs including FOJ itself. How about adding a web bibliography of useful articles and posts. There are many of Nate Blakeslee’s Texas Observer articles that preceded his book available in the Texas Observer archives and also many precis of Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”. I have just finished reading this one by Max Cantar on the web site of Counterpunch magazine. It is a more complete summary than others that I have read of Michelle’s book.

  9. Charles and Alan.

    Email is a much more powerful tool than snail mail, emailing a list of links to relevant articles is much cheaper than Randy’s suggestion above of mailing hard copies of articles to elected representatives.

  10. Hi, I’m a Christian Canadian, very interested both in the end of Christendom/the Church in the future, and the American justice systems.

    Since our current Prime Minister Harper (Bush lite) advocates introduceing mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes to our legal system, which has, in sentencing and prisons, been very different from America’s; the many injustices (let alone the other problems) is a very topical issue in Canada today.
    I love Borg’s books, as many in my United Church of Canada do, and I look forward to reading some of the others you mentioned. In Vancouver, we don’t have a large African-American community, but it’s surprising to hear from new Canadians, especially from the Southern States, give a completely different picture of America than what we see on American TV and almost all other media. Thank God for the internet, and the opportunity to communicate with others who seek peace with justice!

  12. I clicked on the link above (Canadian press) and was bemused to find Alan talking about “The New Jim Crow” and “mass incarceration” in 2007. All he lacked was reference to “color blindness” and he would have completely prefigured the title ofMichelle Alexander’s 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”

Comments are closed.