Why Prison? Part Three of Four
Bryan Stevenson who has dedicated his life to serving the underprivileged in prison, specifically death row, wrote,
“I do what I do because I’m broken, too. My years of struggling against inequality, abusive power, poverty, oppression and injustice had finally revealed something to me about myself. Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments didn’t just illuminate the brokenness of others, in a moment of anguish and heartbreak, it also exposed my own brokenness. You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression or injustice and not be broken by it. We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent.[1]”
With humankind’s proclivity to become prideful, all ideas of a higher platform should be avoided, even those simply implied. A person who is on a higher level than the Others, is closer to perfection, and thus, in less need of grace than those who are lower. The more the Follower of Christ is able to remove that which separates them from the broken, and step onto the same depraved level as the rest of fallen humanity, the more that Follower of Christ’s dependence on God will grow, with no one to pull-up. In When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett wrote, “Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good.”[2] True healing happens when everyone involved recognizes their brokenness; when everyone embraces their need for deep redemption. The idea of pulling the downtrodden up to the same level of an equally broken and depraved person is nonsensical.
There are several other reasons that all Followers of Christ should desire to see themselves on equal footing with their neighbor, despite their neighbor’s otherness. There are good reasons that all Followers should desire to see themselves as equally separated and equally depraved as the worst that society has to offer. Those who have been forgiven of much, love the most, as Christ informed His followers (Lk 7:47). Those who have little mistakes to be forgiven have little reason to celebrate. It is the deeply depraved who love Christ the most, upon accepting their forgiveness. It is the meek who inherit the earth. It is the hurt who are comforted. It is the poor in spirit who inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
John the Baptist, who was at one point a religious leader with many followers of his own, upon realizing Jesus as the Christ, stepped down from his leadership position, proclaiming “I must become less, and He must become more” (Jn 3:30). Any chance to see oneself in a lower spiritual position, at one with the least that society has to offer, allows for God’s grace to be expanded. Removing the otherness does not mean pulling one up to a higher status. Removing the otherness means realizing that all of humanity is on the same broken, sinful playing field, all equally dependent on the Cross, despite their societal status, their race, their identity, their income level, their addictions, their current struggles, or their past mistakes.
Removing the otherness also involves recognizing one another’s belovedness and noticing the image of the living of that they bare, despite the brokenness that we see typically see first. Followers of Christ have a vested interest, not in being free from all transgressions or free from poverty, rejection, or otherness; Followers of Christ have a vested interest in being found living among all societal outcasts: the meek, the broken, and the poor in spirit.
It is the same for the local church as well. They too should desire this step-down instead of pulling others up. This of course would require a paradigm shift in the way that many houses of worship operate, especially when it comes to missions. Churches who desire to engage in removing the otherness between them and the Unaccepted in their society, may not result in the church going on missions to rescue the Others or bringing the Others up to their level. It may mean the Church becoming less dignified and clean. It may mean stripping away that which is keeping the local church at a comfortable distance from the Others in their community...
[1] Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (New York: One World, 2014), 177.
[2] Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts (Chicago: Moody, 2009), 64.