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: Grits for Breakfast

Easter celebrates rebuke of an unfair justice system, but too few Christians seem to notice

By Gritsforbreakfast

Today, all of Christendom celebrates the victory over the grave of a man who was wrongfully convicted and executed, but I'm not sure most Christians ever think of the Passion story in terms of those criminal justice implications.I wonder how many preachers in their Easter sermons this morning will ask parishioners to remember innocent people who've been convicted, or remind them that Jesus, were he convicted in modern times, might well be sitting on death row waiting for his appeals to be processed? Will any suggest that the Passion story may question the wisdom of the death penalty, since innocent people from Christ's time to the present day have been sentenced to death?Will ministers suggest to their flocks that if Jesus Christ, perfection's own embodiment, could be wrongly sentenced for a crime, it could happen to them or to anyone so they should show compassion for the accused? Will any link Christ's own criminal conviction in the Passion story with his demand that Christians visit those in prison and provide them comfort?And finally, when voices from the pulpit proclaim that Christ's victory over death "paid for the sins of all," will any religious leaders go on in the next breath to explain how Christians can then justify imprisoning 1 in 99 American adults, punishing them for sins already paid for by the blood and sacrifice of the Son of God?Let me know if any of these themes cropped up in the Easter services you attend today...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 23, 2008 (boomark / email).