Should We Abolish All Prisons? – Human Fallenness, the Role of Government, and the Myth of Utopia – Christianheadlines.com

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez successfully grabbed another headline last week by tweeting that Americans should have a real conversation about abolishing prisons. Though she did later walk back this bone-toss to her far-left supporters, the prison abolition movement isnt as niche as youd think.

At their annual meeting this year, theDemocratic Socialists of America passed a resolutionto start a working group on the topic. In April,the ACLU told the New York Timesit wants to defund the prison system.

The idea behind this radical proposal is this: If we could just get our systems right our healthcare system, our education system, our welfare system we wouldntneedany prisons. If everyone just had proper healthcare, great teachers, and all the money they could want or need, no one would commit any crimes.

Its a bit like suggesting we should abolish doctors; because if all had equal access to leafy greens and the flu shot, no one would ever get sick.

Obviously, part of the prison abolition movements strategy is to shock and turn heads toward these other issues. But such a proposal is also a particularly obtuse expression of Utopianism.

Chuck Colson defined Utopianism as the myth that human nature can be perfected by government. Utopianism has at least two core flaws: First, it completely misunderstands the human condition. Because human beings are corrupted by sin, we gravitate toward greed, selfishness, and pride without the redirection of the Holy Spirit. In fact, we do this without help of any kind our sin is not societys fault or caused by poverty. You cant educate us out of our sinful natures.

In fact, even the most devoted prison abolitionists cant make it through a single morning without falling short of their own standards, much less Gods standards. And neither can we.

Todays prison abolitionists fail to acknowledge the scores of men and women who had every conceivable privilege and went on to commit crimes anyway. Wealthy Wall Streeters commit white-collar crimes. Americas Ivy League campuses arguably the veryseatsof privilege are plagued by sexual assault. Even some perpetrators of mass shootings came from stable, affluent families.

A second problem with Utopianism is that any attempt to create this fantasy world where no one commits a crime means advocating for government control on an unprecedented scale. Any government with that much power would quickly end any illusion of utopia. After all, governments are still made up of fallen human beings.

Every utopian project that has been tried so far has failed. Many were led by characters like Stalin and Mao and Castro international revolutionaries who turned almost cartoonishly fast from men of the people into tyrants. History teaches it best: Presuming to create a perfect system will ultimately degrade into power grabs and human misery.

Because of the accurate way the Bible describes the human condition, we can expect prisons to continue as a necessary part of society until Christ makes all things new. In Matthew 25, Jesus instructs his followers tovisitthose in prison. An effective prison system will keep people safe, communicate the consequences of wrong-doing to the larger culture, and work to return the imprisoned to our community with better means and accountability by which to govern their own fallen impulses.

And let me add this: Because we believe the incarcerated are human beings made in the image of God and that restoration is possible, the Colson Center stands with Prison Fellowship and others who support criminal justice reforms that address the very real problems of over-incarceration and sentencing disparity.

But, the idea of abolishing prison is an unrealistic, and yet very real, distraction from the necessary conversations we need to be having about how to handle crime in our communities. Not to mention, its a poster child of Utopianism.

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BreakPointis a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.

John Stonestreetis President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host ofBreakPoint,a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN),and is the co-author ofMaking Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

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Should We Abolish All Prisons? - Human Fallenness, the Role of Government, and the Myth of Utopia - Christianheadlines.com