To Set the Oppressed Free: Christianity and Abolition

This is the second webinar hosted by the Institute for Christian Socialism on September 16, 2020.

Nyle Fort, Candace Simpson, Vincent Lloyd, Hannah Bowman, Kazembe Balagun and Micah Herskind joined us to discuss their abolitionist visions and the opportunities for Christians to rethink the institutions of prisons and the police through the lens of liberationist Christianity. The webinar focused on the ideas and organizations that constitute the movement for the abolition of prisons and police and how Christian theology and communities can be revisioned to work towards a society without either.

Many think of the demand for abolition as a kind of utopian dream, out of touch with the "real world" of crime, punishment and "how society is." In addition to addressing these objections, we explored prisons and policing enable and sustain racism, anti-blackness and capitalism, tactical questions of defunding and reform, why Christians are so attracted to punitive models of theology and society, and how abolition challenges traditional Christian ideas of doing justice and caring for "prisoners."

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