“The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries” — The ELCA’s Social Statement on Criminal Justice

Presenter 2: Dawn Jeglum Bartusch ’87, associate professor of sociology and criminology

Abstract: For five years (2008–2013), I was a member of the national task force that drafted the social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America regarding criminal justice. The social statement is entitled The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries. It was adopted in 2013 at the Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA and now guides the church’s advocacy efforts related to criminal justice and various ministries of the church. The social statement considers various images of justice, both in the Bible and guiding responses to crime in the United States today. It also describes positive trends in criminal justice today, as well as many areas of needed reform, including an end to mass incarceration and to prison privatization, attention to racial disparities and discrimination within the criminal justice system, and recognition of the special needs of juvenile offenders. I would welcome the opportunity to talk about the ELCA’s social statement on criminal justice and how faith informs advocacy.