Last month I wrote
about Breitbart News referring to Rev.
William Barber II as a “social justice jackass.” I thought that was pretty bad.
But now Breitbart has even used that inelegant label for Pope Francis!
The Pope’s Position
Breitbart’s complaint (on 9/19) against the Pope was because
of his call for the abolition of life imprisonment. According to a 9/16
National Catholic Report article (here), two days earlier Pope Francis told an audience in St.
Peter’s Square that “sentencing someone to life in prison without the
possibility of parole is ‘not the solution to problems, but a problem to
solve.’”
(Here
is the link to that full address to penitentiary police
and others.)
Actually, this has been Pope Francis’s position for quite
some time. Five years ago, on 10/23/14, he called for the abolition of both the
death penalty and life imprisonment. According to this Catholic
News Service article, on that date he told representatives of the
International Association of Penal Law, “Life imprisonment is a hidden
death penalty.”
The Right’s Position
It seems quite clear
that the political Right and the so-called Christian Right strongly support
both capital punishment and life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
for heinous crimes.
In the blog article
planned for later this month, I will be writing about being fed up with Christian
fundamentalism partly because of their view of capital punishment and two other
issues. However, I don’t deal with the matter of life imprisonment in my book
on fundamentalism, to which the upcoming blog article will be linked.
The position on both
capital punishment and life imprisonment, though, seems to be the same: encouraging
harsh retributive justice.
It has been said (here,
for example) that there are four purposes of prison: retribution,
incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. The author of this linked-to
article explains: “Retribution means punishment for crimes against society.
Depriving criminals of their freedom is a way of making them pay a debt to
society for their crimes.”
According to Breitbart—and
most likely most of those who read/support that far-right syndicated news, opinion and commentary website—opposition to strong retributive punishment invites one, even the Pope, to be labeled a “social justice jackass.”
The Correct Position?
As many of you may not
know, my college major was sociology. (I waited until seminary to study the
Bible and Christian theology academically.) Criminology was one of the valuable
courses I took in pursuit of that major, and it was in that course that I
became convinced of the validity, and desirability, of indeterminant sentences.
Among other things,
that means that there should never be such a thing as life sentences without the possibility of parole. And, certainly, capital punishment should never be condoned.
While there is some
reason for sensible retribution, and more reason for prison used for incapacitation
and deterrence, surely the most important purpose of prison is rehabilitation.
Admittedly, rehabilitation—and
the proper evaluation of rehabilitation—is not at all easy. And incapacitation,
the removal of criminals from society so that they can no longer harm innocent
people, is of clear importance for the wellbeing of society in general.
Still, for example, aren’t
there many young men (and maybe some women) who committed heinous crimes in the
passion of their youthful impetuousness but who learn in ten, or twenty, years the
shamefulness and senselessness of those crimes and who would never think of
committing such crimes again?
Given the obstinacy of
some few, lifetime imprisonment might be required for them. But for most,
surely with proper attention given to rehabilitation, there can be an optimal
time for release from prison.
So, no, Breitbart, I
definitely do not think that Pope Francis is a “social justice jackass”—on this
or many other social justice issues.
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