Adoption, or Human Trafficking?, Sleeplessness behind Bars, Our System's Reactions to Mangione and Penny
Plus, Christ is still in the rubble
Hi everyone,
Remember, until Christmas, you can get a year-long subscription to KTF Press for just $12! Get the monthly bonus episodes we’re doing between seasons; hear the many, many hours of past bonus episodes; join our monthly subscriber calls; and more! You can even give a discounted subscription as a gift and tell Substack to let your friend or family member know on Christmas morning!
Our highlights this week include:
- Blurring the lines between adoption and human trafficking
- The scourge of sleep deprivation behind bars
- The community work we have to do, regardless of who is president
- Luigi Mangione, Daniel Penny, and how we think about violence
- Sy keeps us grounded with a sermon from Munther Isaac
- And a preview of tomorrow’s Shake the Dust bonus episode
Sy’s Recommendations
When the Lines Blur between Adoption and Human Trafficking
Adoption is a profitable industry. And there are countless ways adoption agencies exploit the poverty of parents, both domestically and internationally, to meet the demand for children in the US and other wealthy countries. But adoption laws in Utah are uniquely permissive. They allow agencies to entice parents with unlimited amounts of cash, and there is no way to invalidate fraudulent adoptions. The article I’m linking to here is an incredible and devastating Mother Jones story about a woman who took money from a Utah agency to buy heroin, and then signed adoption papers without informing her husband. She did this twice. Her husband lost his children without legal recourse. And she now expresses regret that she gave the kids up. Ads from agencies that facilitate Utah adoptions intentionally target poor women in states with restrictive abortion laws, promising cash for babies. It’s hard not to see this as legal human trafficking. It is easy for churches to lionize adoption workers (Christians run many prominent adoption agencies) and only think of adoptive families as heroic and blessed. But the adoption industry warrants much closer scrutiny.
Depriving Incarcerated People of Sleep
Very few people pay attention to the problem of how little incarcerated people sleep. But as a recent Los Angeles Times/Marshall Project article explains, prisoners’ lack of sleep affects virtually every aspect of prison operations. It exacerbates physical and mental health symptoms, creates dangers in prison labor, increases the likelihood of fights, and much more. And why aren’t incarcerated people sleeping? Everything from 24/7 lights to guards interrupting sleep for head counts to noise from other inmates to a simple lack of mattresses. Prison schedules can also make sufficient sleep impossible. The article reports instances where daily final headcounts occur after 11:00 PM, and the first work shifts start as little as three hours later. Sleep deprivation is legally torture, but there have been very few lawsuits or studies about this problem. Let’s keep praying against the continued dehumanization of people incarcerated in the US, and ask that the activists and academics trying to raise the alarm on this issue are successful.
Jonathan’s Recommendations
The Community Work We Have to Do, Regardless of Who’s in the White House
wrote a piece for the most recent issue of Sojourners called “The Script Is Not Written,” and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I read it. It’s about the results of the election, but she wrote it in September, knowing that by the time anyone read it they would already know the victor. She argues persuasively that regardless of who is in office, we shape the future by doing the crucial, on-the-ground work of choosing to love the people around us. We need to work the soil of our communities like a farmer tilling the ground. May we put our hands to the plows of love, kindness, and justice in hope for good fruit. Because sometimes the science says nothing will grow, but fall comes, and there is a harvest. Special thanks to Huska and Sojourners for making this article free through this weekend for us. Make sure to check it out before it goes back behind the paywall!- Read “The Script Is Not Written”
Luigi Mangione, Daniel Penny, and How We Think about Violence
I believe that the Gospel is emphatically non-violent. I implore all people to choose love over revenge, fear, and violence. At the same time, when people choose to be violent, followers of Jesus must earnestly ask why, instead of resorting to dismissal or judgment. We also have to ask questions about our response to their violence. If someone kills another individual, they are a murderer. But if someone presides over a system that administers death to thousands, then they are probably a CEO. Moreover, as I recently wrote on Patreon, our system will put Luigi Mangione in prison for many years, while Daniel Penny, who killed Jordan Neely on a subway train, walks free. What does that tell us about the relative value of the victim’s lives? Whatever our gut reaction to these cases, may we respond with our identity as image bearers front and center, so that our words and actions bear witness to Jesus in this complicated, hurting world.
- Read my reflections on Patreon
Staying Grounded with Sy
Tomorrow morning at 10 AM Eastern, Rev. Munther Isaac will give a Christmas sermon from the Lutheran Christmas Church of Bethlehem in Palestine. I highly suggest watching. In January, Jonathan highlighted last year's Christmas sermon from Rev. Isaac. It was a powerful message called “Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament,” and it went viral with coverage from major news outlets. But the global reach of the sermon was not its value to me. The value is the conviction and clarity with which Rev. Isaac speaks about God’s presence with those facing violence and oppression. It was a challenge to those of us in countries that support the genocide in Palestine, and a grounding reality to its victims. This year, Rev. Isaac will again speak about the incarnation that occurred in modern-day Palestine, even as Israel’s violence is still unceasing a year after his last lament. You can watch the sermon live on the Red Letter Christians Facebook page. I haven’t been able to find out for sure, but I am guessing the recording of the sermon will be available either there or on YouTube after the live stream is over.
- Register to watch the sermon live
Shake the Dust Preview
Tomorrow is our December bonus episode for paid subscribers, and we’re talking all about why and how to have difficult conversations about important political subjects with people who disagree with you. We cover what our goals are in these conversations, strategies for regulating emotions to achieve those goals, and the power dynamics to keep in mind. Then, in Which Tab Is Still Open?, we dive deeper into our thoughts on the article Jonathan shared in our last newsletter on Rev. William Barber and the priorities of poor voters. Don’t miss it!
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Jonathan and Sy