Child Labor, “Elite” Police, Plantation Hermeneutics

KTF Weekly Newsletter

Hi everybody,

We are just 5 days away from our new book, Faith Unleavened by Tamice Spencer-Helms, shipping out to inboxes and mailboxes everywhere! It is available for preorder as an e-book RIGHT NOW! Both the e-book and paperback will come out on Tuesday. Since we’re doing a lot of work related to that launch, there won’t be a newsletter next week, but you will still hear from us. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff!

Suzie is off this week. But here are Jonathan’s and Sy’s highlights as we seek to leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God!

Jonathan’s recommendations:

·       New York City has opened a Gate of the Exonerated at an entrance to Central Park. In December 2002, a court vacated the wrongful convictions of five Black and Latino minors for the brutal murder of a jogger in the park. Ten years earlier, politicians, the media, the legal system, and the culture of criminalization that exists for young Black and Brown boys conspired to strip them of their identities and steel years of their lives. The Harlem community was involved in the creation of the gate. The purpose of it is to resist the stigma that still exists for young boys who go into Central Park, and to welcome them into this public space. Park designers created “Gates,” as the entrances to the park are known, to be open and inclusive of all people who live in New York City. This gate, named for those who were continually excluded, is a proclamation that young boys from Harlem can take up this public space too. The community hopes that this is another step towards healing and reconciliation, and we join them in that prayer.

·       This week The Daily Show (starting at about 7:00) highlighted proposals from state governments to loosen labor laws to allow children to enter depleted workforces in industries like meatpacking, coal mining, and construction. These are extremely dangerous jobs and children should not be doing them. As a child, I, like many others, worked in fields alongside my family in the antiquated system that provides the produce that we enjoy on our tables every day. Some lawmakers want labor regulations relaxed and corporations shielded from lawsuits if children are injured or killed. They resist the data from studies showing that labor pools would expand with even modest increases in compensation.  Jesus calls us to work on behalf of the most vulnerable among us, not to put the most vulnerable people, in this case children, to work for us.

·       Mississippi Today reports that the White supermajority of the Mississippi state legislature voted to create a special judicial district in the state’s capital, Jackson, in which white Republicans from the state government would appoint all judges and prosecutors. In every other district in the state, local elections choose people to fill those positions. Jackson’s population is 80% Black, the highest percentage of Black residents in any American city. The white supermajority also rejected an amendment, proposed by the legislature’s mostly Black Democrats, that the appointed judges would have to be residents of the county. The bill’s sponsor cited a desire for the “best and brightest” to serve the city of Jackson, suggesting that the Black and Brown residents cannot properly govern themselves. The state Democrats say they were not told about the bill ahead of the debate and pointed out that the Republicans have never proposed increasing the number of judges or the funding to the justice system. It does, however, increase funding for the capital’s police force, which is under protest from residents for a number of shootings, and gives the white Republicans the power to appoint the police chief. The bill’s detractors also point out that the mostly White sections of the city will not be a part of the special district. We lament this injustice and long for God’s kingdom to come in ways that uproot the centuries-long legacy of racism and white supremacy.

Sy’s recommendations:

·       I have two highlights for you all today from veteran journalist Radley Balko, who covers police and criminal courts. First is his recent opinion piece explaining that the brutality of the police officers who killed Tyre Nichols, from Memphis’ “SCORPION” unit, is not unique among “elite” police units. There is a long history of cities forming teams of elite officers with wide discretion to fight surges in crime. We don’t know their actual effect on crime levels, but there is clear documentation of their detrimental effect on community trust, as well as their own rampant criminal behavior. They often operate (and I’m not remotely exaggerating here) as gangs, only with the state’s backing. The second recommendation from Balko comes from his Substack. It’s a two-part interview with a long-time Arizona defense investigator, which is basically a private investigator who works for criminal defense attorneys. His stories and the struggle he went through as he realized that Arizona’s criminal courts administer a fundamentally unjust and corrupt system are well-worth a read. Particularly if you grew up with the notion that the criminal justice system in America is more or less fair. This investigator helped discover the innocence of a man on Arizona’s death row before the Supreme Court ruled last year that the man’s innocence was not sufficient to stop his execution. Part one of the interview is here, and part two is here.

·       Author and podcaster Trey Ferguson wrote a fantastic article about the biblical “hermeneutics of the plantation” last week. It’s an exceptionally clear explanation of the notion that the economic and social positions of many theologians in western society have shaped what we often think constitutes “the Gospel,” and how that gospel is such bad news for so many people. He focuses on the idea that the freedom Christ won for all people is primarily found in the afterlife, while exploitation and hierarchy on Earth are inevitable and often good. He concludes, “To one whose comfort is found in The Hermeneutics of The Plantation, any interpretation that finds joy in freedom for all on both sides of eternity is heresy.” Ferguson is always an excellent writer, so reading his break-down of important ideas like this is always a gift. Readers of the article also get a peek at his entertaining and thoughtful Twitter feed. Side note: Tamice will soon appear on Ferguson’s podcast, Three Black Men, talking about Faith Unleavened.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week for the book launch!

The KTF team