American Baptist Leaders Call for Examination of U.S. Criminal Justice Systems.

American Baptist Leaders Call for Examination of U.S. Criminal Justice Systems

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 12/8/14)—In response to the Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury ruling in the case of New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo, 34 national and regional leaders of American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) have issued a statement calling for a national examination of the U.S. judicial system as well as the nation’s criminal justice institutions.

After deliberating less than a day, the grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute the white officer whose chokehold on Eric Garner, an unarmed African American man, led to the Garner’s death.

The American Baptist leaders express outrage at the grand jury decision and call for change in U.S. criminal justice systems, obviously infected by virulent racism, across the country. The time is ripe for prayer and action:

American Baptists have been called to be Christ’s witnesses for justice and wholeness within a broken society. We have been led by the Gospel mandates to promote holistic change within society. As Christians and leaders of American Baptist Churches USA, we have a pastoral and prophetic concern for what we are witnessing. We are profoundly troubled by these recent events: the taking of human life by agents of the state and the inadequate standard of accountability to which these agents were held. The U.S. criminal justice system suffers from a perversion that allows the role of prosecuting criminal behavior to be converted into defending that criminal behavior, thereby subverting the judicial means of determining guilt or innocence....

More: http://www.abc-usa.org/2014/12/08/american-baptist-leaders-call-for-examination-of-u-s-criminal-justice-systems/

As a denomination, American Baptists (f/k/a Northern Baptists) have placed themselves in the forefront of the fight for justice and human dignity. Whether using churches, parsonages or members' homes as 'stations' on the Underground Railroad or joining in the century-long fight to abolish capital punishment, American Baptists are not afraid to 'stand apart' and bear Christian witness to the absolute wrongs that are racism, violence and injustice.