People of Faith CT

“To proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of prisons to them that are bound.”
(Isaiah 61:1)

by Rev. Matthew V. Johnson Sr., Ph. D.

“American is sick financially today because it is first and foremost spiritually sick. The pathogenic pursuit of unbridled profit of which poverty is a prime symptom has placed us where we are today; compounded by the hard-hearted policies of those who would hide their cruelty behind their Christianity were it not for the fact that 'a tree is known by the fruit it bears.'

Today America imprisons more of its citizens than any other developed nation on Earth. It is no trifling irony that the nation that claims to love freedom is so adroit at taking it away. The systematic grind of inter-generational poverty has mass produced a prison population that over burdens our budget and squanders, even destroys human potential to be productive; and a [prison] system that is little more than a dumping ground where America buries its collective shame and systemic inter-generational neglect.

To compound such cruelty and moral neglect by privatization-just another source of profit in a system that has already become morally unhinged through deregulation-would be nothing short of state sanctioned traffic in human souls. No privatization! We must stem the tide of a deeply ailing society. Likewise, choices should not be so narrow that young men and women have no other choice than joining an imperialistic killing machine for a chance at a dignified life. Such must not be the case in a democracy. Put the money for education back in the bill or perhaps it should not be signed!”