Diana left for the Nazarene General Assembly very early Thursday morning. This is the quadrennial international meeting of the entire denomination—or at least as many of them as can get to Indianapolis. For an international denomination, I note that they’ve never had a General Assembly outside of the U. S. For that matter, they’ve only had two or three people of color as General Superintendents, and only two women. I complained about that even when I was an active member of the church.
Along the same lines, I read Tuesday that Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in California, was pushing the Southern Baptist Convention to re-admit Saddleback to the Convention. SBC expelled the church a couple of years ago for the horrendous offense of ordaining two women. The SBC has a complicated history involving ordaining women that eventually led to a schism and the formation of two new Baptist denominations.
Julie Roys reported that Warren was seeking readmission at the SNC conference this month. I don’t see why. I mean, I get it, at least from the standpoint of wanting to help drag the SBC kicking and screaming into the 19th or 20th century. On the other hand, I don’t see why anyone would voluntarily re-affiliate themselves with an organization like the Southern Baptist Convention. What does Saddleback gain from rejoining? What do they need from the SBC? Nothing, that I can see.
I’m not going to mourn Pat Robertson. I can’t. He hurt too many people with his words and actions. I’m sad for his family’s loss, but that loss is horribly insignificant compared to the pain, division, and controversy he caused with his comments over the years.
I planned to smoke a roast Saturday, but the day dawned soggy and rainy, so I put things off until Sunday. Youngest Daughter stopped in for a few hours while she was on break at camp. It’s nice when she’s got her car and is just an hour away.
Landscaping
The seeds I ordered arrived Wednesday. Thursday I cleaned up the ground and planted. Keep your fingers crossed. I probably should have ordered a lot more than I did. The two packets I bought didn’t cover nearly as much of the space as I’d hoped or wanted.
I trimmed back the forsythia pretty severely this weekend. It got away from me over the years, so I thought it best to cut it way back and clean up the patch as best I could. I plan to drop some mulch in there too as soon as I get some cardboard for a weed barrier.
Things I’ve Read This Week
A New Prison Policy Blocks Incarcerated Journalists and Artists From Publishing Their Work via New York Focus. This is disconcerting for a number of reasons.
I’ll start off by saying I get the reasoning behind the overturned “Son of Sam” law: nobody wants a convicted person to profit from their crime. I completely understand how that creates an overwhelming sense of injustice.
On the other hand…
Prison is supposed to be more about correcting and rehabilitating than just punishing. We’re supposed to be helping the incarcerated person become a better person, even if they’re going to be in prison for the rest of their lives. Writing can be an incredible tool to accomplish that.
Prisons worry a lot about the general public finding out about conditions “on the inside,” and keeping incarcerated persons from writing about conditions seems paranoid in the extreme. Law enforcement agencies are supposed to be improving their transparency, and shutting down inmate journalism isn’t helping transparency.
Additionally, almost any incarcerated person needs to have money. They all have fines and restitution to pay off, and they need to buy things from the commissary. Shoes. Snacks. Cigarettes. A radio. Writing paper. Phone calls. Email. In prison, everything costs money, and prison jobs don’t pay a whole hell of a lot. Writing can help an incarcerated person raise those funds, through writing contests, publishing books, or even writing for news media outlets. Further, it can set them up for success upon release by giving them a skill they can use from day one on the outside.
Given these pros and so few cons, shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to encourage creative people who are locked up? Isn’t it in society’s best interests to help incarcerated people to better themselves? Isn’t that what “rehabilitation and correction” is about?
Or are we just about punishment?
Edit: According to HuffPost, New York DOCCS reversed/rescinded their policy almost immediately. The prison agency said in an email, “It is evident that [the policy] is not being interpreted as the Department intended, as it was never our objective to limit free speech or creative endeavors. Accordingly, we have rescinded the directive effective immediately. The Department will engage [interested] stakeholders to revise the policy in order to encourage creative art projects, as originally intended.” Journalist Keri Blakinger said on Mastodon, “The policy was quite clear, and interpreted as intended. They just got caught.”
The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter has good coverage.
And over at Reason, I read that A City Banned Pride Month–Themed Library Displays. Then It Threatened Employees Who Criticized the Decision. That’s pretty clearly a First Amendment violation, no matter how you slice it. Orem, Utah, essentially told city library employees that they can’t criticize the Orem Street Department, the Parks Department, or any other city department. It’d be a violation even if they limited the restriction to the library. Restricting displays is chaining the library’s hands and keeping them from doing their jobs. The library exists to bring books to all members of the community. If you’re going to keep them from putting up displays for some holidays, then you need to keep them from putting up displays for all holidays. You can’t just ban displays that certain groups don’t like.
Best of luck to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and ULA in their efforts. The Utah Library Association has links to local coverage of the story on their site, by the way. They’re also accepting donations.
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