Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries by Major Michael Ramsay, 03
August 2025
We
have a lot of scripture readings again because I want to chat some more about a
truth that this is a common theme throughout the Bible: “Set the captives free!”
Most of the time when we, in church, read about the captives being set free it
is in the context of the Kingdom of God. The Gospels say that the Kingdom of
God is at hand. In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time
when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection
of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time we are living in now
and as Christians it is our responsibility to try to make this time as close to
what the world will be like when Jesus comes back at the end of time – which is
perfect.
The Bible
repeatedly tells us what Christian nations look like, what we as Christians
need to work toward in our country. Psalm 146 is example of how we can be a
part of God’s Kingdom:
Psalm
146
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives
sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
Verse
7 says, “The Lord sets the prisoners free”; you can also see this sentiment in Zechariah
9:11, Psalm 68:6, Psalm 102:20, Isaiah 42:7 and elsewhere. Jesus, as recorded
in Luke, quotes Isaiah 42 letting people know that the time to set the
prisoners free is now. I think this is important. I think we do need to do what
the Bible tells us to do. I was reading one African Liberation Theologian’s
essay (I believe it was Bongajalo Goba) this week in Hammering Swords into
Plowshares, a book dedicated to the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He said that
one main difference between capitalist western churches and the Universal Christian
Church is that western churches either spiritualize everything (for example: God
doesn’t’ really want us to let people out of jail, that is just a metaphor for
something else…maybe being free from our personal bad habits) or they try to
say that the things that God tells us to do as a society are only in the future
and God will do it; it is not our responsibility (we shouldn’t try to give
sight to the blind now; we shouldn’t end hunger or homelessness now – even though
we can!- God will do that when Jesus returns at the end of time). But the real Church
including the churches in the third world realizes that when God tells us to make
it so that no one is hungry; no one is lonely; no one is homeless; no one is
thirsty, and no one is in prison; He is telling us to do it now! We are not
supposed to go on propping up (western capitalist ‘democratic’) systems that
are opposed to the expressed will of God and just say “oh well, when we all get
to heaven we will all be okay” -both me who has so much and my neighbour who
doesn’t. When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be.
I have
been really convicted and cut to the quick with the sentiment I shared at the
Summer Rain festival: Jesus speaks about a salvation society as one where the
sick are healed, the captives are freed, the hungry are fed, the lonely are
visited, the perpetrator is forgiven, relationships are healed. In our world,
in our country, in our province, in our city there is still conflict, abuse,
addiction, poverty, homelessness, murder, mental illness, hate, violence,
unforgiveness… What if we didn’t have to wait until we die to experience a
world without all of this? What if Christ was right and he wasn’t lying to us?
What if the Kingdom of God is actually at hand? What if the Church (and our
churches) is actually the body of Christ and what if we actually do this?
Recently
I read Wrongfully Convicted by Canadian lawyer and Founder of Innocence
Canada, Kent Roach and this week I have been reading Just Mercy: A Story of
Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer who has spent
his career working with death row inmates. The horrors that people suffer
behind bars in the USA are as bad as you imagine and even worse. Think of the
TV shows you have seen and then place yourself or your loved ones in the place
of the prisoners being abused by prisoners or guards, or judges, or whomever. When
I studied Restorative Justice from Simon Fraser University a decade ago, we
read stories of inmates who were actually lost in American prisons – it came time
to release them and they had no idea where they were.
I have
a story relating to that – when I was just a new Salvation Army Officer, I was
appointed to the small town of Nipawin, Saskatchewan (Go Riders!). On Sunday a
congregation member asked me if I could go see another congregation member, Zerah.
“Sure” I said. “He is in cells” they said. Apparently, shortly before we had
arrived to town Zerah had gone on an arson spree, lighting the town on fire. I
spent the next weeks and months meeting Zerah whenever he was in town for the circuit
court. In between court dates they would ship him off to prisons in Prince
Albert or Regina – and I think his court cases were in Nipawin, Carrot River,
or Tisdale. I would meet him in whatever small community courthouse the circuit
court was meeting on that day of the week.
One
time I was in the court room in Carrot River and they called Zerah’s name to
stand before the judge. No answer. They called it again. No answer. The judge
then said, “We will need to issue a warrant for his arrest for not showing up
for court.” At this point I popped up from my seat and awkwardly raised my hand.
I was in uniform so he knew I wasn’t Zerah; so he asked me “do you know where
Zerah is?” “Yes. He is in prison in PA” I said. Everyone in the courtroom
laughed. I didn’t. The judge didn’t. “Then we better not issue a warrant for
his arrest – that would look pretty bad” the judge said as he instructed the bailiff
to try to find Zerah and figure out how they lost him in the system. Eventually,
they did find Zerah in prison; but can you imagine if I wasn’t there? This warrant
issued from the bench would be on his record. They lost Zerah in prison.
I was
reading some research this week. Did you know that quite a few people in U.S.
jails, federal, and US state prisons have never even been convicted of a crime?
What percentage of people in US jails do you think have never been convicted of
a crime? 80%! 80% of people suffering all that they are suffering in prison have
never been convicted of an offence and some of them never will be and some of
them will have their convictions overturned on appeal. I didn’t find the stats
for Canada but, from experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are similar.
A member
of our church in Toronto when he immigrated to Canada from Dubai about 10 years
ago, they held him and his sister in jail until they processed them – I am not
sure how many months they were in jail. He was separated from his sister (she
was put in a different jail) and quite concerned about her. I wound up having
to go to the consulate with him to figure out a whole bunch of things – this is
Canada.
I
spoke to my friends in Stony Mountain Penitentiary when I was there for two
years. They told me that the prison organized the wings by gangs: the Indian
Posse had one wing, the Hells Angels another. They set the rules. They told me
that you never make eye contact with anyone. It was hard not to be part of a
gang. We put people who have never been convicted of a crime through this and
more in Canada. And they can lose you in this system, like they did Zerah. Can
you imagine if it was the day of your release and no one knew where you were to
release you?
In
2023, in Canada, 61 people died in custody. According to StatsCan, from 2017-2020 there
were 169 deaths in our prisons: there were 20 suicides, 11 confirmed homicides,
19 drug overdoses and many other natural and suspicious deaths. In 2019 alone
in the USA 143 were murdered while in the care of the State.
We, the
Church, are called to free the prisoners; we, the Church, are supposed to be
good stewards of the money God entrusts us with too. The estimated total court
spending in Canada for 2014 was $1,614,017,311. That is not even including the
incarceration and other costs! We could provide everyone the mental health and
addiction support they need in this country for that amount of money. The
average hotel cost across this country is $211.00 per night. The daily average
cost of keeping someone in prison here is $326.00 per night which works out to $9780.00
per month. We could afford to put everyone in a hotel and give them the mental
health and addition help they need for less than putting them in prison – and
there are lots of safer cheaper ways to contain someone still. The average
rental cost in Canada is $2200 / month which works out to $74 a day (as opposed
to the $326 /day that it costs to put someone in a cage!); the average mortgage
in Canada (including Vancouver, etc.) is just $2100 a month which works out to
just $70 a day. We can feed and house people at the Bread of Life, Tiny Homes,
or a shelter here for a lot cheaper than that too – with all the supports to
keep themselves and others safe! So why do we lock people in prisons? It doesn’t
help them. It doesn’t help us! – oh and btw I read that over 70% of those in
Canadian prisons have diagnosed mental health conditions.
Instead
of locking someone up to be tortured in the cages we call prisons, we could
send someone somewhere actually safe and secure for mental health and addiction
support – we just choose not to! Derek, one of our regular friends at the Army
and the Bread of Life, every time he gets out of jail he is healthy-ish, well
fed and not visibly fighting his demons for a week or so – but when they toss
him out of prison they toss him out on the street with no support; so his own mental
health demons torment him so much until he hurts himself and others in unimaginable
ways and then winds up back behind bars where he suffers everything that one
suffers there. That doesn’t make society safe. That doesn’t make Derick safe.
That
doesn’t need to be the case. My friend Zerah was eventually sentenced to mental
health care and weekly injections for his schizophrenia instead of jail and he
was able to contribute to society. Why don’t we help everyone who needs help
like that? Why do we torture people like we do to Derrick instead? Why? Just because
Zerah ‘lucked out’ and had a compassionate judge? Because he had a TSA Officer
with him the whole time? We are called to set the captives free. There is no
reason for anyone to be tortured in a cage, let alone the 80% of the people we
are doing this to who have never been convicted of a crime. And how can we
punish people with mental health and addiction issues for acting in manners consistent
with their mental health and addiction issues?
And…
why am I asking us this question? And to 25 people here who actually do a lot
for people in our community? What do I want us to do? Are we able to go speak
with Judge Wolf and ask that he never sentence someone to incarceration again? –
maybe; I wouldn’t object to that. Do I want a volunteer to start a court worker
program here like we had in Saskatchewan that helped keep people out of prison?
- maybe; I wouldn’t object to that. Am I asking us to write letter or speak in
person to Josie (our MLA) and Gord (our MP) and ask them to change the
legislation so that we try to help heal our community heal rather than punish the
sick and even innocent people this way; maybe. I wouldn’t object to that.
I
guess the main thing I am asking us is to keep our eyes open; keep our ears
open. Remember that Jesus and the Bible does command us set the captives free
and we as members of the church are asked to do that, just as we are asked to
forgive one another like we have spoken about the previous few weeks. So today,
I ask that we please just leave here knowing and believing that our world can
be changed and it can be changed now; there are other solutions, let us look
for them; let us pray for them, and let us fight for them. Jesus tells us to
set the captives free.
Let us
pray
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