Prison Fellowship Ministries founder Chuck Colson speaks to Marvin Olasky, provost of The King's College, during an interview at the City University of New York's Graduate Center on Dec. 3, 2010.
Posted on 12/05/2010 9:28:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The growing crime and incarceration rates are the consequences of a lack of moral training in society today, said Watergate-convict-turned-Christian-evangelical-leader Chuck Colson.
When Colson was serving time in prison in the mid-1970s, there were 239,000 incarcerated individuals. Now, that figure had increased ten-fold to a staggering 2.3 million people.
During an interview hosted by The King's College Friday, Colson contended that prisons in the United States have become bigger over the years because there is a lack of moral training and education, not because there are more bad people in society.
"The moral breakdown in our society is the real reason we're building prisons," said Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
He disagreed that longer and tougher sentences would deter crime, citing a study done by psychiatrists in the 70s that found people committed crimes based on wrong moral choices not by their environment.
The former aide to President Richard Nixon said the incarceration figure could be reduced in half if moral training were provided to people during what he calls their "morally formative years."
But part of the struggle to educate the next generation is the battle over what society thinks is moral and ethical, explained Colson, who pointed to the fight to recite the Declaration of Independence in schools as example.
"The law can become moral teachers only because we incorporate what we have decided are moral values in that society," he said.
The lack of teaching on moral law and ethics was what inspired his latest DVD series. In Doing the Right Thing, a six-part series slated for release in February 2011, Colson and a panel of scholars and ethicists tackle ethics and moral philosophy head-on as they examine the recent financial and economic crises, cultural shifts in attitudes towards marriage and family, human and civil rights, life and death, what it means to be human, as well as basic principles of right and wrong.
"Truth has got to be knowable for there to be ethics," argues Colson in the video for the series.
Colson said he hopes that the series, a joint project between the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and The Witherspoon Institute, will be used at the undergraduate and graduate level to transform how students see and apply ethics in the marketplace and public life.
"We hope it will really penetrate business, medical, and law schools," said Colson.
BTTT
With a profound respect for Chuck Colson I disagree. I think the main reason prison rates are up is because of the absence of two parent households. Though I assume it would be easy to claim that societies “moral breakdown” and the absence of two parent households are different sides of the same coin.
BUMP
Garbage in = Garbage out!
Every week more and more behavior is legislated as illegal, permitted, needing permits, license, exemptions. So, naturally the crime rates rise. On the other had, the police, jailer, court, prison, parole, construction, defense lawyer, prosecuting lawyer business is doing fine.
Yep! And why do they hide the percentages that are Black? And also the percentages that are Illegal Aliens? It’s about time that Caucasians aren’t forced to take the backseat to every minority mob that lands on our shores next!
Tell these idiots i’ts more like “It’s the economy, stupid!”
Anyone with half a brain can Google such economic downturn trends and see how it directly connects to increased prison rates, etc. =.=
There's such confusion here. Much of it revolves around interchanging the word "church" with "the free exercise of religion." The separation thing came from a metaphor Thomas Jefferson once (erroneously) used in a letter. The liberals have jumped all over it. But our republican form of government is based our constitution and not on memos and letters containing metaphors and such.
Scripture reveals that the church (God's people) has within itself the ability to "heal the nations." Separating the free exercise of religion from the state is suicidal and promotes the immorality Colson is bemoaning.
The ONLY constitutional prohibition in the 1st Amendment is DIRECTED TOWARDS THE STATE. The state may not 1) establish a religion ("state church") and 2) may not abridge the free exercise of religion.
Banning the free exercise of religion (as long as its peaceful) anywhere including the halls and affairs of government where in many ways it is needed most, is patently unconstitutional. The free exercise of religion IS NOT A THREAT to the state. The state however is a grave threat to free exercise of religion.
I think several volumes could be written on this topic. In addition to both Colson’s reason and your reason, more things are crimes these days. Back in the 70s and before, you could drive drunk and the police would drive you home and tell you to sleep it off. Heck, you could crash your car drunk and unless you killed someone, you probably weren’t going to jail. Same with hitting your wife, not paying child support, etc. There are a lot of reasons prisons are full. This is one area where you could probably say I come dangerously close to being a RINO. We have to find a way to have something in between a full prison and simply letting people go. We have to find a way to let people work and earn a living and see their families while being in some type of minimum security jail moreso than what we have now.
This is a direct of the general moral breakdown.
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