Matthew Martens said many people have heard the phrase “justice delayed is justice denied.”
But Martens — a trial lawyer, former federal prosecutor, seminary graduate and legal ethics professor — takes it one step further.
“I tell you that justice denied is love denied,” Martens wrote in his book “Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal.”
In “Reforming Criminal Justice,” he challenges his readers to understand better how to love their neighbors affected by the justice system. He shares how the gospel relates to criminal justice, how to develop a Christian ethic of criminal justice and how that ethic interacts with the American criminal justice system.
Martens, a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., will share thoughts on the topic this Thursday (Jan. 23) at Samford University’s Reid Chapel from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event, which is put on by Samford’s Cumberland School of Law in partnership with Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, is open to the public.
Timely topic
“The justice of criminal justice is an appropriate topic to address every week, since every week in America the justice system is brought to bear on our fellow citizens in unjust ways,” he told The Alabama Baptist. ” But I suppose criminal justice is an especially apt topic during the week of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day because Dr. King spoke often of how the justice system can be twisted to unjust ends.”
Martens’ book was inspired by the events that happened in recent years stemming from “long-simmering racial tensions” — events such as the deaths of Black children and men, “often at the hands of police.”
He said he hopes his book will offer hope. It asks the question, “Must we — can we — love both the criminally victimized and the criminally accused?”
During his talk, Martens will discuss a theological framework for how to think about a justice system and how to apply that framework to critique particular features of our system today.
“Scripture both calls us to be people of justice and provides guidance as to what just government looks like,” he said. “Thus faithfulness for Christians — who as Americans have the ability to influence how the government functions — means using that influence to bring government, including criminal justice, more in line with Scripture’s vision of justice.”
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