How can we be just and merciful? Are justice and mercy in conflict? Or are they aspects of the same truth? Christians in America are presented with two conflicting versions of justice and mercy. One version comes from the dominant secular narrative of America. Justice and mercy are contradictions. Mercy is devalued and discouraged. But within the counter narrative of God revealed through Torah, the prophets, and particularly through the life and parables of Jesus, justice and mercy are aspects of the same truth and way of God. There is no justice without mercy. There is no mercy without justice. In this book, Rev. Brooks Harrington draws on more than 40 years’ experience as a criminal prosecutor, a pastor of an inner-city church in an impoverished neighborhood, and the founder of a legal ministry protecting indigent victims of family violence and child neglect and abuse. Through moving stories of women and children he has encountered, he shows the terrible toll of the dominant narrative’s version of justice and mercy. And he offers Christians hope with new and startling insights into God’s justice and mercy revealed in the parables of Jesus.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries imprisoned black women faced wrenching forms of gendered racial terror and heinous structures of economic exploitation. Subjugated as convict laborers and forced to serve additional time as domestic workers before they were allowed their freedom, black women faced a pitiless system of violence, terror, and debasement. Drawing upon black feminist criticism and a diverse array of archival materials, Sarah Haley uncovers imprisoned women's brutalization in local, county, and state convict labor systems, while also illuminating the prisoners' acts of resistance and sabotage, challenging ideologies of racial capitalism and patriarchy and offering alternative conceptions of social and political life. A landmark history of black women's imprisonment in the South, this book recovers stories of the captivity and punishment of black women to demonstrate how the system of incarceration was crucial to organizing the logics of gender and race, and constructing Jim Crow modernity.

Did God condone genocide in the Old Testament? How do Christians harmonize the warrior God of Israel with the God of love incarnate in Jesus? Christians are often shocked to read that Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, commanded the total destruction--all men, women, and children--of the ethnic group known as the Canaanites. This seems to contradict Jesus' command in the New Testament to love your enemies and do good to all people. How can Yahweh be the same God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? What does genocide in the Bible have to do with the politics of the 21st century? Show Them No Mercy explores the Old Testament command of God to exterminate the Canaanite population and what that implies about continuity between the Old and New Testaments. The four views presented are: Strong Discontinuity – emphasizes the strong tension, regarding violence, between the two main texts of the Bible (C.S. Cowles) Moderate Discontinuity – provides a justification of God’s actions in the Old Testament with strong emphasis on exegesis (Eugene H. Merrill) Eschatological Continuity – a reading of the warfare narratives that ties them contextually to the book of Revelation and the Second Coming (Daniel L. Gard) Spiritual Continuity – incorporates the genocidal account into the full picture of the Old and New Testaments (Tremper Longman III) The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

Praise for Lord, Have Mercy "Once in a while, I find a book about prayer that does something fresh. Claire E. Wolfteich provokes us to rethink the very nature of prayer and how it reshapes us as she discusses six examples of modern Christians confronting the complexities of social engagement and how to make responsible choices in favor of justice and human reconciliation." --Philip Sheldrake, professor, department of theology and religion, University of Durham; author, Spaces for the Sacred "Wolfteich provides carefully researched case studies from suburban Miami to the turmoil of apartheid South Africa, analyzing the relation of prayer to various human purposes. She guides the reader through the ambiguities of each case, giving no easy answers, teaching by asking questions. But on another, more personal level, the book is an ongoing conversation with the author. Her voice comes through again and again--quiet, intelligent, unpretentious--exposing her own vulnerabilities. We have here a book that is both instructive and moving--a rare thing." --Peter L. Berger, director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University "For Wolfteich, Christian spirituality is 'prayerful engagement--humble, not presumptuous; prophetic, not passive; yet always contemplative in the best sense.' This is the best guide I know for helping Christians understand how prayer, in its many forms, is indispensable to social action." --Kathleen A. Cahalan, associate professor, practical theology, Saint John's University School of Theology and Seminary

Describes many of the most dramatic cases from "America's Most Wanted."

How should we understand the political morality of migration? Are travel bans, walls, or carrier sanctions ever morally permissible in a just society? This book offers a new approach to these and related questions. It identifies a particular vision of how we might apply the notion of justice to migration policy - and an argument in favor of expanding the ethical tools we use, to include not only justice but moral notions such as mercy/

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. “[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me and many others and made a lasting impact on our country.”—John Legend NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times • Esquire • Time Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction • Winner of a Books for a Better Life Award • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Finalist for the Kirkus Reviews Prize • An American Library Association Notable Book “Every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so . . . a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.”—David Cole, The New York Review of Books “Searing, moving . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela.”—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times “You don’t have to read too long to start cheering for this man. . . . The message of this book . . . is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made. Just Mercy will make you upset and it will make you hopeful.”—Ted Conover, The New York Times Book Review “Inspiring . . . a work of style, substance and clarity . . . Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer and storyteller.”—The Washington Post “As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty.”—The Financial Times “Brilliant.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer