Santa Was in Prison and Jesus Got the Death Penalty

[kpete]

"Christians go to church to worship an executed savior and shop to commemorate an incarcerated saint, with little thought to their 2 million countrymen who are spending this Christmas behind bars."

— By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella
| Sat Dec. 25, 2010 10:34 AM PST



As Christmas is celebrated in Incarceration Nation, it’s worth remembering certain things about the two figures who dominate this holiday.

As more than 3,000 Americans sit on death row, we revere the birth of a godly man who was arrested, “tried,” sentenced, and put to death by the state. The Passion is the story of an execution, and the Stations of the Cross trace the path of a Dead Man Walking.

Less well known is the fact that Saint Nicholas, the early Christian saint who inspired Santa Claus, was once a prisoner, like one in every 100 Americans today. Though he was beloved for his kindness and generosity, Nicholas acquired sainthood not by giving alms, but in part by performing a miracle that more or less amounted to a prison break.

As we described in one of our earliest posts on Solitary Watch, Nicholas was the 4th-century Greek Bishop of Myra (in present-day Turkey). Under the Roman emperor Diocletian, who persecuted Christians, Nicholas spent some five years in prison–and according to some accounts, in solitary confinement.

THE REST:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/santa-was-prison-and-jesus-got-death-penalty

[toddwv]

1. That actually brought up an interesting thought concerning human sacrifice

We've all heard stories about cultures/religions that practiced human sacrifice. Today the practice is looked upon with horror and disgust for good reason but has it been replaced by other means? Take the "War on Drugs". What started out as an attempt at narcotics prohibition has festered into a moral crusade that has only succeeded at incarceration millions of non-violent "offenders" while bloating police state budgets, making illicit drugs a very lucrative business and subsequently increasing rates of violence and murders.

So, haven't these victims really just become sacrificial lambs in order to perpetuate the "War on Drugs"?

[NOLALady]

2. Actually

I think it started as a moral crusade. It was never strictly about narcotics prohibition.


The Racial History of U.S. Drug Prohibition
Compiled by Drug Policy Alliance. August 2001.

he drug laws can be used selectively and sporadically, against the poor or the otherwise undesirable, which is by no means incidental. Their enforcement is a tremendous political and economic weapon against what we call the Third World -- James Baldwin

In the United States and many other nations, it is no longer possible to talk honestly and frankly about racism without talking about the "war on drugs." Few US policies have had as disproportionate effect on Blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities than the "war on drugs". Every policy of the "war on drugs" - from racial profiling to arrests to prosecutions to length of sentencing - is disproportionately carried out against minorities. It should come as no surprise that the United States government has used the "war on drugs" to reinforce the country's historically racist attitudes towards all minorities and especially Blacks and Latinos. From its very inception the "war on drugs" has been laden with racial overtones.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/about/position/race_paper_history.cfm

[toddwv]

3. I'd rec you for that post if I could.

It's great to run across another person who understands what the "War on Drugs" truly represents and the devastation that it has wrought by targeting minorities.

[immoderate]

4. Our "greatest" presidents are those who sacraficed the most to war.

Clinton ran a really smooth war, but gets no credit, because it was so well executed that we lost no troops. GW Bush came in with the thought that he would ride to greatness on the bodies of fallen troops. But it doesn't always work. Look a Vietnam.

--imm