This photograph portrays a 1974 armed bank robbery. Yes, the well-trained bank teller handled the assault calmly. Yes, both men were caught. Yes, I won convictions of both while serving as a federal prosecutor. 

Across three years as an assistant U.S. Attorney every case I saw involved theft of one kind or another: embezzlement, kidnapping, counterfeiting, attempted murder, bank robbery, extortion, explosives,  syndicated crime, drug offenses.

Although I only lost two of the thirty cases I tried it always seemed to me that the felons I prosecuted had suffered "thefts" of their own: their childhoods stolen by abuse or neglect or poor parenting. or, most commonly, growing up poor.

America's gardens of poverty grow crime. 

Thefts of life? There were 85 men & one woman on Tennessee's Death Row when I began ministering there. 100% of them were poor. Although rich people commit crimes I never had the chance to prosecute a single one. The wealthy hire the best lawyers. 

One of law school's core teachings is that a crime is defined as breaking  a written law. Other wrongs: auto accidents, malpractice broken contracts, for example, are resolved through civil lawsuits.

Too many leaders ask, "Is it legal?" Not, "Is it right.?" So many of  our worst wrongs are technically legal but morally wrong – including mistreatment of both the sick & their caregivers

In 1955 that Montgomery bus driver enforced a law when he ordered Rosa Parks to move to the back. Should whites have blocked blacks from coming to their churches or using their bathrooms because it was legal? No white hospital CEO or caregiver has ever been prosecuted for withholding medical care because of race. 

We need rules. Yet countless leaders have caused suffering by hiding behind laws, not choosing love. 

It is still happening. 

-Rev. Erie Chapman, M.T.S., J.D.