“What if abolition isn’t a shattering thing, not a crashing thing, not a wrecking ball event? What if abolition is something that sprouts out of the wet places in our eyes, the broken places in our skin, the waiting places in our palms, the tremble holding in my mouth when I turn to you? What if abolition is something that grows?”

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

we are church folks organizing for abolition

Presbyterians For Abolition

An illustration showing a man in an orange jumpsuit with wings, standing in front of a backdrop of barred hands, prison bars, and a courthouse, symbolizing incarceration and justice.

We are committed to ongoing political education about abolition. That includes an examination of the complicity of our theology, spiritual practices, and institutional norms. We must deconstruct the structures and ideas that normalize a culture of dominance and punishment. We must also imagine and construct new ways of navigating harm and conflict together. This is imaginative work!

Monthly Virtual Meeting First Thursday of Every Month

Monthly Virtual Meeting First Thursday of Every Month

Two men hugging, smiling, at a crowded indoor gathering with other people in the background.

Presbyterians for Abolition hosts a discussion group every month on the first Thursday at 8pm ET. We rotate short videos and quick reads each month. All levels of interest and knowledge are welcome!

Click Here to Sign Up for our PFA working group

~ Addie Domske

“Abolition is a lens on life. It can positively affect the way you see so much of the world around you–yes, how you view prisons and police, but also how you view bodily autonomy, parenting, interaction with the non-human world, and, especially, how you view Jesus’ witness here on earth. Reading about a guy who was killed by the state, whose friends were incarcerated for years as political prisoners and freedom fighters, and who lived to challenge systems and imagine ways out of structures is abolition. The Bible tells a truly abolitionist story, rooted in love for another and a deeply abundant God that says no to incarceration and punishment in all forms.”

What we are committed to:

Abolition, not reform.

  • A fundamental belief of this group is that the prison industrial complex (policing, courts, jails and prisons, etc.) and its many tendrils in our society are beyond reform. They must be dismantled and we must seek to build new experiments in community safety and care.

  • Following the voices of people most directly impacted by the Prison Industrial Complex, including people currently and formerly incarcerated, Black queer femmes, and others who are at the intersection of multiple forms of oppression. They have the clearest vision of how to create a world where everyone has what they need to thrive.

  • “Nothing about us without us.”

    • We are committed to being accountable in our actions to organizers and leaders who have lived experience of incarceration and oppression at the hands of the prison industrial complex.