Prison Reentry: Reaching the Church and Beyond
Content
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
1
Prison Reentry: Reaching the Church and Beyond
Stan Moody
Maine Prison Chaplaincy Corps
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
2
Abstract
How might we coerce a comfortable, satisfied confessing Church of Jesus Christ to assume its biblical mandate of mission to those in our society who have been marginalized by poverty, crime, sickness, rejection and abuse? It can be done only through the collective voices of those within the Church universal, undaunted by cultural differences and societal stereotypes of religion. We live in a culture of fear and self-protection that has seized not only the general population but the Church, as well. The Church, potentially our most potent countercultural force, has to broaden its scope of practice from simple confessions of faith to addressing societal contributors to brokenness and despair. It must step out of its comfort zones and into a world in which faith in Jesus Christ is not the quick-and-easy answer to human woe but offers a lifeline to the downtrodden on their way back to life. Studies demonstrate, however, that within our jails and prisons, Christian services conducted by volunteers have little or no effect on the recidivism rates of our returning citizens. Mentoring the incarcerated inside and as they return is a dirty business. It forces us to face realities beyond our peer groups, ask questions that often have no answers, roll up our sleeves and expose ourselves to frequent failure. Those who have been touched by the criminal justice system have been called to write, to advocate, to preach, to weep, to be available, to collaborate with those of other beliefs or of no beliefs and to pray. By example of the few, the Church will find the way out of its clubhouses and into the margins, where it will be surprised by the presence of the Jesus in whom it professes to believe. It is a matter of extreme urgency that cannot await the luxury of a movement.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
3
Prison Reentry: Reaching the Church and Beyond
David Wells, in his seminal work on evangelical polity and practice, God in the Wasteland, takes aim at an evangelical subculture that gives rise to a continued generation of pop-Christian innovations. These innovations are comfortably adopted by modern Christians, who carry along clichés and unscholarly traditions that further separate us from what Wells describes as ―our dark world‖ (Wells, 1994, p.150). Wells targets the debate over inerrancy of the Bible as shifting the focus away from the doctrine of Scripture as coexistent with the divine revelation of God and toward an interpretation of the nature of the Bible. Without the transcendent, transcultural Word of God, the Church has no basis on which to stand outside culture. We tend, rather, to value the words of God over the Word of God, rendering Jesus to an honored postscript in redemptive history. Sloppiness and Superficiality: Over much of the past century, the Church of Jesus Christ in America has been relieved by governmental safety nets from its mandate on outreach to the exiled among us. This has permitted sloppiness in ecclesiology and superficiality in community. Among Evangelicals, this lax demand on outreach to the exiles envisioned in Matthew 25 – hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison – has diverted emphasis toward church growth as tangible evidence of divine blessing and thereby obedience. Author Mark Noll, his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, scores a drift toward revivalist and anti-establishment frames of reference among Evangelicals. Apocalyptic eschatology (study of last things) and the immensely popular dispensationalist dogma have greatly contributed to the urgency of the invitational system of conversion. The result has been a century in which the Word
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
4
of God has simply stood by itself, removed from history or its cultural context as the Word. Noll proffers that the mediating experiences of the biblical authors and their cultural settings have become largely irrelevant to interpretation (Noll, 1994, pp. 134, 135). Of greater concern in modern context is that current cultural divides too often are ignored or considered remedial through prayer without treatment or therapy. The Word of God, removed from its cultural context in evangelical practice, tends toward encouraging a spiritual ghetto of homogenous worshippers spinning what God is doing, should be doing or about to do. Growing churches that fail to examine their populist dogmas find attracting the exiled into their clubhouses less threatening or troublesome than meeting them where they are. A full and prosperous church is Godly, by definition. Grace as a Process: Jesus’ command in Matthew 25 to visit Him in prison at a time when local, state and federal governments are going broke, confronts the Church with a convicting message. That message is that the pursuit and worship of the American Dream of prosperity and success has marginalized many whose treatment becomes a pivotal issue in eternal destiny. Revivalist and disestablishment themes prevalent in evangelical worship discourage grace as a process. God simply takes His children from where they are and rebuilds. Instead of morality as an acquired benefit of righteousness, morality becomes the core definition of righteousness. The ―least among us‖ (Matt. 25:31-46) consequently find no home among pretenders to grace. In the incarceration culture, the divide between homogenous church ethos and those who have fallen through the cracks of society is especially acute. A Changing Role for Chaplains: Religious organizations have throughout prison history played a key role in offering help to the incarcerated. Chaplains with the capacity for respecting all faiths were commonplace. In recent
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
5
years, according to author Ted Slutz, exploding jail and prison populations and declining funding has shifted the emphasis toward volunteers. Mainline churches, shying away from politically-sensitive projects, have been backing away from being charged by a retributive public as ―inmate lovers‖. The door has been left wide open for the revivalists (Slutz, 2000, p. 2). Robert Lynn, former president of American Correctional Chaplains Association, is a conservative Christian. As chaplain, he offered religious guidance to prisoners of all faiths, a common practice among prison chaplains. He now has ―grave concerns‖ about the agendas of volunteer chaplains. He recounts a one-on-one conversation with a volunteer chaplain who admitted that his first priority was to win converts to Christ. Another told him, ―Oh, yes, we got rid of all those liberal state chaplains, and now we’re free to proclaim Jesus the Savior‖ (Osgood, 2005, p. 2). Lynn scores volunteer chaplains as being neither prepared nor interested in assisting those of faiths other than Christian. He recalls a conversation with one chaplain who told him he would gladly give a copy of the Quran, if he had one, to a Muslim prisoner but that he didn’t and wouldn’t try to get one (Osgood, p. 2). The shift away from encouraging expression and practice of all faiths and toward evangelism and conversion has focused on the individual prisoner instead of a criminal justice system that is breaking down, according to Lynn (Osgood, p. 2). The evangelical community, intent as it is on punishment of the immoral over rehabilitation of the broken, seeks to save souls at the expense of serving. Authors W. Wilson Goode, Sr. et al, lament the institutional shift away from religious and spiritual matters as the impetus for reform. ―…the chaplaincy was marginalized as religion moved from the center of penology (end of the 1800’s) to its periphery‖ (Goode et al, 2011, p. 6). As a result, they posit that Bible studies and church services within the institution are inadequate. The
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
6
Church must move beyond the preaching to ―…family members, friends, the communities to which they return, and those victimized by their behavior‖ (Goode et al, p. 9). The Effect of Religious Programming on Recidivism: In 1997, a study was conducted by Lamar University professor, Byron Johnson, intended to measure the effects on recidivism of the popular Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) begun by former White House aide, convicted Watergate conspirator and recently deceased Charles ―Chuck‖ Colson. No significant difference in recidivism rates between PFM and non-PFM populations were found (Johnson et al, 1998, p. 8). Johnson updated his study in 2004 after matriculating to Baylor University. He was able to confirm a direct correlation between religious programming in prison and re-arrest only with respect to active participation in Bible studies, with even that diminishing over time (Johnson, 2004, pp. 329-354). In 2011, Johnson published an article in the Dallas News, advocating for ―…a new series of public-private partnerships that will enlist thousands of new volunteers to assist correctional authorities in the delivery of much needed educational, vocational and, yes, faith-based programs, not only in prisons, but in the communities to which prisoners will be returning‖ (Johnson, 2011). The problem, however, is a long-standing distrust by both corrections and the religious communities: Religiously motivated individuals and groups have often been marginalized by governmental agencies, and faith-based groups have often been unwilling to partner with the government. Two realities point to a new window of opportunity to do something about the mass release of prisoners back into our communities. First, an established and mounting body of empirical evidence documents the significant role of the ―faith
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
7
factor‖ in crime reduction. Second, shrinking state budgets are making it necessary to consider new approaches that emphasize cooperation between secular and sacred entities in order to help former prisoners remain crime-free after leaving prison. Innovative approaches such as this will be successful only if many new volunteers and groups — most of which will come from communities of faith — are encouraged to partner with governmental agencies in confronting the prisoner reentry crisis. These sacred-secular partnerships are our best chance to achieve scalable solutions in addressing the prisoner re-entry crisis here in Texas. These volunteer coalitions have the potential to bring together a ―coalition of the willing‖ who can coordinate job placement, housing, drug treatment, life-skills and, most importantly, match prisoners (before they leave prison) with mentors who can hold them accountable on the outside while providing the social and spiritual support they need to live crime-free lives and be productive citizens. This combination of accountability and assistance is essential for any effort to effectively change the lives of offenders and lower recidivism, thus creating safer communities, fewer victims and less cost to taxpayers (Johnson, 2011). Johnson cited as support for a sacred-secular partnerships, a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine report that found that deaths among recently released prisoners were 12 times the average for the general population and that the death rate from drug overdose was 129 times average. What Next? The Maine Prison Chaplaincy Corps, seed-funded by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, had focused on commissioning evangelical churches toward a more holistic approach to prison and reentry ministry. From experience, however, we had to shift to collaboration with
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
8
numbers of prominent social service agencies and non-profits, all committed to their missions under declining sources of revenue. We are in agreement with Johnson on three counts - the critical need for public-private partnerships, the almost impenetrable shield of self-protection prevalent in both corrections and the church and the absolute necessity of employing a community approach to reentry. To that, we would add the critical dimension of mentors, thoroughly and professionally trained and supported, working with the incarcerated and walking returning citizens through the complex social malaise we refer to as ―culture‖. The first order of business, then, is to corral the church to assume its responsibility under a biblical mandate and then to encourage the exercise of its public voice to advocate for justice and mercy. What message can be brought to a church reluctant to navigate beyond its comfort zone? Message to the Church: God has created us with a hunger and thirst for something the Greeks called koinonia – to share real, intimate fellowship with Him and with each other. Instead, the glorification of the individual has left us feeling isolated. We drag that isolation into a church that is accepted but not embraced; tolerated but no longer relevant to our neighbor. Since around 1945, just as the last of the great evangelists, Billy Graham, began his ministry, our culture has been moving away from the age of reason (the Enlightenment period) and toward the age of relativism. Universally countercultural, the Church reels from the lack of a definable enemy. Relative truth eludes definition. In this relativistic world, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, instead of leading us through the desert, has been invited along as an accomplice to our 5-year plans. We find ourselves
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
9
desperately devising clever strategies for grabbing an increasing share of a declining church market, while the world around us seems to be drowning in its collective pride and self-indulgence. To become a light in the darkness, the Church of Jesus Christ must act in such a way that a skeptical world will see sacrificial love in practice. Preaching, however important to the life of the church, must be reinforced by actions among people and places abhorrent to society. Those who profess belief in Jesus Christ as Lord are faced with two life choices. The first is to assume that the old ecclesiology can be changed from the top down. The other is to pick up our crosses daily and follow Jesus, the Suffering Servant, re-defining the church from the bottom up. Following Jesus into the communities of the exiled is about the recovery of koinonia. People just beyond our reach, by our own comfortable design, are drowning in a sea of fear, isolation, mental illness, drug dependency, brokenness and despair. Meanwhile, churches all over America are counting heads on Sunday mornings as proof of God’s presence and blessing. God doesn’t have a 5-year plan. He has an eternal plan. To share in that eternal plan, He invites us to give up our plans. ―I know the plans I have for you,‖ declares the Lord, ―plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future‖ (Jer. 29:11). To be awakened to the surprise of God’s plans for us requires that we step into a kind-of death of certainty or measurable results. We don’t know where we are going. We can’t define what we are doing because it makes no logical sense to even the most religious among us. As with the Prophet Elisha and the Apostle Paul, we have nothing that compelling to which to go back. Matthew 25 offers a judgment scenario. There, we see the heavenly throne with sheep on the right and goats on the left. The Son of Man, who has come in His glory, judges both sheep and goats by exactly the same standard. ―Where were you when you saw me hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison?‖ The response from both sheep and goats is exactly the same. ―Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or in prison?‖
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
10
But the righteous – those whose driving force is to do the will of the Father – hear the words, ―Come, you who are blessed of my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.‖ The will of the Father, then, must be that we seek Jesus among the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison – to go where the suffering Jesus is and where we are disinclined to go. It is neither an upwardly mobile vocation nor career path; it is a life of uncertainty and service – doing, loving and walking in the context of Micah 6:8. To the incarcerated, their families and their victims, therefore, the Church is positioned to offer hope in the form of listening, learning from those exiled, acting, loving, forgiving and praying. To do so is to follow Christ, for whom giving of one’s life or comforts for another is the supreme sacrifice. Without that example of sacrificial love, the Church is destined to remain just another dying institution in a world where tolerance becomes the god of relativism.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
11
References
Goode, W. Wilson, Sr. (2011). Ministry with Prisoners & Families: The Way Forward. ValleyForge, PA: Judson Press. Johnson, Byron et al (March 1997). Religious Programs Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs. Justice Quarterly Vol. 12, No.1. p. 8. Retrieved from http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/johnson.html. Johnson, Byron (June 2004). Religious Programs and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs; a Long Term Follow-up Study. Justice Quarterly vol. 21, No 2. Pp.329254. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418820400095831. Johnson, Byron (July 1, 2011). Byron Johnson: How to Reduce Recidivism? With Faithbased Volunteers. Dallas News. Retrieved from http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latestcolumns/20110701-byron-johnson-how-to-reduce-recidivism-with-faith-based-volunteers.ece. Noll, Mark A. (1994). The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, pp. 134, 135. Osgood, Charles (Feb 1, 2005). Evangelicals Behind Bars, The Osgood Files. p.2. Retrieved from http://acfnewsource.org.s60463.gridserver.com/religion/evagelicals_bars.html. Slutz, Ted (July 2000). Prison Ministry. Responsive Communities, Vol. 2, No 1. p.2. Retrieved from http://www.polis.iupui.edu/RUC/Newsletters/Responsive/vol2no1.htm#. Wells, David F. (1994). God in the Wasteland. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, p.150.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
1
Prison Reentry: Reaching the Church and Beyond
Stan Moody
Maine Prison Chaplaincy Corps
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
2
Abstract
How might we coerce a comfortable, satisfied confessing Church of Jesus Christ to assume its biblical mandate of mission to those in our society who have been marginalized by poverty, crime, sickness, rejection and abuse? It can be done only through the collective voices of those within the Church universal, undaunted by cultural differences and societal stereotypes of religion. We live in a culture of fear and self-protection that has seized not only the general population but the Church, as well. The Church, potentially our most potent countercultural force, has to broaden its scope of practice from simple confessions of faith to addressing societal contributors to brokenness and despair. It must step out of its comfort zones and into a world in which faith in Jesus Christ is not the quick-and-easy answer to human woe but offers a lifeline to the downtrodden on their way back to life. Studies demonstrate, however, that within our jails and prisons, Christian services conducted by volunteers have little or no effect on the recidivism rates of our returning citizens. Mentoring the incarcerated inside and as they return is a dirty business. It forces us to face realities beyond our peer groups, ask questions that often have no answers, roll up our sleeves and expose ourselves to frequent failure. Those who have been touched by the criminal justice system have been called to write, to advocate, to preach, to weep, to be available, to collaborate with those of other beliefs or of no beliefs and to pray. By example of the few, the Church will find the way out of its clubhouses and into the margins, where it will be surprised by the presence of the Jesus in whom it professes to believe. It is a matter of extreme urgency that cannot await the luxury of a movement.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
3
Prison Reentry: Reaching the Church and Beyond
David Wells, in his seminal work on evangelical polity and practice, God in the Wasteland, takes aim at an evangelical subculture that gives rise to a continued generation of pop-Christian innovations. These innovations are comfortably adopted by modern Christians, who carry along clichés and unscholarly traditions that further separate us from what Wells describes as ―our dark world‖ (Wells, 1994, p.150). Wells targets the debate over inerrancy of the Bible as shifting the focus away from the doctrine of Scripture as coexistent with the divine revelation of God and toward an interpretation of the nature of the Bible. Without the transcendent, transcultural Word of God, the Church has no basis on which to stand outside culture. We tend, rather, to value the words of God over the Word of God, rendering Jesus to an honored postscript in redemptive history. Sloppiness and Superficiality: Over much of the past century, the Church of Jesus Christ in America has been relieved by governmental safety nets from its mandate on outreach to the exiled among us. This has permitted sloppiness in ecclesiology and superficiality in community. Among Evangelicals, this lax demand on outreach to the exiles envisioned in Matthew 25 – hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison – has diverted emphasis toward church growth as tangible evidence of divine blessing and thereby obedience. Author Mark Noll, his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, scores a drift toward revivalist and anti-establishment frames of reference among Evangelicals. Apocalyptic eschatology (study of last things) and the immensely popular dispensationalist dogma have greatly contributed to the urgency of the invitational system of conversion. The result has been a century in which the Word
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
4
of God has simply stood by itself, removed from history or its cultural context as the Word. Noll proffers that the mediating experiences of the biblical authors and their cultural settings have become largely irrelevant to interpretation (Noll, 1994, pp. 134, 135). Of greater concern in modern context is that current cultural divides too often are ignored or considered remedial through prayer without treatment or therapy. The Word of God, removed from its cultural context in evangelical practice, tends toward encouraging a spiritual ghetto of homogenous worshippers spinning what God is doing, should be doing or about to do. Growing churches that fail to examine their populist dogmas find attracting the exiled into their clubhouses less threatening or troublesome than meeting them where they are. A full and prosperous church is Godly, by definition. Grace as a Process: Jesus’ command in Matthew 25 to visit Him in prison at a time when local, state and federal governments are going broke, confronts the Church with a convicting message. That message is that the pursuit and worship of the American Dream of prosperity and success has marginalized many whose treatment becomes a pivotal issue in eternal destiny. Revivalist and disestablishment themes prevalent in evangelical worship discourage grace as a process. God simply takes His children from where they are and rebuilds. Instead of morality as an acquired benefit of righteousness, morality becomes the core definition of righteousness. The ―least among us‖ (Matt. 25:31-46) consequently find no home among pretenders to grace. In the incarceration culture, the divide between homogenous church ethos and those who have fallen through the cracks of society is especially acute. A Changing Role for Chaplains: Religious organizations have throughout prison history played a key role in offering help to the incarcerated. Chaplains with the capacity for respecting all faiths were commonplace. In recent
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
5
years, according to author Ted Slutz, exploding jail and prison populations and declining funding has shifted the emphasis toward volunteers. Mainline churches, shying away from politically-sensitive projects, have been backing away from being charged by a retributive public as ―inmate lovers‖. The door has been left wide open for the revivalists (Slutz, 2000, p. 2). Robert Lynn, former president of American Correctional Chaplains Association, is a conservative Christian. As chaplain, he offered religious guidance to prisoners of all faiths, a common practice among prison chaplains. He now has ―grave concerns‖ about the agendas of volunteer chaplains. He recounts a one-on-one conversation with a volunteer chaplain who admitted that his first priority was to win converts to Christ. Another told him, ―Oh, yes, we got rid of all those liberal state chaplains, and now we’re free to proclaim Jesus the Savior‖ (Osgood, 2005, p. 2). Lynn scores volunteer chaplains as being neither prepared nor interested in assisting those of faiths other than Christian. He recalls a conversation with one chaplain who told him he would gladly give a copy of the Quran, if he had one, to a Muslim prisoner but that he didn’t and wouldn’t try to get one (Osgood, p. 2). The shift away from encouraging expression and practice of all faiths and toward evangelism and conversion has focused on the individual prisoner instead of a criminal justice system that is breaking down, according to Lynn (Osgood, p. 2). The evangelical community, intent as it is on punishment of the immoral over rehabilitation of the broken, seeks to save souls at the expense of serving. Authors W. Wilson Goode, Sr. et al, lament the institutional shift away from religious and spiritual matters as the impetus for reform. ―…the chaplaincy was marginalized as religion moved from the center of penology (end of the 1800’s) to its periphery‖ (Goode et al, 2011, p. 6). As a result, they posit that Bible studies and church services within the institution are inadequate. The
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
6
Church must move beyond the preaching to ―…family members, friends, the communities to which they return, and those victimized by their behavior‖ (Goode et al, p. 9). The Effect of Religious Programming on Recidivism: In 1997, a study was conducted by Lamar University professor, Byron Johnson, intended to measure the effects on recidivism of the popular Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) begun by former White House aide, convicted Watergate conspirator and recently deceased Charles ―Chuck‖ Colson. No significant difference in recidivism rates between PFM and non-PFM populations were found (Johnson et al, 1998, p. 8). Johnson updated his study in 2004 after matriculating to Baylor University. He was able to confirm a direct correlation between religious programming in prison and re-arrest only with respect to active participation in Bible studies, with even that diminishing over time (Johnson, 2004, pp. 329-354). In 2011, Johnson published an article in the Dallas News, advocating for ―…a new series of public-private partnerships that will enlist thousands of new volunteers to assist correctional authorities in the delivery of much needed educational, vocational and, yes, faith-based programs, not only in prisons, but in the communities to which prisoners will be returning‖ (Johnson, 2011). The problem, however, is a long-standing distrust by both corrections and the religious communities: Religiously motivated individuals and groups have often been marginalized by governmental agencies, and faith-based groups have often been unwilling to partner with the government. Two realities point to a new window of opportunity to do something about the mass release of prisoners back into our communities. First, an established and mounting body of empirical evidence documents the significant role of the ―faith
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
7
factor‖ in crime reduction. Second, shrinking state budgets are making it necessary to consider new approaches that emphasize cooperation between secular and sacred entities in order to help former prisoners remain crime-free after leaving prison. Innovative approaches such as this will be successful only if many new volunteers and groups — most of which will come from communities of faith — are encouraged to partner with governmental agencies in confronting the prisoner reentry crisis. These sacred-secular partnerships are our best chance to achieve scalable solutions in addressing the prisoner re-entry crisis here in Texas. These volunteer coalitions have the potential to bring together a ―coalition of the willing‖ who can coordinate job placement, housing, drug treatment, life-skills and, most importantly, match prisoners (before they leave prison) with mentors who can hold them accountable on the outside while providing the social and spiritual support they need to live crime-free lives and be productive citizens. This combination of accountability and assistance is essential for any effort to effectively change the lives of offenders and lower recidivism, thus creating safer communities, fewer victims and less cost to taxpayers (Johnson, 2011). Johnson cited as support for a sacred-secular partnerships, a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine report that found that deaths among recently released prisoners were 12 times the average for the general population and that the death rate from drug overdose was 129 times average. What Next? The Maine Prison Chaplaincy Corps, seed-funded by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, had focused on commissioning evangelical churches toward a more holistic approach to prison and reentry ministry. From experience, however, we had to shift to collaboration with
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
8
numbers of prominent social service agencies and non-profits, all committed to their missions under declining sources of revenue. We are in agreement with Johnson on three counts - the critical need for public-private partnerships, the almost impenetrable shield of self-protection prevalent in both corrections and the church and the absolute necessity of employing a community approach to reentry. To that, we would add the critical dimension of mentors, thoroughly and professionally trained and supported, working with the incarcerated and walking returning citizens through the complex social malaise we refer to as ―culture‖. The first order of business, then, is to corral the church to assume its responsibility under a biblical mandate and then to encourage the exercise of its public voice to advocate for justice and mercy. What message can be brought to a church reluctant to navigate beyond its comfort zone? Message to the Church: God has created us with a hunger and thirst for something the Greeks called koinonia – to share real, intimate fellowship with Him and with each other. Instead, the glorification of the individual has left us feeling isolated. We drag that isolation into a church that is accepted but not embraced; tolerated but no longer relevant to our neighbor. Since around 1945, just as the last of the great evangelists, Billy Graham, began his ministry, our culture has been moving away from the age of reason (the Enlightenment period) and toward the age of relativism. Universally countercultural, the Church reels from the lack of a definable enemy. Relative truth eludes definition. In this relativistic world, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, instead of leading us through the desert, has been invited along as an accomplice to our 5-year plans. We find ourselves
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
9
desperately devising clever strategies for grabbing an increasing share of a declining church market, while the world around us seems to be drowning in its collective pride and self-indulgence. To become a light in the darkness, the Church of Jesus Christ must act in such a way that a skeptical world will see sacrificial love in practice. Preaching, however important to the life of the church, must be reinforced by actions among people and places abhorrent to society. Those who profess belief in Jesus Christ as Lord are faced with two life choices. The first is to assume that the old ecclesiology can be changed from the top down. The other is to pick up our crosses daily and follow Jesus, the Suffering Servant, re-defining the church from the bottom up. Following Jesus into the communities of the exiled is about the recovery of koinonia. People just beyond our reach, by our own comfortable design, are drowning in a sea of fear, isolation, mental illness, drug dependency, brokenness and despair. Meanwhile, churches all over America are counting heads on Sunday mornings as proof of God’s presence and blessing. God doesn’t have a 5-year plan. He has an eternal plan. To share in that eternal plan, He invites us to give up our plans. ―I know the plans I have for you,‖ declares the Lord, ―plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future‖ (Jer. 29:11). To be awakened to the surprise of God’s plans for us requires that we step into a kind-of death of certainty or measurable results. We don’t know where we are going. We can’t define what we are doing because it makes no logical sense to even the most religious among us. As with the Prophet Elisha and the Apostle Paul, we have nothing that compelling to which to go back. Matthew 25 offers a judgment scenario. There, we see the heavenly throne with sheep on the right and goats on the left. The Son of Man, who has come in His glory, judges both sheep and goats by exactly the same standard. ―Where were you when you saw me hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison?‖ The response from both sheep and goats is exactly the same. ―Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or in prison?‖
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
10
But the righteous – those whose driving force is to do the will of the Father – hear the words, ―Come, you who are blessed of my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.‖ The will of the Father, then, must be that we seek Jesus among the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison – to go where the suffering Jesus is and where we are disinclined to go. It is neither an upwardly mobile vocation nor career path; it is a life of uncertainty and service – doing, loving and walking in the context of Micah 6:8. To the incarcerated, their families and their victims, therefore, the Church is positioned to offer hope in the form of listening, learning from those exiled, acting, loving, forgiving and praying. To do so is to follow Christ, for whom giving of one’s life or comforts for another is the supreme sacrifice. Without that example of sacrificial love, the Church is destined to remain just another dying institution in a world where tolerance becomes the god of relativism.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
PRISON REENTRY: REACHING THE CHURCH AND BEYOND:
11
References
Goode, W. Wilson, Sr. (2011). Ministry with Prisoners & Families: The Way Forward. ValleyForge, PA: Judson Press. Johnson, Byron et al (March 1997). Religious Programs Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs. Justice Quarterly Vol. 12, No.1. p. 8. Retrieved from http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/johnson.html. Johnson, Byron (June 2004). Religious Programs and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs; a Long Term Follow-up Study. Justice Quarterly vol. 21, No 2. Pp.329254. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418820400095831. Johnson, Byron (July 1, 2011). Byron Johnson: How to Reduce Recidivism? With Faithbased Volunteers. Dallas News. Retrieved from http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latestcolumns/20110701-byron-johnson-how-to-reduce-recidivism-with-faith-based-volunteers.ece. Noll, Mark A. (1994). The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, pp. 134, 135. Osgood, Charles (Feb 1, 2005). Evangelicals Behind Bars, The Osgood Files. p.2. Retrieved from http://acfnewsource.org.s60463.gridserver.com/religion/evagelicals_bars.html. Slutz, Ted (July 2000). Prison Ministry. Responsive Communities, Vol. 2, No 1. p.2. Retrieved from http://www.polis.iupui.edu/RUC/Newsletters/Responsive/vol2no1.htm#. Wells, David F. (1994). God in the Wasteland. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, p.150.
Manchester, ME 04351…207/607-3055…[email protected]
