Credit: Thomas Hawk / Flickr
The following is an excerpt from the new book God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Tanya Erzen (Beacon Press, 2017). Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press:
It’s hard to focus on anything, much less the Book of Jeremiah, when the air presses against your skin like steam, and it’s not even 9 a.m. In Louisiana, a May morning like this portends a truly oppressive day, and for prisoners, one without the reprieve of shade, air-conditioning, or privacy. For the three women missing from the college class, sent to disciplinary segregation for violating one rule or another, the small room each is confined to twenty-three of twenty-four hours a day is a sweltering prison within a prison. The chapel classroom is an alternative to the “hole,” even with the cinder-block monotony of its walls disrupted only by a map of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. Monica renews her focus. She has a final exam next week, and this is the professor’s review […]
My concern is if one is born again in prison, does the taxpayer get charged for housing an extra person? Clever way for private prisons to ensure maximum occupancy on their accounting books…oops, I may have given them ideas. Sorry.
Very funny, Mark R.! 🙂
The link to the full article has been corrected.
I am not a sympathizer with evangelical Christianity, but i ask myself, why not? Muslims have been successfully evangelizing in US prison population for years. Maybe a little pluralism in the lock-up is a good thing!
I spent several months on a team teaching non violent compassionate communication in a maximum security prison for women and I was shocked by the number of evangelicals inside the walls – from guards to social workers, nurses. Groups of evangelicals who came to preach. Having been born into opposing churches and growing up amidst religious wars inside my home, like many of the younger generation I was repelled by fanaticism of any kind. The number of Evangelicals in that VA. prison was much much greater than the number of Muslims. I suspect that varies over geographical regions, but like the Evangelicals I met thruout S. America, they were fire and brimstone. Their speech was hypnotic and they created a cadre of disciples who went forth preaching shame and guilt. Power over instead of power with. I saw the same in Alabama and thruout the Deep South.
Thanks for sharing your experiences samcrepi. Religions do love captive audiences, for sure.