Tammy Bruce: Christian Evangelists in Prisons: Their Aspirations and Their Enemies

Christian Evangelists in Prisons: Their Aspirations and Their Enemies

A post by Maynard

Tammy and G. Gordon Does anybody remember the various Watergate culprits of the Nixon era? It's been a long time since they were released from prison and wrote their books. G. Gordon Liddy, still firm in his convictions in spite of his conviction, wrote Will. He is now a tough-as-nails conservative talk show host with a sideline of girlie calendars. (Here's a picture of Tammy and Liddy (Liddy is the one with the mustache) -->.)

John Dean reversed his political course and published Blind Ambition, which is distinctly different in tone from Liddy's book (and which, we're now told, was secretly ghostwritten by Taylor Branch). And Charles "Chuck" Colson drastically altered his spiritual course, going on to devote his life to bringing Christian reform and redemption to imprisoned men and women through his (Bible-based but nondenominational) Prison Fellowship.

I confess to knowing almost nothing about what goes on in prisons. We're told that recidivism rates are extremely high, so I assume there's little to be done except warehouse the bad guys for as long as possible to prevent them from preying upon decent people. But I'd be delighted to be able to advocate an institutional pathway that leads prisoners to mend their ways. That's exactly what Colson has been trying to do since his 1976 release.

In 1999, Colson's Prison Fellowship contracted to make available their "InnerChange" counseling program within the Iowa prison system. That program has continued until recently, resulting in — so PF claims — a recidivism rate that dropped sharply among participants from the typical 60% down to about 8%.

This encouraging claim leads us to two questions: Is the program as successful as Colson says it is, and is it legal? Obviously I would like to tell you "yes" and "yes", but I can't speak definitively. Let's address the second question first.

Not surprisingly, the usual suspects — in this case, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State — brought suit against Iowa. You can see that, since prison is inherently a coercive and government-controlled environment, the presence of religious advocates is a ticklish business, legally speaking. This June, a Federal judge ruled very heavily against PF, kicking them out and fining them. You can read about this on the Prison Fellowships announcement page. Also look at Charles Colson's article in Christianity Today and this Weekly Standard article on "Barring Faith", which gives a good historical context of the faith-based approach to reform. Presumably this ruling will be appealed, and the Bush administration can be expected to be sympathetic.

More importantly, we ought to know whether the PF program was as successful as it claims. Anyone with an agenda can prove anything with statistics. Here, for example, is a report of a UCLA professor who says that the InnerChange claims were artificially inflated by their failure to take into account the program dropouts. A fair accounting, so he states, would show the InnerChange program as having no special utility. As I said, agenda-twisted statistics prove anything. But what is the core truth?

I don't have the data to offer definitive answers here. Chuck Colson did his time and turned his life around and became a better man, and I accept his sincerity and his voice of knowledge and authority. It would seem unreasonable, and indeed insane, to prevent him from trying to help others as he helped himself. Most of us will agree that the modern secular extremists have drifted into lunacy in their obsessive need to hide away any reference to God. Even so, I would be most interested in objective statistical analyses of the results of programs such as Colson's. If Prison Fellowship is worth going to bat for (and I'd like to think that it is), then its claims should withstand scrutiny.

Posted by Maynard · August 27, 2006 12:45 PM · Permalink
Big Government | Crime | Maynard Post | Religion

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I love listneing to your show on KFI 640AM in LA when I am in the car, and I think I may have caught the tail end of this on your show.

Let me see if I can answer this in reverse order of complexity. AUSCS wants nothing in the US to ever have any mention of any deity. They are like those Stalinist photoretouchers who removed people from the official pictures after they were declared an enemy of the state. Any mention of G-d will be removed from any public thing as if it never existed. (I guess, G-d is now an enemy of the state...wow, nothing new there!)

As to the recidivism rate, drop out rates in prison are highly subjective thing. (My Stepmom taught in Tehachipi Mens Prison for years) Some "drop outs" were early parolees, should they be counted because they left the program and prison under the auspices of the government? More than a few of the dropouts could have ended up transferred out of the prison for one reason or another. Some end up in solitary, for their own protection or for administrative reasons, they would be counted as drop outs. Furthermore, some people are just very good liars, and they would graduate ANY program and still reoffend.

Colson's ministry is not a cure all. One thing it seems to have going for it is that it uses a lot of common sense advice along with spiritual counseling.

Honestly, I think it will fall on appeal. One thing that always seesm to to do the talkin in today's courts is money. The Saudi run Muslim prison fellowship is not going to be shut out of prisions. So if they ahve to allow one in, they will a have to allow all in.

Posted by: MunDane68 at August 27, 2006 01:50 PM

Try checking into World Challenge/Times Square Church and Brooklyn Tabernacle. Both are located in New York although World Challenge does have locations across the country. Both have had long term success in helping people change their lives.

Posted by: jule at August 27, 2006 01:56 PM

Mundane68 makes excellent points demonstrating the turnover rate, so to speak, in the prison system. Frankly, I don't see that definitive statistics would be applicable given that information.

My own view is that if one person is helped through the Colson endeavor, then it's worth it. We will probably never know just how many lives Colson has truly touched because not everyone will experience a moment of clarity while attending the meetings or even while in prison.

You know, we can probably look to the fact that Colson's ministry IS succeeding somehow because so many in the politically correct upper echelons are offended by it. There must be something to Christianity if so many get their feathers so easily ruffled over it and become so petty, snippy and ugly in their efforts to remove it entirely.

Colson has a message so much more positive, real and humane to share with these prisoners. The AUSCS sure has not offered an alternative, nor will they. All they want to do is keep that G word out even if it means the prisoners CHOOSING to attend the meetings are aching for that one chance to connect with something larger than all of us.

Considering the authority Colson holds on this matter, he is far more inspiring, capable and hopeful than anything else the prison system has to offer.

Posted by: artgal at August 27, 2006 04:28 PM

This is evidence that the liberal Left is out to destroy our country. Proof! Here we have something that is a good thing for the people in society, and this lunatic organization is adverse to it because God is being mentioned?

In a similar story in 2005 the ACLU sued to halt a teen abstinence program because it had a Christian foundation. Hundreds of teens were opting for virtues, pledging abstinence until mariage, but the ACLU felt it was a bad thing because they felt it was “promoting Christianity”.

Good things for people and society are bad?? What's going on here?? What I want to know is, don’t we live in a Democracy? Isn’t that a majority rule-based society? Why then do rouge organizations get so much say? Why do citizens not get representation in these decisions? Why are these backwards organizations allowed to speak for all. I'm tired of it. This is not right.

Posted by: Mr. G at August 27, 2006 07:04 PM

I went to the "Americans United for separation of church and state" website to see what this group is doing about the influence and spread of Islam, particularly in the prison system.
Not surprisingly there was not one mention of Islam on their site - it appears that they only oppose Christianity. Interesting.
I wrote to them at
americansunited@au.org
and asked them why.

Posted by: helpunderdog at August 28, 2006 07:13 AM

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