. . . and the Houston Chronicle for . . .
. . . a lovely front-pager today: "Following path to faith while still behind bars."
It's about a college-level seminary program for lifers in a Brazoria County unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It's taught through Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and paid for by private donations to the nonprofit Heart of Texas Foundation.
If you're at all interested -- and I hope you are -- you should go directly to the story.
It interests me on several levels.
As a Christian I rejoice at this account of how these new brothers in Christ have found both eternal salvation and a purpose for their lives here on earth. And I honor the donors and teachers for tending to this special flock.
Saint Paul instructs us in Colossians on the importance of growing in knowledge of the Word.
We continuously ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualifed you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness . . . .(Colossians 1:9b-13a (NIV))
If Paul is right in his understanding of what comes with "growing in the knowledge of God," then we might expect these inmate scholars to be bear fruit in good works and to be strengthened, with increased endurance and patience.
And, the story testifies, this is so.
A similar program in Louisiana's Angola prison corresponds with a dramatic drop in prison violence and escape attempts -- down to 236 incidents in 2013 from 1,067 in 1995.
"It's truly a God thing," said [Angola's warden]. "The inmates just changed, started carrying Bibles. They got to be honorable, moral men. Now if someone has weapons or drugs, we get told. Women and children can walk through there without whistles and catcalls."
It's too early to say whether the program has had similar good effect in Texas, but, trust me, it will.
An unlovely phrase helps us understand the life-changing practical impact of Christian conversion -- human capital. Wikipedia defines it (in an ungrammatical sentence, alas) this way:
Human capital is the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality attributes, including creativity, cognitive abilities, embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value.
Stock of competencies is useful, but social and personality attributes falls far short of telling us what has changed with these inmates. They have grown in character. They are better men than they once were. In Paul's words, they have been rescued by Christ from the dominion of darkness.
Wikipedia's definition is not wrong to emphasize the economic aspects of labor and economic value. The theory of the Protestant work ethic says much the same thing. But the economic perspective is incomplete.
Growth in Christian faith and knowledge makes men better neighbors, husbands, and fathers. They contribute to society as more than economic producers. Their changed lives bring peace, order, and stability, not just to themselves but to those around them.
The great prosperity of America is not unconnected from the economic and social benefits -- the human capital -- created by the Christian faith, fed by religious freedom and successive great awakenings.
What does honest Christian faith, coupled with understanding, create? These, among much else:
Coming to work on time. Not stealing from the employer. Treating workers right. Using honest weights and measures.
These are not expressions of human nature. They are expressions of human nature transformed by faith.
To the response that many Christians are hypocrites, one can only agree. Indeed all of us are hypocrites to one degree or another, in our inability as fallible human beings to live up to our calling.
But focusing on the imperfections of those those who are at least trying to live according to God's plan misses the point. It's a forest and trees thing. Living fully in Christ makes the imperfect man better. And the reformed man in turn makes those around him better, most noticeably his own children.
Perhaps the best way to see the power of Christian faith to create human capital is to imagine a world in which faith in God has given way to faith in government and popular culture as guides to conduct and sources of meaning and purpose. Faith in government and popular culture as the be-all, end-all -- this doesn't build human capital; this destroys human capital.
In this dystopian world, marriage would be the exception rather than the rule; families would be broken; children would grow up without fathers; education would be mocked; work, discipline, frugality, and all other expressions of deferred gratification would seem a fool's game; men would regard women as nothing more than temporary sex partners; and murderers and thieves would systematically destroy all around them.
Which would you choose? A society built and preserved by earnest men and women infused by Christ? Or a society in which government and popular culture have supplanted Christian faith and destroyed the human capital of millions upon millions of adherents?
The Darrington program invests in men with little or no human capital -- not with yet job-training program that leaves the inmate's character unchanged, but with a program to transform men from inmates of their earthly prison to citizens of heaven.
"Men like these," [said the director of the Texas program,] "will help us run prison systems in a whole new way. What happened in Angola, one of the bloodiest places in America, can happen here.
The story ends with the testimony of two redeemed killers. Both offer profound Christian insights.
"Men left unto themselves will never change by themselves," said [inmate Robert Marshall, 37, son of a Baptist preacher,] who has served 11 years of an 80-year sentence for murdering a Houston woman. "We're changing because we're being mentored and we're being trained to mentor. In the streets, they teach you how to rob, kill and steal. Now it's time to teach each other how to change."
Marshall, who will eligible for parole consideration in 19 years, said he hopes to work spreading the Gospel with chaplains in other prisons. "I see myself as a pivot man for men going back out," he said.
Daniel Hillbish, 46, brought up as a Catholic, is serving life for killing his estranged wife . . . .
"The program is a gift, an unmeasurable gift," he said. "Being able to study with theologians opens up the Word -- not just to see words, but to understand so many nuances. I have a strong understanding of Christianity and how it can be applied to everything around us. . . . I'm in prison, but I'm not thrown away. I can still do something for the kingdom of God."
Why not show your appreciation -- and join in this glorious good work -- by sending a donation to the Heart of Texas Foundation, Post Office Box 991, Fulshear, Texas 77441?
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