by Gerard 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
It is evident that some prison immates get asimilated while doing their time. I wonder if any of you used to preach rutinely in a prison and what was your experience. Were you asked by elders to do that or were you pro-active?
What was your cong's reaction to receive an ex-con converted in prison?
Sincerely,
Gerard
No, but always wanted to go on a prison preaching tour. Even at the time, I didn't really care about the prisioners, I just wanted to see what it was like. I guess I was watching too much OZ on HBO. Go figure.
I had a Bible Study in Boston and he got himself locked up. I would visit him in prison and we would study in a large room with visits going on and guards making sure nobody was humping somebody's leg. It was weird to get locked up one night for "wild behavior" and thought back to the bible studies I had with Bruce at the House of Corrections. Bruce would introduce me to his new found "buddies" as the "Bible Man."
i used to just go to muslim services when i was in prison for a short while, because it was better than being a small cell for 23 hours a day, that and the fact that i got on with the people who went there way more than the scum who would go to the christian services.
it's easy to see why people convert to religions in prison though, when you're locked up there is nothing else to do but think, and you do a lot of that, and also a lot of people will do anything to get out of their cell, because they can't handle it.
Yes. Prison activity for JWs is usually handled by elders in that area, sometimes MS help out. The dedication to JW and interested inmates varies by congregation, but some are actually well organized. WT studys are conducted by elders while School and Service meetings are sometimes conducted by baptized inmates.
The culture inside a prison is interesting for JW activity. Often, inmates are those who were once associated with JWs, others are just looking to spend time "in church." The need to "find religion" is common on the inside. In prisons with a lot of JW activity actually forms a "hidden congregation" that most JWs on the outside will never meet. The only way information flows between the two groups is via the elders who support the inmates. It is rare, but annoucements are occasionally made at the KH, "XX was reinstated, (or DFed)." Most in the congregation have no idea who these people are.
Life as a JW prisoner is tough because normal "negative" influence is already strong. Add no smoking or swearing and you are automatically a freak. Then factor all the inmates who "got Jesus" in the mainstream fundamental definition. Thus, your average JW inmate will not act like your average JW. If released, the JW inmate usually gets very active in the local congregation for a brief while (usually not the one serving his/her prison). Transistion to civilian life is difficult for anyone institutionalized. So the "spiritual bubble" easily pops for most freed inmates.
Congregation reaction to a recently released JW ex-con is usually guarded but welcoming. The person oftens comes across "over-zealous" that is never mirrored by the sleepy congregation at hand.
I was in Federal Prison for about two years and only attended the JW meetings. When I was in the Country jail for 10days before being transferred to the Federal facility there was a preacher who came up to the jail and preached throught the bars. He didn't ask. He just started in with a street preacher's manner and it was most dismaying from my point of view.
It was just like he was not even conscious that human beings were involved.
I know brothers in the local cong who had a prison bible study. They acted like they were hot snot and very brave. What a load!
Prison is just endless boredom and frustration. Many inmates get religion out of nothing else to do. Besides, when you find "god" you have somebody to talk to.
I'd roughly guess that half the Catholic inmates were gay; I know the prison priest was. It was mostly Mexican who were Catholic.
The JW's were rude to the other religious inmates. Arguments would break out all the time. Crazy childish arguments.
Prison is a good place for religion. I wish it would stay there without parole.
Terry
Prison is a good place for religion. I wish it would stay there without parole.
[email protected] like that, I may use that some time myself!
Yes, I've been to a woman's facility to "speak", once. I was sooo nervous, but, I found that the ladies were quite appreciative of what I had to say. Of course, I wasn't doin' the Dub thing at that point, I was speaking as a member of Narcotics Anonymous, which I was attending to test myself on whether I had a drinking problem or not.
Terri
Yeh, I went throught the whole program of getting qualified in the (state's eyes) and gave public lectures in a medium security prison. It was really an incredible joke. The inmates were playing us and the parole folks, believing attending a church demostrated reform. The chaplin was a boob. He felt we were cutting in on his action. Anyway, I did that and worked on invitation in a max security Prison and a psyc ward that held truly dangerous folks. I studied with a creepy character that icepicked women, he was released and killed again the next day. I wanted to end the study but was told I was not letting Jehovah do his magic. I ended it when he sought another opinion about masterbation from the chaplin. He called the Hall and another ms was asigned. He made the mistake of giving him his last name. The creep called every night and he had to change his number. He for a long time he worried that he knew his address and when he might be released.
Gerard,
Yes, I worked in the prison's in an area of the UK for about six years. I was always amazed by how many JW's ended up there. I new none in my personal life, but each Saturday evening as I was ushered in by the Warders, one would invariably say, "another one of your lot in Block C".
It was not a pleasant experience as the prison was a high security one, and my studies were conducted at arms-length from 'lifers' who had nothing to lose by grinning and then pulling off your head. UK prisons smell like an airless broom closet, with a scent like a stew of ancient socks in disinfectant wafting and pasting itself on every surface.
Saturday night was shower night and I would have to walk the full length of the block unaccompanied by warders. I would hurry past a long, long line of grey and white bodies, lost souls reminiscent of a scene from Dante's Inferno, some with pendulous breasts from hormone treatment, to get to the cell where the studies were conducted. I can assure you that I marched as strongly and fiercely as a Stormtrooper on Speed to get to my destination as I tried to avoid breathing the oversused air.
As soon as I was let out into the evening air after my stint in cells smaller than my bathroom, I celebrated my feedom by finding the nearest pub and engulfing several pints of 'Old Peculiar'. I never did figure out how I got home, but I always awoke in my own bed.
HS
Nope. I never ever preached in a prison.
Special K
