{"id":3547,"date":"2019-05-10T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=3547"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:21:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:21:41","slug":"bringing-immerse-into-angola-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2019\/05\/10\/bringing-immerse-into-angola-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Immerse into Angola Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Paul Caminiti, Institute for Bible Reading<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angola Prison, nicknamed \u201cThe Alcatraz of the South,\u201d is one\nof the world\u2019s most notorious prisons. Located outside Baton Rouge, LA, it\u2019s\nthe largest maximum-security prison in the country, with the property bigger in\narea than Manhattan. It began in the mid-1880s as a slave plantation, named\n\u201cAngola\u201d after the African country from which most of the slaves came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Angola was converted to a state prison in 1901, the\ninhumane practices from the slave plantation carried over. Convicts were\nfrequently abused, underfed, and subjected to unregulated violence. Prisoners\nwere often worked to death under the harsh conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was recently invited to Angola to present Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience<\/em> to\nthe 28 Protestant churches that operate inside the prison. Thanks to a\npartnership with New Orleans Baptist Seminary, there is a seminary program\nwithin the prison that has trained and ordained over 100 prisoner-pastors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our relationship with Pastor Jim Cymbala at The Brooklyn Tabernacle (BT) opened the door at Angola. (Hear what Pastor Cymbala has to say about <\/a>Immerse<\/a><\/em>.<\/a>) After Immerse<\/em> was successfully launched to 5,000 people at BT, Pastor Cymbala caught a vision for Immerse<\/em> in Angola. BT has a long partnership with Angola, with groups traveling there every year to visit the prison hospital and minister to the men on death row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louisiana has one of the strictest penal codes in the\ncountry. Nine out of ten prisoners will die there, either by execution or by\nnatural death. Many of the men I met committed crimes when they were teenagers\nand will never taste freedom again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a long history of violence and abuse at Angola. I\ntalked to men who told me how before going to bed, they would stuff magazines\nunder their T-shirts and into their shorts to keep from being stabbed to death\nin their sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We toured a housing unit referred to as \u201cRed Hat,\u201d named after\nthe red paint-coated straw hats that its occupants wore when they worked in the\nfields. The building, located next door to the execution chamber and electric\nchair, consisted of 30 cell blocks. Each cell measured 5 feet by 7 feet, with a\ncement bunk and no mattress. Dinner was served in stinking buckets splashed\nonto the floors. During times of overcrowding, fifteen prisoners, often naked,\nwere pressed into a single cell. Red Hat officially closed in 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1995, a work of redemption began with a new warden, Burl\nCain. Cain adopted the posture that if you treat people like animals, they\u2019ll\nact like animals. He built several dormitory-like units where inmates could\nmove for good behavior. He started a rodeo where prisoners could become cowboys\nfor a day and where artistically-gifted inmates could sell their creations to\nthe 10,000 spectators who come for the rodeo. It was Warden Cain who invited\nNew Orleans Baptist Seminary into the prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The presence of Christ\u2019s church in Angola has been palpable.\nThe most violent prison in America went from 1,387 assaults in 1990 to 371\nassaults in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immerse<\/a><\/em> immediately captured the imagination of lead chaplain Jim Rentz. A Bible in the New Living Translation that was easier to read, with no chapters and verses and with the books in a better historical order. He also liked that <\/a>Immerse<\/a><\/em> is more of a book club than a Bible study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaplain Rentz told me there\u2019s lots of good preaching in the churches, but structurally it\u2019s always been very top-down. Immerse<\/a><\/em> <\/a>provides what\u2019s been missing: the invitation for the inmates to simply read and dialogue together. Another chaplain, Liz McGraw, is excited. \u201cThe churches have been pretty siloed,\u201d she told me, \u201cbut Immerse<\/a> <\/em>offers us the opportunity to come together as one, all different denominations, to read God\u2019s Word!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But how would the pastors react? I was able to present and explain Immerse <\/a><\/em>to them for about 90 minutes. During my presentation I sensed they were tracking with me, but then came the moment of truth. With some trepidation I asked for a show of hands: \u201cWho is interested in taking this to their church?\u201d Without hesitation, all 28 hands shot up. We\u2019re all in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that night, to a packed house, I shared the <\/a>Immerse<\/a><\/em> vision with a larger group of 400-500. The meeting ended, and I was swarmed with inmates who were full of questions, wanting to know when the Bibles would arrive. There were tears. The hope of the gospel and the power of the Scriptures has shone a light into the darkness at Angola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, all 28 Angola churches are reading the New Testament together with Immerse: Messiah<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a powerful story in the making, but it needs your prayers. Already we\u2019re seeing the domino effect. A large state prison in Michigan, upon hearing about Angola, has launched <\/a>Immerse<\/a><\/em> to 300 inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.\u201d ~ The prophet Isaiah<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about <\/a>Immerse<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the Institute for Bible Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Paul Caminiti, Institute for Bible Reading Angola Prison, nicknamed \u201cThe Alcatraz of the South,\u201d is one of the world\u2019s most notorious prisons. Located outside Baton Rouge, LA, it\u2019s the largest maximum-security prison in the country, with the property bigger in area than Manhattan. It began in the mid-1880s as a slave plantation, named \u201cAngola\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,14,33,42,45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5803,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547\/revisions\/5803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}