Bible College Helps Some at Louisiana Prison Find Peace

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Erik Eckholm

A church inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, one of many in the sprawling prison, draws about 200 inmates for biweekly services.

LOUISIANA---“God is merciful,” intoned Mr. Walters, an assistant pastor at one of many churches scattered through this maximum-security prison, informally known as Angola. “God gives us so many benefits.” Mr. Walters is a graduate of one of the most unusual prison programs in the country: a Southern Baptist Bible college inside this sprawling facility, offering bachelor’s degrees in a rigorous four-year course that includes study of Greek and Hebrew as well as techniques for “sidewalk ministry” that inmates can practice in their dorms and meal lines. There are 241 graduates so far, nearly all lifers who live and work among their peers. The graduates include 15 Muslims, who took the same Bible-based courses but minister to the 250 Islamic inmates.[link]