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In Memory of Tom Clements

The appalling murder of Tom Clements, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, appears to be part of a growing trend of violence against criminal justice officials. Since the beginning of the year, brazen attacks have also taken the lives of the Kaufman County, Texas, district attorney, his wife, and a lead prosecutor.

Mr. Clements’s death was particularly heartbreaking to me and my colleagues at Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. A deeply religious man who believed in the importance of redemption, he was a strong partner in the effort to promote restoration and reduce recidivism first in his many years of service in Missouri, and later in Colorado.

Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers knew Mr. Clements as a quiet but consistent leader in the field of corrections. He lived out his faith in the public square, and he was often quoted as saying that “anyone can be redeemed.” His untimely death is a profound loss for Colorado – and to all prisoners who, recognizing their mistakes, long for the redemption and restoration he advocated.

It is ironic that Evan Ebel, the alleged shooter who was released early on a clerical error, spent much of his eight-year sentence in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons – Mr. Clements worked to humanize prisoners, recommending limits on the use of solitary confinement in inmate management. If Mr. Ebel is the killer, he took the life of a man who was far from an enemy of prisoners.

Considering the senseless, violent circumstances of Mr. Clements’s death, how do we carry on in a manner that honors his legacy? Do we lock our doors more tightly and lengthen sentences for all violent offenders? Do we slash restorative programming for inmates? Should we throw in the towel and admit that prisoners can’t be saved, and that we should lock them up forever for the good of society?

There is no denying that evil is real and must be dealt with appropriately. Some prisoners like Mr. Ebel present such an ongoing danger to the public – and even to their fellow inmates – that they cannot be safely released and must remain in solitary confinement. But to paraphrase the Bible, a book that shaped Mr. Clements’s worldview, I hope we will not be overcome by the evil manner of his death, but work even harder to overcome evil with good. Let’s persevere in Mr. Clements’s belief that “anyone can be redeemed,” and support programs the facilitate restoration and renewal for the vast majority of inmates who will one day return to our communities. Let us continue to treat all human beings with dignity and kindness, even when they don’t return the favor.

For far too long, we have asked the wrong question: How do we keep “bad people” out of our backyards? We must learn to ask a different, more courageous set of questions: How do we bring good people home? How do we make prison so full of positive influences that white supremacist groups and others can’t trumpet their messages of hatred and despair?

As Mr. Clements’s death reminded us, evil is indeed real, and we must fight it. Guns must be kept out of the hands of dangerous felons, and clerical errors like the one implicated in Mr. Ebel’s release must be avoided. But our best weapons against violence aren’t guns in every nightstand or life sentences for all offenders – they are redemption, transformation, and a justice that restores. Only when these values permeate our criminal justice system at every level will our streets be safer and our newspapers less full of reports of violence. 

Pope Francis, Chuck Colson, and the Heart of Easter

Newly elected Pope Francis has made waves in the Holy See by turning down some of the trappings of his new office.

He has refused the grand apartments that housed Benedict XVI, and instead of the red papal shoes and furs favored by his predecessor, he appears in a simple ivory cassock and plain black shoes. On Maundy Thursday, he went to Casal Del Marmo, a juvenile detention center on the outskirts of Rome, to wash the feet of young prisoners.

Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, had a similar tradition.

Read the full op-ed in the Easter Sunday edition of the Orlando Sentinel, at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-easter-in-prison-033113-20130329,0,2707514.story.

Keep It Simple

Recently I met Randy, a quiet, unsung hero of the effort to bring men and women safely back into our communities. Randy’s background is not exceptional. He’s a carpenter without a college education. He’s a former addict. But when we talked, he was just about to open his sixteenth transitional home to keep a roof over the head of former prisoners.

Some time ago, God gave Randy the insight to see that former prisoners need a safe place to get back on their feet, something between a halfway house and signing a lease on a place of their own. So he took out a personal mortgage, bought a house, and invited ex-prisoners to come be his tenants. Now Randy has 16 houses. Each house has a set of simple rules: Residents need to work, they need to be in church and Bible study together, and they need to contribute whatever they can to the house payment and general upkeep.

Randy’s vision was simple. He saw a need, and instead of stepping back and waiting for someone more “qualified” to lead, he stepped forward in faith to meet it. Thanks to him, many former prisoners have now found a way to stay off the streets and out of the way of temptation.

God also calls us to acts of simple, life-changing faith. What’s God calling you to do? What need has He allowed you to see? I encourage you to step out in bold simplicity of heart – He may intend to fill that need through you!

True Worship

True Worship

By Jim Liske | Posted March 1, 2013

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. – Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

In Romans, Paul writes to a group of people who are sharing in Christ’s sufferings. They are being persecuted just as He was – they are feeling the sting of the same lashes He did. He tells them to take joy in their afflictions and continue to lay down their bodies as literal, living sacrifices.

It’s as if Paul were saying, “You know that He provides. So give it all back. Lay everything down on the altar as an offering to God.”

There’s nothing like worship time in church on Sundays, but sometimes we limit our definition of worship too much. Worship is broader than a hymn. Our whole lives can be an act of worship. We can and should offer every moment of our lives, every thought in our heads, and every corner of our hearts back to the God who has given us everything.

In our particular time and place, we’re not being asked to die for Christ, but we’re being asked to live for Christ. Will we love who He loves? Will we go to the “least of these” – like the prisoner and his child – as His hands and feet? Will we give what He gave – our all?

This is true worship.

Quietness. Peace. Confidence.

Peace. Quietness. Confidence.

By Jim Liske | Posted February 14, 2013

“The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” – Isaiah 32:16-18

Peace. Quietness. Confidence. Wow – the life Isaiah describes is the life we all want, isn’t it? And it’s easy to imagine that if we’re going to the right church, and our kids are in the right schools, and if we have enough money tucked away for the future, that the peace we crave is within reach.

But it’s not like that for everyone. Recently I met a little fourth-grade girl who goes to a failing inner-city school. Her mother is a drug addict and her father is in prison. She lives in the projects, and as tough as it is, her home will be razed to the ground in the next 24 months to make room for gentrification. Where is her peaceful dwelling place? Where is her secure home?

Isaiah tells us that the quietness and peace will come not when we strive harder, but when we practice righteousness, and when His Spirit is poured out. Peace will come when that little girl’s parents are introduced to the hope of Jesus Christ, so they can leave behind the destructive choices that jeopardize their daughter’s future. Peace will come when a Christian worldview is applied to urban planning and development. Peace will come when we choose restoration over retribution in our justice system.

Learn how you can help bring God’s genuine peace to our broken world:www.prisonfellowship.org.

A Firm Resolve

It’s a New Year, the time for making resolutions that we never intend to keep! That’s not quite true, of course. It’s good for us to work toward goals and dreams for the future, but let’s face it – it’s hard to keep our resolutions; if we’d all lost all the weight that’d we’d committed to every New Year, none of us would even exist anymore!

The most common New Year’s resolutions are about physical fitness, organization, and money management. Those are all fine, but what if we made 2013 about taking steps in a new direction spiritually? What if your goal in 2013 were to encounter Jesus face-to-face?

In Matthew 25, Jesus says that when you visit the prisoner, you are in fact visiting Him. Prison Fellowship wants to help you meet God as you minister to inmates and their families in 2013.

I’m not necessarily talking about something huge. I’m talking about taking a few minutes of your time to go worship by serving the “least of these.” Just go towww.prisonfellowship.org/get-involved to learn how you can help.

If God is calling you into a deeper level of engagement with Prison Fellowship this year, let the Spirit lead you into the process of volunteering. Learn about the local opportunities. Go through some of our training. Let it be an act of worship – not necessarily an act of doing something, but being someone significant in someone else’s life. My bet is, you’ll experience worship beyond anything you’ve ever experienced. You’ll have the same experience I’ve had. By volunteering, you don’t just go spend a few hours – you’ll be forever changed through your encounter with Jesus!