Inmates a receptive audience to Apostle Paul’s epistles

HOUSTON (BP)—In a cinderblock room with a concrete floor and metal bunk bed, no phones or computers ping or ding with text or Tweet alerts. Instead, amid the unmuffled clang of heavy metal doors and routine pat-downs and shakedowns, letter writing thrives among prisoners as it did in the first century.

An inmate makes notes during a class in Southwestern Seminary's new undergraduate extension program in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Darrington Unit. (BP PHOTO/Ben Peacock/SWBTS)

Stephen Presley, who teaches a biblical interpretation class at a maximum-security prison near Houston, said the inmates' familiarity with letter writing has given them a unique perspective on the epistles that comprise a large portion of the New Testament.

"I think that (for) those of us who live in a world that's dominated by e-mail and controlled by other forms of technology, sometimes it's hard for us to understand the genre of letter writing—the genre of the epistles," Presley said.

"But for those who live in this world (behind bars), it was so easy for them to comprehend and to almost identify with the early church in the way they would have felt receiving these letters from Paul and how they would have treated the letter, perhaps, even in ways we don't, in terms of reading it from start to finish, reading it closely and observing every word."

Presley, assistant professor of biblical interpretation at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Havard campus in Houston, said he had not anticipated the connection inmates in a new seminary extension at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Darrington Unit would find with the apostle's epistles. But he saw the spark in their eyes as he began to discuss the letters the apostle wrote to the first-century churches.

"Their faces lit up … (when) they felt a sense of connection to the way that the early church communicated in ways that those of us who live in the free world don't understand or don't necessarily appreciate," Presley said.

For the inmates, a letter is far more than a greeting or piece of paper or even the message written on the page, Presley said. Prisoners read and re-read their letters to extract every single bit of information they can. They pay attention to what the writer said and to what the'writer left unsaid.

"When we read (Paul's) letters, sometimes we start in the middle; we go to Philippians, chapter three, and begin reading," Presley says.

"They read beginning to end many times over, and they spend time reading slowly. They don't just read the letter quickly and try to move on to application. No, they spend time soaking up every single word, every single sentence, every phrase.

"It's to the point where many of them would almost drive themselves crazy be-cause they'd spend so much time thinking about the letter, they'd start to wonder what was happening back home.

"In fact, many of them even carry (the letters) in their pockets almost as badges of honor."

The inmates' perspective opened a new line of thought for Presley in his study of the epistles that he otherwise might have missed in the hubbub of a text message- and email-driven world.

Their connection to the epistles substantiated the importance of studying genre in the Scriptures and understanding the context in which the authors wrote the Bible under the Holy Spirit's inspiration, Presley said.

"I think in the end it will kind of shape the way I teach writing in the future, because it's such a great example," he said.