Returning to the Fold – Reflections from a Barbed Wire Monastery
By: Prison Bob
A prisoner contemplating in his cell
The following is part nine of an ongoing feature with a real incarcerated prisoner, who goes by the pseudonym of Prison Bob. This individual is behind bars in Oklahoma, and he is a freethinker and staunch atheist. We hope you will enjoy this feature.
Recently, I dropped a few lines concerning a Wiccan/Pagan, who has in the last few months turned from his non-Christian beliefs to fully embrace Christianity. In fact, he has not only embraced it, but like so many new or returning practitioners, he feels comfortable holding conversations completely concerning his favored Bible translation. He really prefers the King James Chronological. Evidently, it reads more like a story, so it is therefore easier to assimilate without deep thought.
I might come across as catty or gossipy, but all I’m going to talk about are observations or conversations I have personally had with the persons in question. The former Pagan I’ll call Jad. His former lover, I’ll call Mar. The reason Jad has left Mar and wholly embraced the Christian ethos is over a woman. Jad’s new (two months) woman nee fiancee found him online. He tells me he doesn’t know why. Mar, still in love, was devastated, but is still here and caring. Interestingly, both Mar and Jad come up for parole within a year. After more than two decades apiece, both men are preparing for this with large amounts of hope.
Now all of a sudden, Jad is no longer a former addict who himself sold in prison (not this facility) to obtain a fix. Having found Jad used, abused, and left with no one who would touch him, Mar has (their story) taken care of him for years. Now, Jad is a man with hope. He is proselytizing. He’s out winning souls for, say it with a Southern drawl, Jay-sus. None of that truly bothers me. Homosexuality just is. And it isn’t as if I can pass judgment on the actions of another addict. One does what one can and must survive this. But…
I personally find it repugnant that in less than 90 days, Jad has gone from staunch anti-Christian to a good little Christian soldier. Jad and Mar are no longer even seen around one another. Jad is in marriage counseling and he and the mystery woman are planning an early winter union. It may sound hateful of me, but none of this heartfelt conversion happened in the two and a half decades prior to mystery woman choosing Jad like a pet from the pound and mailing him unexpected funds.
The question I have asked myself time and again since beginning to watch this situation is: What happens to Jad psychologically if, after this spurt of new thought, the marriage fails or the attempt at parole does not succeed? How much damage is he preparing to do to himself? Who knows. And I’m a guy who has gotten married three times, because I thought I was saving them. It seems that when sober, I have an overdeveloped White Knight Complex. There is no way I’d marry a woman I couldn’t be around, or had only met three times.
Well, maybe Halle Berry. Or Rihanna. Or Jenna Elfman.
Okay, very few!
I’m possibly over-judgmental, but I never claimed to be above that. Be kind to yourselves and others.
