Penitentiary Christianity

One of my inmate correspondents sent me a sample Sunday bulletin from his church fellowship at the Texarkana facility. It looks pretty much like a bulletin from my local church. But there is this extra je ne sais quoi.

I read under the letterhead: "Pray for deliverance from strongholds in your life, and we will celebrate communion expecting strongholds to be broken through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ."

There is something sharp and clear about penitentiary Christianity. These guys don't pray about "sin," they pray about "strongholds." The term connotes protracted trench warfare, and an awareness of its Spiritual dimension with a capital "S" --- as in these words of the Archangel Michael: "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia."

It's a funny thing when you first realize that a lot of Bible teaching and imagery you used to think was literary and metaphorical turns out to be truly true. It reminds me of the hucksters of the god "Tash" in C.S.Lewis' The Last Battle, who thought they had made up "Tash" to exploit the ignorant masses --- only to discover he was real and about to devour them.