As the Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates sang, their faces shined. With hands raised toward heaven, the men clad in black gowns and caps celebrated the first four-year graduation service ever to be held at the Angola prison.
“I’m trading my sorrows,” they sang. “I’m trading my shame. I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.”
Trading as many as two to four years of intensive biblical studies in exchange for diplomas adorned with their names, these 21 inmates received undergraduate degrees Jan. 31 from New Orleans Seminary (NOBTS), one of six seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Angola extension center, set admist 18,000 acres of farmland enclosed by barbed wire and steel bars, is one of 16 centers the seminary currently operates. The center was started in 1995 after hundreds of prisoners had completed the “Experiencing God” Bible study and wanted more education to prepare themselves for ministering within prison congregations.
“The extension center at Angola was birthed out of a dream to reach our entire state of Louisiana for Christ,” said Thomas Strong, NOBTS dean of the college of undergraduate studies.
“The students who graduated are men whose faith in Christ is genuine and who are determined to reach the world in which they now find themselves for Christ,” Strong noted.
“In here, you cannot fake Christianity,” said inmate graduate John Sheehan. “People are watching 24 hours a day.”
Now with more than 100 students, the seminary’s teachings “benefit not just [the graduates], but the rest of the population,” Sheehan said. “Angola is probably one of the best-evangelized prisons, but it needs people to be shepherds.”
“Welcome to the place where men are not ashamed of the gospel, to be judged, to agree, to repent and see God’s grace,” said John Robson, director of the Angola extension center, at the ceremony’s beginning. “Welcome to a place where men pray by giving up their struggle and center down and rest in him,” he said.
“I have told your story everywhere I have been,” said NOBTS President Chuck Kelley to the graduates, family members and prison officials attending the graduation ceremony.
Referring to “the story of how in this place devoted to punishment, God is doing restoration,” Kelley conferred four associate in pastoral ministries degrees, one bachelor of arts degree and 17 bachelor of general studies degrees. One inmate had both his associate and bachelor of general studies degrees conferred at the ceremony. (BP)
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