Returning to Jail and Prison
This month I went back to jail and back to prison. Friday mornings at the women’s prison I lead a “Circle of the Word” program (my brand of biblical storytelling workshop). Several women from Grace United Methodist Church here in Dayton take turns going with me. Wednesday afternoons find me at the Montgomery County Jail co-leading a course with my good friend and fellow disciple-going-inside, Elaine Green.
At the prison we are engaging the stories of Mark 1 in a story series I call “Beginning the Good News” or just “Good News.” This is my 6th year engaging people who are incarcerated with biblical stories. It is the third time I’ve taught Houses of Healing. I am increasingly impressed by the potential for crossover between these two programs. I’ve started experimenting to see how they can enrich one another.
Houses of Healing is an emotional literacy skill-building course from the Lionheart Foundation. I came across it while doing a series of Circles on stories of forgiveness. Houses of Healing is not designed to promote any particular religion. It comes from the field of psychology rather theology. However, it encourages spiritual as well as emotional growth. Furthermore, its basic principles are consistent with biblical tradition, and as I work with it, I regularly think of this or that biblical story.
The first Houses of Healing session presents a basic assumption of the course: All people have a core self that is good, wise, peaceable, and kind. In support of that assumption, I told the story of the first day of creation from Genesis 1, with excerpts from the sixth and seventh days about the creation of humankind and God’s pronouncing it all good.
The second session presents the concept that people have an inner light. This inner light is differentiated from the “lamp shade” which is a person’s external presentation. This concept reminded me of John 1:1-5 ending with, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” I told that beautiful passage following a repetition of the abbreviated Genesis 1 story.
The third session of Houses of Healing teaches ways of coping with negative feelings that flair up when triggered by others’ bad behavior. A key concept it presents is that we have the power to choose how we will respond to exterior circumstances, and that we can learn the skill of claiming and accessing that power. We can remind ourselves, “I’m the only person who can make me mad or keep me calm” or, “I don’t have to feel threatened here; I can relax and stay cool.”
I thought of Jesus’ trial before Pilate according to the Gospel of John: “Pilate said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?'” While Pilate, the one who had all the exterior power, “was more afraid than ever,” Jesus maintained his inner calm responding, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.”
These issues around power and emotions came up in the prison setting. The women were struggling with how to deal with their feelings when the institution asserts its power over them, or other inmates give them trouble. So I told the women about the House of Healing concepts. I also told them of the calm Jesus exhibited before Pilate.
It occurred to me that the handout with the list of “cool thoughts” I had given the women in the jail House of Healing class might give women in the prison Circle of the Word some options and support in their effort to deal constructively with challenges to their emotional well-being. We’ll see what they think of the Cool Thoughts list in the coming weeks.
I also recommended they reflect on the story of Jesus’ baptism and consider how they, along with Jesus, are beloved children of God. That will offset the hurtful messages they so often hear, and have usually internalized.
The first half of September in our neck o’ the woods has been summer-like and filled with sunshine–most welcome after the relentless rain and storms April through August. We hope your September is going well, too.
In God’s story,
Amelia