Expert Review Of Naked As A Jailbird

By Harold Campbell


What is your perception of people who are in jail or who have been incarcerated? Naturally, they are not the kind you would desire to spend time with or engage in conversations. In fact, many people wish they had tags or marks on their foreheads to make them easily recognizable. It is not until you have read Naked as a Jailbird that it dawns on you that they have a human face and desires, just like you.

The author is Richard Shaw, a chaplain who has a responsibility to minister in prisons. However, for him it is more than a ministry. It is a calling that makes him different from all other chaplains who might be given the responsibility. Every minute spent with these incarcerated human beings points at a different experience about salvation, God and humanity.

Shaw is conscious of the negative portrayal that people give to prisoners. These are outcasts and criminals who arrogance and ignorance has led them behind bars. However, when you spend time with these prisoners, you realize that their world is different. The book does not seek to justify when they are incarcerated but your mentality of prison and prison life will change. You will also want to review prisons and whether they change people.

Prison life has been portrayed in movies and books as harsh as well as unbearable. It is a situation where peace is not existent. This is the environment that religious leaders are expected to spread the God News. It leaves you wondering what the definition of hope is in an environment where you await death. A minister has problems talking about repentance and forgiveness.

Is prison ministry for everyone and can one approach the ministry like you would ministry to ordinary citizens? This is a tough question to answer. The people who are imprisoned are different from those who are roaming freely around. It takes special grace to deal with some of the stories you will encounter in these prison facilities. According to Shaw, you need special grace to minister in this environment.

The author questions the role played by prisons in the society and world today. They are supposed to be agents of change, yet this is not demonstrated in what one finds with imprisoned people. In fact, the writer points out that people change as soon as the reality strikes that they are imprisoned. However, they are never accorded the benefit of living the change outside. This makes prison a gate to eternal condemnation, an aspect that is not part of their foundation principle.

The author chose the name Naked for a reason. It shows that prisoners are stripped to the last cloth, an exercise that takes place at the gate. One wonders what else is taken away from them. According to the author, the person who goes inside prison will never come out. A different one walks out of those gates, Naked.

The book is a quick read that will transform your idea of prison life. It will surprise you that prison warders and other staff could be in greater prisons than the actual prisoners. What about ministering in prison? The answer lies deep in the paragraphs.




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