Christian faith and authentic worship Essay

Introduction

This work intends to analyze the Christian religion and reliable worship and its effects on the moral development in the lives of inmates and specifically the development of a transformational ministry in the local church to ease worship within a prison scene. The undertaking proposed herein will take topographic point in Georgia State Prisons.

Statement of the Problem

Prisoner plans frequently have merely impermanent affects on captives and neglect to climax in existent and existent alterations in the lives of inmates nevertheless, through usage of Durkheim ‘s theory of social/moral consensus it appears likely that the Christian religion and reliable worship would wish hold a positive consequence of development in the lives of inmates.

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Statement of Restrictions

The restrictions of this survey are represented by clip restraints in which to carry on the proposed research.

Theoretical Model

The work of Durkheim held that schools and prisons are brooding of a common societal environment in which the person dwells and that the person is confronted with the “same societal norms and authorization that impart cognition and present penalty. Prisons and schools are both dedicated to keeping a common societal environment.” ( Cladis, 1999 ) Durkheim believed that that through an scrutiny of the sociohistorical constructions of cognition and power, of patterns and establishments, we can derive critical purchase on them and the possibility of assuring change.” ( Cladis, 1999 ) Durkheim is stated to hold “deconstructed essentialism in his Hagiographas on education” and argued that it is a incorrect manner of believing for educational theoreticians to seek and detect “an indispensable human nature and so utilize instruction as a agency to arouse or transfuse it, he was non advancing a society in which persons are encouraged to prosecute in extremist self-creation.” ( Cladis, 1999 )

Durkheim held that it was subject or the “capacity for being initiated into society ‘s beliefs, ideals and practices” that was critical in moral instruction. This is because self-mastery is produced by subject and self-mastery “is the first status of echt power and liberty.” ( Cladis, 1999 ) Durkheim held that tradition and critical idea go manus in hand…because societal critics faced with altering fortunes, draw profoundly from their societal heritage and they forge new waies and knock some old ones.” ( Cladis, 1999 )

Durkheim posited that offense rips the moral cloth of a society and that solidarity in society is strengthened by penalty through the disapprobation of the felon and the condemnable Acts of the Apostless committed and through this that society is reminded that there is still a consensus of great size in respects to the values held beloved and enshrined in the condemnable jurisprudence. ( Durkheim, 1985 ) Durkheim argued that the promotion of a society resulted in penalty going less intense and more upon the bases of the wants of certain rights.

The survey reported by Aubuchon ( 2009 ) entitled: “Rehabilitating Durkheim: Social Solidarity and Rehabilitation in Eastern State Penitentiary, 1829-1850” provides a description of the relationship between penal rehabilitation and the construct of societal solidarity posited by Durkheim and seeks to reply the inquiries of: ( 1 ) How does rehabilitation impact ( strengthen, weaken, or non impact ) societal solidarity? ; and ( 2 ) What fortunes lead a society to take rehabilitation over other methods or intents of penalty ( i.e. , in what province does the corporate consciousness or societal solidarity have to be for society to follow rehabilitation ) ? ( Auchobon, 2009 ) Auchobon writes of Durkheim ‘s theory that it “…speaks to similarities that rise above power- , class- , and wealth-based differences.” ( Durkheim, 1983 cited in Aubuchon, 2009 )

Durkheim ‘s theory rests upon a moral consensus more than upon a societal consensus in that it is near impossible that all social members at the assorted degrees of development could hold on such as political relations, faith, or the distribution of wealth. Durkheim holds that the corporate consciousness is the “aggregated feelings environing the inquiry of which sacred entities should be protected from violation.” ( Aubuchon, 2009 ) This can be understood best by sing the undermentioned statement:

“There may be disagreement about the unacceptableness of non detecting the Sabbath, but Durkheim ‘s point is that the strength of the moral place that one must detect the Sabbath is gauged by its codification in the condemnable jurisprudence or non. Therefore, in a vicinity that does non necessitate church attending on Sundays, members of the community may differ on the morality of non traveling to church, but those who think church-going is a moral jussive mood will non violently ( physically or verbally ) lash out against those who do non go to church. However, in that same vicinity, there will be much greater—indeed, about complete—consensus on the immoral position of child molestation ; that is an action against which we can anticipate to see a strong, splanchnic reaction ; therefore, it is a offense we can anticipate to see in the penal code.” ( Aubuchon, 2009 )

Methodology

The methodological analysis to be employed in the research proposed herein is one of a qualitative nature and therefore of an interpretative nature and is a methodological analysis that seeks to place the factors that contribute to the religious transmutation of a captive of the nature that provides a footing upon which the captive is enabled to more efficaciously and successfully derive reentry into the free universe while take downing rates of recidivism.

This survey will be conducted through an extended reappraisal of literature in this country of survey and specifically a reappraisal of literature located in libraries, diary articles, books and online beginnings that are peer-reviewed, academic plants in authorship.

Background to the Study

Condemnable jurisprudence as it was conceptualized in the Middle Ages was of the nature that was held to be a method for commanding the single retaliation surpluss for Acts of the Apostless that resulted in injury to others. “Harmful behaviour was deemed against the ‘public peace ‘ and was the duty of the province to find guilt and an appropriate sentence.” ( Welch, 2002 ) The usage of captivity during the nineteenth Century “took the signifier of concatenation packs, forced labour cantonments or over crowded, ill run institutions.” ( Welch, 2002 ) However, the accent in the early to mid twentieth century shifted to rehabilitation and reformation including preparation plans and the usage of probation and word and specifically in the instance of wrongdoers who were juveniles and believed to be “more salvageable.” ( Welch, 2002 )

Welch states that the present prison system “may necessitate a whole new paradigm that looks at offense from a different perspective.” ( 2002 ) The work of Wines ( 1975 ) states that there are jobs with spiritual preparation in a system that is based on quantification and measuring and provinces specifically as follows:

“Indeed, there is ample grounds that spiritual experience or transition has

played a portion in the reformation of some delinquents. Normally, nevertheless, this has been of an informal – what might be called a cataclysmal – nature. It has occurred more by accident than design. The Torahs of its operation have non been good formulated and for that ground it does non busy as reliable a topographic point in forecast as it should, perhaps.” ( Wines, 1975: 345 )

Religion was described by Wines as “a force incompatible with Foucault ‘s penal mechanism. It was, for one ‘immeasurable, i.e. impossible to quantify. It followed no ‘laws ‘ or expressions. And it was ‘cataclysmic: ‘ sudden, blinding, non something an decision maker could efficaciously observe.” ( cited in Myrick, 2004 )

Literature Review

Retaliatory and Renewing Justice

The work of Welch ( 2002 ) states that offense is viewed through a “retributive lens” and the condemnable justness procedure uses that lens yet finally “fails to run into many of the demands of either victim or offender.” Retaliatory justness is defined by Welch ( 2002 ) as follows:

“Retributive Justice: Crime is a misdemeanor of the province, defined by lawbreaking and guilt. Justice determines incrimination and administers pain in a competition between the wrongdoer and the province directed by systematic rules.” ( Welch, 2002 )

Welch ( 2002 ) defines renewing justness as follows:

“Restorative Justice: Crime is a misdemeanor of people and relationships. It creates duties to do things right.”

Justice, states Welch is of the nature that “involves the victim, the wrongdoer and the community in a hunt for solutions which promote fix, rapprochement, and reassurance.” ( 2002 )

Church-Based Prisoner Reentry

The work of McRoberts ( 2002 ) entitled: “Religion, Reform and Community: Analyzing the Idea of Church-based Prisoner Reentry” published by the Urban Institute states that a great trade of the linguistic communication of reentry “recently has been organized around the construct of ‘reform ‘ : the transmutation of condemnable individualities into licit 1s. The thought is that the single personality must alter, the single mind must retrieve from criminalism in order to forestall a backsliding into anti-social behavior.”

The doctrine of moral reform holds that the “city ‘s moral chaos would necessarily lure late urbanised multitudes into lives of frailty and force ; that is, unless revivalists were prepared to maneuver persons into wholesome, quasi-pastoral life styles with Bible piece of lands and Sunday schools. Likewise, reentry policy is get downing to look to churches to reorient, or reform, ex-offenders so that they might defy the temptations to offense nowadays in the city.” ( McRoberts, 2002 ) McRoberts provinces that church-based plans ‘may good take advantage of what spiritual establishments and their leaders do best. Since they draw on spiritual traditions that affirm the values of human life, community and religion, these attempts may be unambiguously equipped to cover with the societal and emotional challenges faced by late released prisoners.” ( McRoberts, 2002 )

Harmonizing to McRoberts the new treatments on reentry are similar to those of the “older reform motion – both link offense and upset non merely with personal failings, but with a presumed dislocation of telling maps in local community life. Moral reformists believed the metropolis had a helter-skelter power resistless to those non decently anchored in personal spiritual religion. The metropolis merely could non foster community, with all its morality-sustaining familiarities. Those who tried to reform contrary urbanites therefore offered order in the signifier of faith-based communities—usually Sunday schools.” ( 2002 )

The treatment before the recent faith-based captive reentry paradigm was one in which focused on ‘social disorganisation ‘ which is a theory refering the failure of community establishments and structures” in the bar of societal upset in urban infinites. The current treatment nevertheless, is one that focuses on reentry of captives and is of the nature that notes that prison clip does non ensue in reformation of captives. McRoberts provinces that from this position the inquiry becomes “how can communities be ordered in ways that encourage the outgrowth of new, pro-social egos? This of class invites the evangelical inquiry of the old urban moral reformists: how can communities aid felons be born once more? Again, with constructs so resonating with conversionist subjects, it is no surprise that churches are implicated as possible, if non ideal and natural, campaigners for reentry work. The deduction is that churches can organize a sacred safety cyberspace to catch those who have fallen, or might fall, into problem with the law.” ( 2002 )

Social Capital

The construct of ‘social capital ‘ is spoken of by McRoberts ( 2002 ) who states that the relationship of trust and common answerability or ‘social religion ‘ is that which creates societal capital besides known in Christianity as family which is the “ongoing, of all time intensifying human interaction that makes congregants non merely a organic structure of a religion, but an active community where people look after each other and are willing to keep each other to righteous lifeways.” McRoberts states that the spiritual communities that are most skilled at

“….fellowshipping, most skilled at bring forthing internal societal capital may besides necessitate, as a affair of religious endurance, that members avoid contact with people who have non committed their lives to the way of redemption. In the linguistic communication of one of the more recent plants on societal capital,12 confidant “bonding” ties among church members can queer the formation of “bridging” ties between churched and nonchurched. It is the bridging tie—the type of fellowshipping that intentionally leaps across the cognitive line between church and street—that might associate a late released wrongdoer to a spiritual community and its services, therefore organizing a node ( or, instead, a knot ) in a sacred safety net.” ( McRoberts, 2002 )

The job harmonizing to McRoberts ( 2002 ) is that where spiritual religion is grasped as a chief societal service engineering, the rating procedure is debatable as the “conversion factor is notoriously hard to measure consistently and impartially.” ( 2002 ) McRoberts provinces that while there are many true narratives about how God has led an person to turn their lives around nevertheless, the inquiry remains of “on norm, how many supplications must one utter in order to happen a occupation or house, or discontinue cleft, or avoid returning to prison? ” ( 2002 ) McRoberts states a fright that the demand for systematic rating “could easy take to such nitpicking over the elements of spiritual practice.” ( 2002 ) McRoberts provinces that this is a undertaking that will do it a demand that “more criminologists and policymakers take up the sociology of religion.” ( 2002 )

Primary Purpose of Religion in Society

Durkheim is stated to supply penetration that is valuable into the primary intent behind faith in society which can be efficaciously applied to research on captives and reintegration experiences of these persons. It was the belief of Durkheim that stableness is provided by faith through “fostering a set of norms and values. This moral coherence reduces the likeliness that an person will divert from the established norms of a society.” ( cited in Placer, 2009 ) Religion was identified by Durkheim by a separation from the sacred to the profane: anything deemed sacred would qualify a faith in society. These sacred components…contribute to the moral power of a society and bind persons to the group.” ( Placer, 2009 )

In add-on, it was the claim of Durkheim that faith “embodies society itself: faith is the system of symbols by agencies of which society become witting of itself.” ( Placer, 2009 ) Durkheim held that it is critical that captives “conform to the moral criterions as the remainder of society during re-entry.” ( Placer, 2009 ) The key is non that the persons conform to the ‘same faith ‘ but to the same ‘moral criterions ‘ of that person ‘s “subculture in society.” ( Placer, 2009 ) When this does non happen it is held by Durkheim that “recidivism probably occurs.” ( Placer, 2009 )

The Durkheimian position relating to punishment positions prison as “a way to societal coherence because it defines norms and values by meaning what ‘not ‘ to make. The prison system serves as a signifier of societal control by make up one’s minding who qualifies to populate inside prison evidences while faith enhances societal control by advancing the right manner to populate in society.” ( Placer, 2009 )

Placer ( 2009 ) states that spiritual intercession “has ever been critical to the prison experiences and such plans are going progressively common.” The prison ministry plans are stated to be “increasingly their range to assistance in pre-release and re-entry plans for both captives and household members.” These types of prison plans are the lone constituent to prison life that “remains invested in the present- non the past – lives of prisoners.” ( Placer, 2009 )

The work of Camp et Al examined the primary features of those who participate in prison plans and reported common tendencies including those stated as follows:

the participants tend to be somewhat younger, have less spiritual background prior to come ining the prison, and have more religious brushs on a day-to-day footing than the control prison population ;
persons take parting in spiritual activity prior to captivity were less likely to take part in the plan while those who began to go to spiritual services in prison were more likely ;
those who believed that they had higher degrees of cognition about their religion were less likely to take part in the prison spiritual plan ; and
Those with higher degrees of motive, by contrast, participated in the plan at a higher rate.

Engagement is stated to be dependent on the phases of captivity posited by Pierce ( 2006 ) of which there are five as follows:

Denial: for the first one to three old ages, persons blame others, dream of the free universe, and dwell on personal quandary ;
Anger: at this clip prisoners better understand their current state of affairs and be given to go angry with others – peculiarly God ;
Bargaining: persons vow to alter if they receive a peculiar favour ;
Depression: persons view their state of affairs realistically and the prisonization procedure is accelerated ; and
Credence: parturiency is accepted and engagement in plans Begins. ( Pierce, 2006 cited in: Placer, 2009 )

Religious Motivation: Extrinsic and Intrinsic

The work of Clear ( 2000 ) studies holding interviewed captives for the intent of detecting the significance of faith for persons who are incarcerated. Religion is stated in the work of Clear et Al to be used for both intrinsic and extrinsic grounds. Religion harmonizing to those interviewed provides an account for the ground that the person is incarcerated and a solution for the job. Fundamentalist tactics are reported to be used by captives in spiritual attachment including day-to-day reading of Bible. This enables their position of faith to be concrete in nature and every bit good enables faith the ability to supply direct replies. In add-on, Clear et Al province the claim that captives use faith in get bying with their feelings of guilt and in two specific ways:

“…the foremost is a sort of exculpatory credence of the workings of immorality in the universe. The 2nd is atonement and forgiveness. Prisoners assert that they committed improper Acts of the Apostless because they rejected some spiritual truth or significance. Religion in this state of affairs provides a defence mechanism to guard off these evil impulses. This method besides allows the captive to fault his/her strong belief on a force outside him/herself: if the Satan motivated him/her to perpetrate a offense, so when the Satan is removed, he is no longer capable of perpetrating the offense. Therefore, faith allows an person to experience guilt yet withdraw from personally placing with his/her unlawful action. Last, faith offers a new beginning and a sense of inner peace.” ( cited in Placer, 2009 )

Clear et al to boot notes that inmates experience contact with the universe outside through spiritual plans and spiritual plans besides create the chance for the inmates to pass on with others in the prison efficaciously widening their societal web and supplying societal support to the captives which is a seldom located resource in prison.

The survey conducted and reported by Clear et Al is stated to supply “essential information when sing why captives choose to go religious during incarceration.” In fact, the analysis of Clear et Al is stated to leting the apprehension of how it is that “…spirituality is used to profit persons in such hard fortunes, and their logical thinking analogues old surveies which show that spiritual engagement tends to forestall condemnable behaviour. Research has suggested that spiritual engagement helps to cut down and forestall even striplings from delinquent behaviour. It has been shown that in unstable communities, spiritual engagement has a positive consequence on individuals.” ( Johnson, 2004 in: Placer, 2009 )

Placer ( 2009 ) states that surveies have indicated that recidivism “is non affected by one ‘s spiritual inclinations after one twelvemonth of release.” A survey reported through Prison Fellowship ( PF ) an organisation created by Charles Colson, that is non-profit provinces that “recidivism rates for ex-convicts who participated in PF” when compared to those who did non take part showed “more variableness in recidivism among PF participants for the first three old ages, yet ex-convicts showed no difference in recidivism after eight old ages of release.” The findings of Sumter ( 1999 ) province that the fluctuations in recidivism can be attributed to the engagement of the person in spiritual plans every bit good as their “belief in the supernatural.”

Sumter is stated to hold conducted an analysis of official FBI condemnable history studies and preexistent informations from another study” and that the combined findings “demonstrate that spiritual engagement and belief in a higher being contribute to take down recidivism rates.” ( Placer, 2009 ) The findings of Sumter ( 1999 ) include that “belief in a higher being – which was normally characterized through a ‘born-again ‘ Christian religion was the most of import factor in forestalling recidivism.” ( Placer, 2009 ) Sumter found that this ‘born-again ‘ religion enabled the person to develop a personal relationship with God which led to “self-awareness, personal power and expiation for past convictions.” ( Placer, 2009 )

The survey reported by Placer ( 2009 ) states that there were three classs or grounds that captives stated for spiritual alteration happening during captivity which include those of:

personal ;
societal influence ; and
endurance logical thinking.

Survival indicates that persons “feel as though they have no support or security in their lives: they may experience despairing and that spiritualty is their lone resort. However, it is finally related that from this position intrinsic motive is gained through an “underlying religious alteration [ in which ] God offers hope and motive to alter when nil else is available.” ( Placer, 2009 )

Social influence is stated by Placer ( 2009 ) to be a class that “lends itself to a much broader range than survival” and relates every bit good that persons who “for societal reasons…become more spiritual” that many “may attribute their alteration of household, friends or fellow inmates.” ( Placer, 2009 ) The ascription of personal grounds as the footing for the single alteration is one that “becomes an intangible component that is derived from within.” ( Placer, 2009 )

Summary of Literature Review

The literature reviewed in this peculiar work has been presented and findings in this brief reviewed indicate that Durkheim ‘s theory of social/moral consensus is one that is likely effectual in explicating why it is that prison plans that incorporate the societal and moral dimensions are much more likely to be successfully.

Recommendations

Originating from this survey are recommendations that more extended reappraisal of be conducted for the intent of finding the effectivity of captive spiritual plans for persons incarcerated in prisons.

Bibliography

Cladis, Mark Sydney ( 1999 ) Durkheim and Foucault: Positions on Education and Punishment. Berghahn Books. 1999

Welch, Janeth ( 2006 ) Service on Restorative Justice. Reading I. 22 Oct 2006, . Online available at:

Wines ( 1975 ) cited in Myrick, Amy ( 2004 ) Escape from the Carceral: Writing by American Prisoners, 1895 to 1916.Surveillance and Society. Online available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles2 ( 1 ) /carceral.pdf

Placer, Meredith ( 2009 ) Spiritual Transformation in Prison. May 2009. Wake Forest University. Online available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/jspui/bitstream/10339/42655/1/Placer_Thesis.pdf

McRoberts, Omar M. ( 2002 ) Religion, Reform, Community: Analyzing the Idea of Church-based Prisoner Reentry. 20-21 Mar 2002. The Urban Institute. Prisoner reentry and the Institutions of Civil Society: Bridges and Barriers to Successful Reintegration. Online available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410802_Religion.pdf

Scott D. Camp, Jody Klein-Saffran, Karl Kwon, Dawn W. Daggett, and Victoria Joseph. “An

Exploration into Participation in a Faith Based Program.” Criminology and Public Policy 5 ( 2006 ) : 529-

550.

Dennis Pierce. Prison Ministry: Hope Behind the Wall. New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 2006.

pp.18-19

Melvina T. Sumter. Religiousness and Post-Community Adjustment Graduate Research Fellowship – Final

Report. US Department of Justice ( 1999 ) : 1-175.

Johnson, Byron R. “Religious Programs and Recidivism Among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs: A Long-run Follow-Up Study.” Justice Quarterly 21 ( 2004 ) : 329-354.

Cladis, Mark Sydney ( 1999 ) Durkheim and Foucault: Positions on Education and Punishment. Berghahn Books. 1999.