Inspiration – Embraced:Fully https://embracedfully.org Success for Returning Citizens Tue, 20 May 2025 18:51:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://i0.wp.com/embracedfully.org/files/2021/08/cropped-Embraced_Fully_square_logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Inspiration – Embraced:Fully https://embracedfully.org 32 32 185773216 Saved my life – Finding Christian Science in Prison – Robert McVey’s story https://embracedfully.org/saved-my-life-finding-christian-science-in-prison-robert-mcveys-story/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=saved-my-life-finding-christian-science-in-prison-robert-mcveys-story https://embracedfully.org/saved-my-life-finding-christian-science-in-prison-robert-mcveys-story/#respond Tue, 20 May 2025 18:51:40 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=2226

Talk given by Robert “Bob” McVey to the Arizona Institutional Committee on 4/16/77

This inspiring story of transformation was given by Robert “Bob” McVey on 4/16/77 to the Arizona Institutional Committee about how he found Christian Science while serving time in prison at Soledad Prison in California and how it saved his life.

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Transcript

Our guest speaker today, Mr. Robert McVey, will share with you this afternoon some interesting situations, both as a recipient and currently as a chaplain in one of the California penal institutions.

Bob has had the blessings from both sides, and he’ll tell you exactly how much each one has meant to him.

Bob has been a very active Christian Scientist since he found it in an institution, and since his release has been involved in many of the activities, all of us have had the privilege of sharing in our churches and home communities.

Bob serves on the board of directors of his branch church. He serves as Sunday school teacher, et cetera. He has had the privilege of working for the last five and a half years as the co-administrator for a Christian Science nursing home accredited by the Department of Care, Fern Lodge in California.

So Bob sharing and caring certainly goes the whole gamut of every type of need.

Bob is a former visitor to the state and as a long ago, one time, snowbird, had a very interesting tourist situation here in the state of Arizona.

He went on a very rapid and scenic tour.

And with that enigmatic introduction, I’d like to introduce to you our guest speaker, Mr. Robert McVey.

I love thy way of freedom, Lord.

I was really grateful that we were able to sing that song, that hymn, at the beginning of today’s meeting.

What I would like to share with you today is how I came into Christian Science.

And to do so, I think it’s important to share just a little of what went on before I came into Christian Science.

I grew up very ignorant and lonely, in trouble without any sense of home life. Without any real parents.

Without any sense of morality or law.

And because this is the way I had started this human life, I was in trouble almost from the beginning.

I ran away from home before I was 10. I was in juvenile hall actually when I was nine years old.

I started stealing cars, using narcotics, stealing a number of times.

I went to the California Youth Authority, it’s a little prison for young offenders, for burglary.

Eventually I got into the heavier narcotics, in the hippie scene, heroin and LSD.

The last time that I had been arrested, I was living in a commune, and when the police broke down the front door, they hauled away three shopping bags full of narcotics.

There were three loaded guns in the house, and I’m just extremely grateful that I am alive and here to share today how I came out of that mess.

But that’s just a little picture of where I came from before Christian Science.

Now, in 1968, I was sent to Soledad State Prison in California.

It’s a maximum security prison, and I was supposed to do about 10 years there.

You see, I’d be getting out next year.

At any rate, before I tell you just what happened there, I’d like to just share my little experience of one time in Arizona.

I was a teenager. I was running away from the police in California. I ran to Kansas, stayed there for a couple of months and got in trouble there and we stole a car and were coming back to California.

And when we got to the New Mexico, Arizona border, the police there, the patrol asked to see in our trunk for the plants, you know, things like that.

And we didn’t have the keys, so what we did was we decided to just run away from the police and they started chasing us.

And we went at really high speeds down the freeway, and we turned off onto some Indian reservation. And for the next several hours we just ran at very high speeds through this Indian reservation, and eventually we escaped from the police, and we made it back into California.

But my one little visit to Arizona is not quite like today.

At any rate, when I was in Soledad Prison, I was in there for possession and sale of heroin.

Some of you may recall in the Christian Science Monitor the series about the drug smugglers.

Well, I was right in there with them.

I was also starting to ask myself some questions.

Why did I keep coming to the prison?

That’s all I could really remember, was keep going to jails and at that point, I had already spent over nine years in juvenile halls and prisons.

That’s a long time for a young man.

As I asked myself more questions I was studying some of the Eastern religions, and eventually my thought came to the Bible, the Holy Bible. And I started thinking, now I’ve always been against the Bible because of the way I had grown up, but I’ll look at the Bible now and see if there’s anything in there that I can use for myself.

So I read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

I don’t know really how to describe that feeling that came over me, but I just fell in love with Jesus.

He was so pure, so outstanding in his healing work and everything I had been reading up to that point, Jesus didn’t have to take on the disease, like some of these other religions said in order to heal.

He didn’t just flash a peace sign at people.

He was active, and he demonstrated his Father’s power.

I felt that there should be some book, there should be something that would explain the Bible to me.

And at that time, a friend who gave me about 20 books on Christianity.

One of them was this little old, funny old book with a seal on the front of it.

And as I looked through that book, the sentences in there just lit up for me.

I felt that this book would explain the Bible for me as I desired.

At that time, I was working assigned to the horticulture program in the prison, in the Garden Department.

And, amongst the authorized plants in there, we were growing marijuana. That wasn’t authorized.

I was at the same time having drugs smuggled into me into the prison and was actually, dealing them in the prison and using them there.

Well, one day I was caught with one of these marijuana plants.

Yes, so they took me to solitary confinement. On the way there, I had a deep desire to read that funny little book with a seal on it.

I didn’t even remember the name of it, but I wanted so, so badly to read that book, which of course is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

As I started reading Science and Health, for the first time in my life, I was shown who God really is. For the very first time. And I was being shown who I was. That I was really a spiritual idea. That somebody loved me.

And when I came to the Lord’s Prayer in the first chapter and it said, Our Father, Mother, God, that just tore me up.

It just, it just, it was like, well, I really do have a Father and a Mother that loves me.

The blessings that came, the light, the Christ, so overwhelmed me, so flooded my consciousness that for days on end in that hole, as we call it, my cell would just be filled with light and I couldn’t even see the book to read, and sometimes I even wanted to, but I was so uplifted then that Christ was so powerful that songs of joy would just come to me and I would just be singing endlessly sometimes it seems like for hours of songs of praise to God.

And as I continued to read, the desire for smoking left me. Actually, the second day that I was reading Science and Health, I noticed that I had not smoked.

And it had been 16 years of smoking that just vanished as my thought was changed. And I recognized that something much, much stronger than my own thought, something that I didn’t really understand had healed me, and this was God’s Almighty power, and God’s love and cherishing for me.

As I continued to read and pray, by the time I finished reading Science and Health all the way through, that was still in the hole, I felt that if there was a church behind this book, then I was already a member of it, but if there wasn’t a church, I wanted to start one.

You see, I didn’t know if there was anyone else in the whole world reading this little book, Science and Health that I had.

The friend that had given me the book in the first place didn’t know about Christian Science.

People just passed books around in the prison.

There were several beautiful healings that I would like to share with you as I first came into Christian Science.

They seemed to move people around in the different areas of the prison.

And while I was still there in solitary, they moved me to an area where there were about 120 men, in two rows of cells and you couldn’t see each other.

One row was on top of the other, but you had three walls and open bars on the front.

As I was taken into that place, there was this huge hate chant going on. And these people at one end were yelling, hate, hate, hate.

And at the other end, they’d yell it back.

And I had been reading Science and Health for about three weeks, and the only thing that I could think of to do at that moment, just instantly, was, I just yelled out Love!

And I said, you guys got to love. You can’t hate you can only love.

And the whole place became as quiet as it is right now.

And some big old rough voice said, well, who and so and so are you?

And see, you couldn’t see who you were talking to.

And I said, I am just me, a little child of God, and you guys are children of God and you can’t hate.

And so the guy, he didn’t really agree with that. But he continued talking with me and for about five minutes we talked and then the whole place became quiet.

And for the next three weeks that I was in that area, they never did it again.

And I consider that a still small voice.

Just one little voice of truth and of love that healed this whole loud situation and overturned it.

And when I would come out for the exercise period, which was one hour a day, which we really cherished at that time, usually I didn’t get to have it very much because some guy would whisper to me, he’d say, hey, come over here. He’d say, I want to hear about that love stuff.

And it was just super.

Another time I was in another section of the hole. We would come out for our exercise period, and this was several months after I had been in Christian Science.

All morning long, I had been praying to see what man is. To see him as a spiritual idea.

To see man as expressing love and to see all the different, it was, it was like a, oh, kind of a little vision.

I was seeing all the different races, loving each other. And all different age groups loving each other and just everybody was kind of hugging and just really, really getting it on. I mean, it was beautiful.

And when I came out for the exercise period, my thought was seeing spiritually, not materially.

And I was feeling this sense of love for God’s idea, man.

And almost immediately a man of another race came up to me with a knife in his hand. And it looked like he was gonna try to stab me or kill me.

And immediately I was feeling this love for God’s idea and there was no time even to really to think or to say anything. I was just there, just feeling and expressing this love.

And this man came to within about a foot of me, and he could come no closer. He was just stopped in his tracks and he put the knife down. And he walked away.

And I didn’t really even think of that as being a real experience because I was seeing spiritually.

And what happened was the next day this person came up to me in a real humble way, and he said he was sorry.

And it was just really, really a moving moment for me.

They told me that that was the first time that he had spoken to a white person in years. He was in there for killing people.

So I’m grateful, very grateful that Love, that God saved my life right then.

When I came out of the hole, which was almost six months after I had gone in, I was a Christian Scientist. Let’s put it that way. I felt like one.

I had been writing, too much really, but I had been writing page after page of Science and Health to my relatives. I even had written a letter to the Catholic chaplain in the prison, asking him to stop smoking cigars.

And I was pretty far out.

At any rate, I overcame the fear of death because when you’re dealing drugs and using them in the prison, and if you’re… see everybody had heard about me in there, they all knew I had gone nuts. They all, you know, they all thought that I was just crazy.

In fact, the authorities had even assigned a psychiatrist to me because I would come out for the exercise period, and I would be smiling and happy.

You know, being like man really is. And everybody else just couldn’t understand that.

But after I got done talking with the psychiatrist, he just said, keep it up. He was very good himself.

At any rate, when I came out, the people that were still using drugs were… I knew that I could respect them and that they could respect me, but I was no more with that thought.

And so even though we were still friends, they offered me drugs, they tested me, and I would say, no, that’s not my thing, but I still dig you.

One man watched me for an entire year, every single day. And at the end of that year, he came up to me and he said, okay. I know you’re for real now. What is it that you’ve got?

And today he’s Christian Scientist, which is beautiful.

I am so grateful that, as I found out, there were Christian Science activities in the prison.

A Christian Science chaplain would come in twice a week. They held the Christian Science service, and what I considered, Sunday School.

And it wasn’t long after I started attending the Christian Science service that I asked for an application for membership in the Mother Church.

The chaplain gave me one, and it wasn’t long after that that I filled it out and gave it to him along with a letter to the Board of Directors in Boston.

When the admission time came around, I received a letter from the Board of Directors saying that they thanked me for the application, but no, you could not become a member while you were still in prison.

When I received that letter, I wasn’t pleased, I’ll say it like that.

I said, now I know that I have gained my freedom from all this sin and error that had brought me into that place.

I knew that I was free. I was within God’s law, and I was free.

I said to myself, that is just mortal mind trying to tell me I’m still in prison.

I got a little mad and I beat my fist on the bed. I said, no, I’m not gonna listen to that.

Well, six days later, the Board of Directors of the Mother Church sent me a second letter saying that they were reconsidering my application for membership.

And I was a little more pleased at that letter.

And the following day, I received a third letter from the Board saying that I was now a member of the Mother Church.

And I was just really thrilled and happy over that experience.

I’m grateful that since then I’ve seen a number of people that have joined the Mother Church while still in prison, but who have gained their freedom.

I’m also grateful that I’ve had class instruction several years ago actually from a man who was on the Board of Directors at that time of that change of thought.

While still in there, I wanted to express more good and share more.

Each week the chaplain would bring copies of Science and Health and Monitors and other literature, and I would almost always be taking one or two copies of Science and Health for my friends.

There were a number of people that were in the drug scene that came out of it from my example.

And actually, you know, it’s the Christ I’d like to say here, it’s the Christ truth that heals.

Some people say, oh, you’re really good in the prison work ’cause you’ve been there and you know what it is and that.

Well, that is fine for an introduction, or for just general conversation, but it does not heal.

It’s the Christ truth that heals and communicates itself.

You can be a little old lady and heal beautifully.

And I’ve heard of a number of examples where people who you just wouldn’t think would be anywhere near a prison go in there and do the work because they have the motivation and the willingness to put their self aside to do it.

Anyways, I wanted to do more in there. And I would read the Monitor. The chaplain would bring in the last three days worth of Monitors.

When I was finished with them, I would put them on a table. After a while, a man came up to me and he said, “you know, I’ve usually been getting those Monitors, but somebody else is getting them now before me and could you give me some of them?”

So I asked the chaplain and he said, sure, take all you want. And he had quite a pile there.

And so I started giving this man, Monitors. Well, within, I believe it was about six weeks time, I had 28 people that asked me to receive the Christian Science Monitor.

And you know what I had was a paper route.

And that unfolded. I never asked one person if they wanted to get the Monitor. It all started by just leaving them on this table and people came up to me. And after a while I had a little list of where their house was and I’d take it to them. I had a red dot by their name if they wanted the Sentinel, and a green dot if they wanted the Journal.

And it was a beautiful way of contact, to reaching my fellow men in there.

There were times when there was only one other man, and sometimes a few times when there was nobody else in there who was even studying Christian Science. And this was among 3,500 men.

But usually there were 10 or 15 men that were studying.

When I was about ready to leave the prison, and this Monitor paper route had unfolded so beautifully, and it had been going for about a year and a half, one of my best friends came up to me and he said, you know, and he was really humble, and he said, I sure wish that I could have your paper route when you leave.

And it’s beautiful how God’s ideas, how a right idea can’t be stopped. The institutional work cannot ever be stopped really because the receptive thought is there.

And as long as there’s someone who understands Christian Science and is willing to love as we’re supposed to, then the work will and does continue.

There’s lots of experiences that I could relate that happened to me while I was still there in the prison, but I think I’m not really supposed to talk forever.

Just a couple of them.

I had painted a painting that, that took about a hundred hours to do, and very briefly, it was stolen in the prison.

It was on this display board, and it was stolen out of a locked case. And a man came up to me and he said, do you want us to get it for you?

Meaning to kill that person who had taken it?

And I said, no, I’ll handle it in my own way.

And for several days I prayed and I just, I cried over that in forgiveness and trying to love that person.

And then, a guy came up to me with that painting in a magazine and he wouldn’t stay around, but I told him I’d paint him or anybody a painting.

And a couple days later a guy did come up to me asking for one.

Beautiful experiences like that.

And one time there was a potential strike that, well, to be honest with you, there was one strike that I didn’t feel strong enough to… I knew it was wrong. But I participated in it because I just wasn’t that strong.

It seemed like the aggressive suggestions of error were too strong.

But the next time, when that happened, I knew what I was doing.

And when they, at eight o’clock in the morning when they called the work call and their, the whole place had been tense for a whole week and the guards were all over the place on the roof with their guns and which they usually aren’t.

When they called work call and I felt that it was right, and I walked through this door, not looking behind me, but knowing that it was right to do it.

No error could tell me to stop.

And then the people behind me started following me and that broke. They went to work too. And then the other wings came and that stopped the whole mesmerism.

I was so much at one with God and knowing that good could not be stopped.

But there’s other experiences like that.

I was released, given an early release from the prison, and it was actually, a little less than four years after I came in.

Nobody, that I know of, that’s ever been in the California system for sales of heroin, gets out in that amount of time.

But I knew that I was with God, and that I was free, and everyone else saw that too.

When I came out, I joined a branch church.

A little while later, got married. Sorry, my wife couldn’t come today.

She’s a Christian Science nurse. She’s doing nursing duty.

We now have a 10 month old little baby boy, Gabriel. And he’s not quite helping with the dishes, but he’s coming along.

I had a great desire to go back into the prisons.

You know, once you’re there, it’s hard to stay out.

So not too long after I was released from the prison, I was able to go back in to Soledad Prison as a Christian Science chaplain. 

There we were holding the services each week, holding interviews with the men, and healing.

I knew lots and lots of people in there and they all were really happy to see me back, including the guards, a number of them.

For two years, I served there at Soledad and then we moved a year ago. I’m now the chaplain at Vacaville Prison. It’s by San Francisco.

And I brought with me just a couple of examples of what we call fruitage, what’s going on just in that prison.

And I think it’s appropriate, I could read just a couple of them.

The first two were a while back, and the next couple were for, actually, for this month of March.

You might actually even be interested to know just a few little facts.

This is kind of average for each month for the Vacaville prison in California. This is what happened during the month of March.

We had 24 interviews. We were in there each week. We haven’t missed now for nine months going in each week, and we always hold the service.

So we had the four services. 15 people attended. The literature that we gave out was 43 Sentinels, 2 Journals.

But I’d like to mention about the Journals that if you have someone who is a solid student of Christian Science, studies the Bible Lesson, some of the men that I know are doing healing work on their own, it’s okay to give them a Christian Science Journal, because they know what’s happening.

We gave out one Herald, eight Quarterlies, two Bibles, five Science and Healths one Century of Christian Science Healing, one church Manual and 44 new pamphlets. They were ones like the God’s Law of Adjustment and Possession and Eastern Religions and what have you.

Now I’ll read just a a couple little short paragraphs.

One man in the protective custody section told me how he could see his real progress. He said that now for the first time, he comes out of his cell each morning and says, good morning to about 50 men.

Now, I should explain that the protective custody section of the prison is where the people are there that have turned state’s evidence.

Every one of them in there has a price on their head.

It’s human belief, but if they’re allowed out into the general population, the appearance is that they’re usually done in, they pass on quick.

And he also said how Christian Science has healed him of gambling.

A man asked for Spanish literature to send to his mother who is becoming interested in Christian Science.

This man told me of a healing he had, so I asked him to write it down.

To quote him:

“I had not felt well all day. I was feeling terrible and sick, and I felt as if I was going to die. Then I remembered a discussion while at a Christian Science service with the chaplain, and I began to think realistically about the condition.

I realized that I wasn’t sick and that I was the child of God and that I had control of the sickness and could rebuke it. I did so, and to my surprise and relief, the symptoms were gone. I felt well, and good, and went to sleep.”

The next couple have happened just this past month of March.

For a number of weeks, I visited a man who appeared to be very ill and was in the intensive care unit of the prison hospital.

He requested Christian Science treatment. And one week when I went to visit him, they said that he had been transferred out of the intensive care section.

I then went to see this man, and he told me that my prayers had healed him. Not knowing too much about Christian Science, I gave him a copy of the Century of Christian Science Healing and he now has a Science and Health and he’s reading it.

A nice looking, very intelligent young man has come to our last few services and he told me that because he is into Eastern religions, he could never be a Christian Scientist, but he agrees with much of the teachings of Christian Science and he was fascinated when our Bible Lesson said that Mind is medicine.

And he agreed with that.

He said that he would like to know how to heal.

I’m sure that in not too long a time, this man will say he’s a Christian Scientist.

Several weeks later, this man said happily that the Bible Lesson was so good that the statements about truth had healed in his thought, a conflict that he and his wife had been having.

And there was direct evidence of healing from the Christian Science service.

A man who has been listening to our service for a year said, “at first, I could only hear and understand about one or two sections of the Lesson, but now I usually grasp the meaning of all of them.”

You know, interesting thing about this person, is each week he takes notes as we’re reading the Lesson and sometimes they’ll say, what was that number? What was that number?

And he’s a really just a super guy.

We rejoiced over this evidence of spiritual growth. And one time he told me as I was passing out the pamphlet Possession to another person that that pamphlet had turned him on like Science and Health had turned him on in the beginning of his study of Christian Science.

And when he told me that he was beaming with happiness, again, evidence of his spiritual growth. He has also passed out a number of copies of science and health to his friends.

Last little experience that I brought with me, a man that’s been in for 18 years and just in the last few months has come to us, started coming to our services and he has asked for Christian Science treatment and received it, and he just went to the parole board, and got his release.

And year after year they’ve kept denying him and now he has it and he acknowledges that Christian Science has helped him.

I’m just extremely grateful to be a witness and to be seeing what God is and how the almighty power of God is working in lives today.

Even though humanly I seem to have gone through lots of imprisoning experiences, I know that in reality I’ve always been the child of God, the perfect image and likeness of God as each one of us is.

But if you recall, back at the beginning of my sharing with you, there was somebody there who was always in trouble, that was always being chased by the police, that was into narcotics and drugs and in all sorts of trouble. And it’s that mortal thought that still seems to be present today.

And that seems to be why we have prisons and different mental institutions, and I believe that as long as there seems to be that thought, then we must reach out, and give of ourselves and share the Christ truth so that more people can come and witness, as I have witnessed, to the healing power of God and of Christian Science.

I’m really grateful that Mrs. Eddy had the unselfish vision to share and write down her textbook because when I got this, this book, the first time, it was just an old ragged, hardbound copy of the book, yet, it was there.

And it was there by reading the book that I was totally healed of all the things that had brought me into the prison.

And we need, we so earnestly need to share and to express our gratitude.

Now I think I’ve rambled on long enough and if you have questions or statements that you’d like to make, or any questions that you’d like to ask me, I’d be happy to to try to answer them.

I should clarify. The question is, why did they allow marijuana to be grown in the prison?

The answer is they didn’t.

My brothers actually brought me the seeds. They smuggled them into me and we were growing it illegally there.

They don’t allow that.

Yes. 

While you were at Soledad, did you ever hear the name of Salvador Castro? 

Yes, I’ve heard the name. I believe he had a testimony in the periodicals. 

That’s right. He had a very similar experience to yours, but we knew him in San Diego.

I think he’s still doing fine work too.

He’s working down in the institutions at Tijuana now and Mexico. 

That’s Salvador Castro that we’re speaking of and he had a similar experience.

There’s many people who have been healed in the prisons and I’m grateful that here in Arizona you’re doing the same work and healings are taking place.

Thank you.

I’m very grateful to be able to be here today to share the power of God, to share really the Christ. Because it’s important that we see healings that come from reading the textbook.

If there’s several people that have been thinking, well, maybe I should get into the institutional work, if I’m a living witness to what can happen when you’re there and sharing, just leaving some literature or just being a little compassionate. And sharing, wonderful things can happen and do happen.

Is there any particular periodical on the inside or, as your chaplain that the prisoners seem to prefer more than any other?

Is there any certain type of Christian Science literature that the prisoners prefer above others?

My first thought is that we try as much as we can to give them Science and Health, give them the Christian Science textbook, and I start many a men off with this book.

There’s no real particular piece of literature. Some come in through the Monitor or through the Sentinel.

Sometimes I have men who can’t read very well and I’ll read the children’s article to ’em and the others in the group love it too. You know?

The pamphlets sometimes turn them on, but I really think it’s up to the individual worker that’s going into the prison or the committee that is sending literature in to feel what they feel would be the best type of literature.

You can consider what type of institution it is also that has a factor.

But I always am in favor of the Christian Science textbook and I’m grateful that the local Christian Science committee that I report to always has, uh, about 30 or so Science and Healths there for the chaplains to take, and they’re always replenishing it.

We give out usually between three and seven or eight every month just at our place.

And the others give out a lot too.

How does one become a chaplain?

By getting rid of self and praying and being strong.

In California, the way one becomes a Christian Science chaplain is you feel like you should do that work and that you can do it.

You attend the local committee meetings, as I understand there’s in Arizona this one meeting here each month. You would attend this meeting. Listen to what’s going on, and if you like it, ask what institutions need work going on in them? What needs there are?

Or if you live by one or no one where there isn’t work going on, you can go there and contact the authorities, and say, I want to help.

That’s I found the best way. You go into a place and you say, I want to help to be of service.

You don’t proselytize, but you go there to help and that’s what they want is help.

So then, in California, you fill out an application. You have an interview with the committee, and then if they approve you, then they send it on to the state committee, then it goes to the Mother Church, then to the institution, then finally back to you.

And then you’re a chaplain.

It’s not like being a minister for the armed services, Christian Science Minister, where you go to the Christian Science Center, and take several years of theological training.

I don’t know how you have it set up here in Arizona to become a chaplain or a worker.

You know, that’s just words really.

If you have in your heart a desire to help, then you’re gonna go in there and help.

And whatever your state has set up for terms, that’s fine.

I think the state recognizes the word chaplain. California, they issue you a card.

And actually it’s not too unlike the cards that you get when you’re in there.

Of course this one just lets you go in and out all the time.

The State of California issues a card with your picture on it saying, Christian Science Chaplain.

And the state committee has a similar card that is a little blue card that, that says, so and so is a chaplain and can go into these institutions just like your card probably.

Well, thank you. That’s nice to hear.

This healing that I related is in one of the Christian Science lectures now, so it goes around that way too.

Yes.

No, I think that God directs and unfolds to each individual and at the right time when they’re receptive, then Christian Science comes to them.

We have to work on this. You know, as a chaplain or institutional worker, you have to continually work to, to see that the millions of unprejudiced minds, those are the seekers for truth, and those are the ones that come.

And the more solidly that we work within that statement of Mrs. Eddy’s, the less we have of people that are coming to hassle you or just trying to get out of work or that are there for some other purpose.

The last couple of years I really haven’t had anybody come that is just playing around, ’cause we can see right through them, you know?

And if someone did, why it wouldn’t take long to discern that.

All the men that come are receptive. There’s not a lot sometimes. But the ones that come are ready. And it’s so important that when you go into an institution, you never go in to treat prisoners or to see a prison.

You go there seeing God’s perfect child, and that’s the basis that we work from.

I never go in to see prisoners. I see God’s perfect child and that is what heals. And restores. And that’s what you know, Science and Health, it’s picture of man, that’s the picture that I read and was healed by, and that we must go in as. You don’t have sympathy for what’s going on.

You have compassion, and that’s very important.

Well, I’ve talked a long time.

Thank you very much.

 

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Letting go of a false sense of responsibility – reprint of “Borrowed Problems” from 1924 Christian Science Sentinel https://embracedfully.org/letting-go-of-a-false-sense-of-responsibility-reprint-of-borrowed-problems-from-1924-christian-science-sentinel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=letting-go-of-a-false-sense-of-responsibility-reprint-of-borrowed-problems-from-1924-christian-science-sentinel https://embracedfully.org/letting-go-of-a-false-sense-of-responsibility-reprint-of-borrowed-problems-from-1924-christian-science-sentinel/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:23:50 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=1633 How can we let go of a false sense of responsibility for someone else’s actions or outcomes?

In our prison and re-entry ministry work we do our best to love our neighbor as ourselves. This includes active and sincere attention to supporting an individual’s journey of transformation from criminal thinking and action to returning home as a productive member of society.

During this work, however, it can be very easy to begin to assume a false sense of responsibility for problems and opportunities faced by our returning community members.  The article below was originally published on July 5, 1924 in the Christian Science Sentinel and has some very helpful thoughts regarding not robbing our fellow men and women of the opportunity to learn their own lessons.

It is a well-known fact in nature that if a butterfly is assisted by human hands to emerge from his outgrown cocoon, his wings will be small and weak, and often injured. How often does misguided human love dwarf and stultify the spiritual progress of some dear one by blindly saving him from the very experience which would make him grow!

This excellent article is reprinted below in full (public domain).

You can also read the article on JSH online

Borrowed Problems

JULY 5, 1924 – By LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY COOK

July 1924 Christian Science Sentinel CoverIn the Christian Science Sentinel under date of November 12, 1904, are these words by Mrs. Eddy: “Good deeds overdone numerically, or bad deeds, are remedied by reading the Manual.” To at least one student of Christian Science this statement appeared almost startling. The reading of the Manual for the rectifying of bad deeds was easily understood, but how good deeds could ever be overdone, or in need of correction, was not so obvious.

The word “numerically” means “in point of number.” “Good deeds overdone numerically,” then, must mean good deeds overdone in point of number; in other words, good deeds done and done and overdone, until perhaps the confused recipient seems almost to lose his power to act by having everything taken out of his hands through another’s false sense of responsibility. There seems to be such a thing as doing too much for people, doing too much for the same ones, smothering them with kindness, doing their growing for them, making their demonstrations for them so that they will be saved the effort. It is a well-known fact in nature that if a butterfly is assisted by human hands to emerge from his outgrown cocoon, his wings will be small and weak, and often injured. How often does misguided human love dwarf and stultify the spiritual progress of some dear one by blindly saving him from the very experience which would make him grow!

We sometimes hear it said, rather sadly: “My problem is not working out. I have been struggling with it for so long; but try as I may, it does not seem to move.” Then there is something radically wrong with us, for God’s work is done, and the demonstration of this should go forward properly and in a divinely natural manner. The Word of Truth is just as efficacious and powerful to-day as it was twenty centuries ago, when our Master walked the shores of Galilee and overcame all forms of error with the quiet “Peace, be still” of his understanding of God. Perhaps the thing which needs to be done in some cases is to see that this problem which does not seem to work out was never ours. Many a self-constituted martyr goes staggering along life’s highway under a burden far too heavy for him to bear, so mesmerized that it never once occurs to him that he need not keep on doing so; while all the time the one to whom the burden really belongs trips lightly beside him, so mesmerized, in turn, that he is entirely undisturbed by his own responsibility in the situation.

This mistaken sense of things refers especially to cases—and their name is legion—where one member of a family seems to be, in the estimation of the others, a sort of guardian or custodian of the affairs of the entire household, tacitly appointed as such on the ground that the rest do not know enough or “haven’t time enough,” or do not care to do their part. So this faithful one patiently accepts the appointment, without request, without emolument, or even in many cases without a word of gratitude, and proceeds forthwith to sink the recipients of the so-called good deed into still deeper helplessness and dependence by assuming problems which, all the time, belong to somebody else. And then everybody wonders, rather sadly, as has been said before, why the problems do not seem to work out!

May not one reason why the servant of Elisha lost his ax head in the water, as recorded in the sixth chapter of II Kings, have been because it was not his in the first place? “Alas, master! for it was borrowed.” In this day and age we have little occasion to borrow other people’s axes; but have we never borrowed another person’s problem, and gone dragging it along after us in the misguided belief that it was ours? Perhaps this problem which has been so long in working out is only a borrowed ax, after all. It may have been placed on our shoulders so long ago, through a sense of human relationship or human love or a distorted concept of duty, that we have by this time really forgotten how it all came about, and when, and why. We only know that it is there, and that we have been carrying it all these years under the impression that we must. We have had it with us for so long that we have “got the habit,” so to speak, and can hardly realize how the landscape would look without it. But what happens when we have something which does not belong to us? It usually gets us into trouble, sooner or later, just as the borrowed ax did. Then why not return it? Why not just quietly and lovingly return it, at the very first opportunity?

There is this, too, to be remembered. If this thing which has grown to be such a load to us were really returned to the one to whom it belongs, it might cease being a load at all, and become instead only a glorious opportunity wherein the recipient of it finds his wings, and rises to mental heights undreamed of before. Then would it not be a real kindness to give this borrowed problem back? Surely, the only right and honest way is to return it, and thereby allow our loved, but hitherto defrauded one to grow by reason of the experience. If that is the right way, the right idea, it will proceed without let or hindrance to the ultimate solution of the whole situation; for it carries with it divine impulsion and power.

“But I love him so,” cries out poor, deluded human sense; “I must be kind. I must spare him this experience.” If you love him, be kind and do not rob him of the experience. That is the right way to look at it. Do we ever do any one a kindness by stepping in between him and a much needed lesson? God will give him the wisdom to utilize the occasion rightly, if we will just allow him a chance. It is safe to say that the one who owned the ax knew exactly how to use it, and never would have let it fall into the water. If our love is of the real sort, and not a poor, weak counterfeit, we shall give this dear one an opportunity to breathe a freer, fresher mental atmosphere than that laden overlong now with our smothering, stupefying, ultra-anxiety,—that which seems to have a frightened sense that if we do not do something nobody will.

That which is usually the greatest stumblingblock in the pathway along this line of light is our own submission to the claim of an exaggerated interest in some human personality. This one whose burden we have assumed, to his and our detriment, may be very dear to us, perhaps the nearest and dearest of all. If so, let us turn to the Manual, as our Leader advised in the lines quoted above, and we shall find many things which will give us pause, among others, the reminder that members of The Mother Church should not allow themselves to be influenced personally. What frequently happens when we forget this, and continue to stand between some one and the hard knocks which would be sufficient to wake him up if we did not get in the way? One of two things usually happens: either he sits down complacently and continues to let us take the hard knocks, in a sort of vague, undefined conviction that it is our duty to do so and his right to expect it; or else, if we at any time cease to save him from the natural and inevitable results of his own mistakes by stepping aside, so-called mortal mind turns upon us with a bitterness and vindictiveness which is almost amazing.

“Good deeds overdone numerically”—what misery they bring in their train for all concerned! Let us prove our love in the only right way. “However keenly the human affections yearn to forgive a mistake, and pass a friend over it smoothly, one’s sympathy can neither atone for error, advance individual growth, nor change this immutable decree of Love: ‘Keep My commandments,'” writes our Leader in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 118). Then suppose we do that one and only thing which we have never yet done, and step aside. Since he is suffering only from his own mistakes, his own indifference, or self-will, or mental laziness, or bad judgment, or bad habits, or bad management, or whatever it may be which has caused the trouble in the first place, will it “advance individual growth” for some one else to pay the penalty? More changeless than the laws of the Medes and Persians is the inexorable decree of wisdom, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Let us with gratitude remember that when any one really wishes to enter the kingdom of heaven, he will just walk in of his own accord. The first and most important questions to be considered are these: Does he really desire to enter? Is he really willing to take the necessary steps which he, and he alone, must take? “A student desiring growth in the knowledge of Truth, can and will obtain it by taking up his cross and following Truth,” writes Mrs. Eddy on page 86 of “Retrospection and Introspection.” “If he does this not, and another one undertakes to carry his burden and do his work, the duty will not be accomplished. No one can save himself without God’s help, and God will help each man who performs his own part. After this manner and in no other way is every man cared for and blessed.”

 

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“The Reciprocal Law of Love” – Julie’s experience welcoming a returning community member to her church https://embracedfully.org/the-reciprocal-law-of-love-julies-experience-welcoming-a-returning-community-member-to-her-church/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-reciprocal-law-of-love-julies-experience-welcoming-a-returning-community-member-to-her-church https://embracedfully.org/the-reciprocal-law-of-love-julies-experience-welcoming-a-returning-community-member-to-her-church/#respond Fri, 22 Apr 2022 23:48:42 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=1312 Daniel Alexander and Angel Team

It was Sunday morning. I arrived at church early that day to take my post as an usher, ready to greet newcomers as well as our regular attendants. I had chosen this particular church, not for its close proximity to my home — as it was nearly a 45 minute drive — but because of the tangible presence of love that I felt and the sincerity and spiritual depth of the members of this small but mighty congregation.

My spiritual preparation that morning was the recognition that no one could be outside of “the structure of Truth and Love.” A definition for “church” found in our church textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. I also affirmed that man’s innate spiritual sense can never be dulled or deadened by the materialism of the world. That every member and every individual in the community was awake to God’s goodness and receptive and responsive to the Christ, man’s true Godlike nature.

As I took my post at the door in the foyer, I was informed by another member that a new visitor had shown up more than an hour before the service. He was a tall, slender African American man sitting front and center, listening attentively as the first and second readers prepared to start the service. I said hello and welcomed him to our service. The church service was given and afterwards many of our members welcomed our guest, who introduced himself as Daniel Alexander.

In the weeks and months that followed, Daniel regularly attended our Wednesday and Sunday services, avidly reading shared Christian Science periodicals, bringing more newcomers and giving his own inspiring testimonies. We could see the spiritual growth going on in him. But he wasn’t the only one growing — so were we. You see, the reciprocal law of Love doesn’t go only in one direction. There are no hierarchies or favored sons. It is a totally impartial, all encompassing love that embraces and blesses both the giver and the receiver.

At this particular period of time, the world was grappling with the Covid pandemic with its mask mandates, supply chain disruptions and Black Lives Matter with escalating racial tensions.

Where were we? We were at work bridging the divide in our own church experience by seeing that the only difference between us and our brother man was not about skin color or cultural or racial backgrounds but in the unique and completely individual way in which we expressed all the qualities of God. God didn’t see a black man with a bunch of white people, He only saw His own precious children — loved, loving and lovable.

What has happened since Daniel Alexander first arrived at our doorstep has been inspiring, heartwarming and life changing for all of us. Daniel has been included at holiday dinner tables, after church lunches and movie nights with pizza. He is always ready to lend a helping hand to people in need and actively works alongside church members with landscaping projects and various tasks. We didn’t find out about Daniel’s 47-year sentence until nearly two years later when he gave a testimony about one Wednesday night. But that didn’t shake us!

I remember a group of us sharing a meal one Sunday after church. Daniel commented on how he couldn’t believe that he had always felt the loving embrace of church from the “get-go,” insinuating that he could have been someone with bad intentions. Immediately a member piped up and said, “Yes we did! We knew that you were the child of God!”

Today Daniel is a full-fledged member of our church. The day we welcomed him aboard there were many tears. They were tears of joy! Imagine the blessings that would abound and the ripple effects if we all worked to heal the claims of the world when they knock at our door! As a loved hymn states, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” Today our church shares a special bond amidst our members. Ask Daniel about his church experience and he will tell you, “It’s not a church family. It’s just family.”

Read Daniel’s testimony here

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“Prisoners of Christ” – Daniel’s Testimony https://embracedfully.org/prisoners-of-christ-daniels-testimony/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prisoners-of-christ-daniels-testimony https://embracedfully.org/prisoners-of-christ-daniels-testimony/#respond Thu, 14 Apr 2022 23:02:08 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=1303 Daniel Alexander and Angel Team

My initial encounter with Christian Science was merely to get some time out of my prison cell. I was serving a life-sentence for second-degree homicide for a crime I had not committed, although I had engaged in criminal activity from the early age of seven. Several of my family members, numbering a total of 16, were also involved in criminal behavior, raised in a home with no father.

As I listened to the viewpoints of Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, I scoffed at the notion of healing, associating it with the television ministry’s claims to instantaneous relief from bodily ailments. It was only after I reviewed my personal experiences that I discovered that I was actually living a Christian Science lifestyle myself. I was greatly influenced by my grandmother, who was frequently called upon to treat the afflicted in the black community. At that time, blacks were not allowed in the hospitals and found themselves with no other resource than to rely on spiritual means for healing. Without even realizing it, I was following in my grandmother’s footsteps in prison, helping those whom I encountered, as medical attention to prisoners was scant at the time.

I found myself administering to those who had injuries from sporting activities to stab wounds in violent altercations to mental health challenges of those who had lost their way, striving for a finish line with no end in sight. Suicide by hanging and wrist slashings were common occurrences among those who had given in to the darkness of hopelessness and discouragement.

It wasn’t long before I attracted the attention of prison guards, who also came to me in their distress. After 47 years of incarceration, my sentence was reduced and I was released on parole. Within only a week of my release I found that there was a Christian Science Church within walking distance from my home. I began attending all the services the church had to offer, including Sunday services and a Wednesday testimony meeting, where members would share personal accounts of healing through the application of the laws of God known as Christian Science treatment. The outpouring of love that I received upon my first visit was overwhelming.

For the first time in my life I was able to see a God that was active in my day-to-day affairs, as opposed to one that was beyond my reach, only to be known and understood in the hereafter. A God that had provided for my every need all of my life even though I was blind to His presence. I came to see that this loving, divine Presence had been with me at every critical juncture of my life, providing guidance, comfort and protection. Throughout my life I had been told, from the most callous of criminals to the sincerest members of law enforcement that I encountered, that I had a spiritual sense about me. Now I came to see that that spiritual sense was my God-given identity as the child of God which was untouched by environment, racial viewpoints, heredity, social norms.

Since that first day when I walked through the doors of my neighborhood Christian Science church I have been constantly embraced and supported by the members of that church. Words alone cannot express the gratitude for the teachings I have acquired in Christian Science and its transformative effect on my life. I now am an active member of this church, striving each day to bear witness to all the good that God has to give.

– by Daniel Alexander

Hand reaching upward

Photo by Akira Hojo on Unsplash

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Holiday Event at San Quentin – Gifts, Peppermint Patties, and Singing https://embracedfully.org/holiday-event-at-san-quentin-gifts-peppermint-patties-and-singing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=holiday-event-at-san-quentin-gifts-peppermint-patties-and-singing https://embracedfully.org/holiday-event-at-san-quentin-gifts-peppermint-patties-and-singing/#respond Sun, 12 Dec 2021 00:34:42 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=1307 York Peppermint Patty

It is going to be tough to put into words the holiday spirit that was on the prison yard yesterday for their holiday party. In years past, volunteers have come in around the holidays and caroled through the cell blocks and they would have a Christmas banquet in the chapel. Due to Covid, they have not had either of these events for the last two Christmases so yesterday’s event was the event of the season for the men.

I arrived at San Quentin at 9 am to help set up for the event that would begin at 10 am. It was a beautiful day warming from 50 to 60 degrees as the day progressed. There was blue sky with not a cloud and no wind. It was perfect. The fact that we have an atmospheric river coming through tomorrow made yesterday’s weather all the more spectacular. As I rounded the bend walking down from the main gate to the prison yard the men were already lined up in three separate lines around the prison yard waiting expectantly for the event to begin. Each line had to have had 200-300 men.

I wondered why there were so many men already on the yard an hour before the event started. I learned that the night before when the men returned to their cells they found, what they were calling, the golden ticket, on their bunks. It was a slip of gold paper with three boxes titled station 1, 2 and 3 that would be marked off as they went through each line. They knew they were going to get free stuff the next day. I could only liken it to Christmas Eve when they were little, expectant for Christmas morning.

I was at station 2 handing out the peppermint patties. I worked with two incarcerated men who were also volunteering their time. They started the event about 45 minutes early since so many of the men were already lined up. We handed out peppermint patties from 9:15 until 12:45 when the line finally stopped. I got to interact with the much larger prison population. Ages ranged from 18-80ish. People were of all colors, faiths and gender choices. Everyone was friendly and grateful. Even though they stood in three separate lines for hours, I did not hear one complaint. One of the San Quentin News staff said he didn’t even think he heard anyone swear. I only heard gratitude and holiday wishes and blessings. From an organizational standpoint, the execution of the event was efficient, but there was more to it. There was a spirit of goodwill in the air. Harmony reigned.

Part way through the event the prison band began to play Christmas carols and people joined in to sing. The music wafted over the prison yard to add to the festivities.

Tommy was one of the guys at our station helping out and I asked him if he wanted to take some peppermint patties. He said he was a runner and did not eat candy. So many of the men coming through the line commented on how peppermint patties were their favorite candy. At one point I looked over at Tommy and he was chewing on something. I asked him if he tried one and he said he did. He said after hearing so many men comment on how good they were he had to try one. The other guy helping out would take a peppermint patty every now and again. I asked him when was the last time he had a peppermint patty. “Other than a minute ago, he asked?” He said he had not had a peppermint patty for over 20 years.

At one point we started to get a group of men at our station and their golden ticket had already been marked that they had been at our table. We mentioned that their card had already been marked and they said okay and started to walk away. We asked them, did they remember coming to our station and they said they hadn’t. We found out another station was marking the wrong box. We told them they should come through the line, that we trusted them. It gave me a glimpse of what prison life must be like when they were willing to walk away from something they honestly had not yet benefited from. When we told them that we trusted them you could see something in their facial expression that being trusted was something new for them.

After the event I went over to the newsroom to see the guys. Anthony was asking me questions about this group that donated the peppermint patties because he wants to write a news story about the day. Afterwards I mentioned to him that if I brought a bag of peppermint patties to a party people would be happy they were there, but what did it mean to him that there were peppermint patties at the event? He is a huge fan of peppermint patties and told me that about 5 times on the yard. He said that as good as they are, they brought back happy memories of times before prison.

David said that when he was on the yard he felt warm fuzzies and he still had them when we were talking. And Charles mentioned that most of the time the guys inside feel forgotten. The fact that a group of 20+ people were willing to donate money to give them something special, he said he could not really even put words to how special and amazing that was for them.

When the news staff was on the yard taking photos and video, they asked some of the men what the day meant to them. I am hoping that they will be able to edit the video and get it approved to be released so you all can see it. But one of the responses they got from a man who has been in prison a long time was that this was the first time in 30 years he had ever received a present while in prison. And another guy had just transferred in from another prison and he was in tears because he had never seen anything like this holiday event at any other prison.

I know I did not give this day justice with my words. I wish you all could have been there to relate with these men who were just so grateful. Thank you for generosity and for participating in making this day so special for the men at San Quentin.

– by Amanda W.

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As Formerly Incarcerated People Return to Their Communities in W.Va., This Network of ‘Resource Brokers’ Is There to Guide Them – via 100 Days in Appalachia https://embracedfully.org/as-formerly-incarcerated-people-return-to-their-communities-in-w-va-this-network-of-resource-brokers-is-there-to-guide-them-via-100-days-in-appalachia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=as-formerly-incarcerated-people-return-to-their-communities-in-w-va-this-network-of-resource-brokers-is-there-to-guide-them-via-100-days-in-appalachia https://embracedfully.org/as-formerly-incarcerated-people-return-to-their-communities-in-w-va-this-network-of-resource-brokers-is-there-to-guide-them-via-100-days-in-appalachia/#respond Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:47:26 +0000 https://embracedfully.org/?p=446 Amber Bjornsson, photo by Marcus Constantino/100 Days in Appalachia

Read this excellent article from 100 Days in Appalachia about progress being made in West Virginia helping returning citizens succeed. Lots of inspiring ideas here.

Amber Bjornsson says she had a “true heart change” while serving a two-year prison sentence for the years of fines and felonies she previously collected. Once her sentence was complete, Bjornsson moved into a recovery home.

As Bjornsson returned to life outside of incarceration, she started to see the full picture of the obstacles in front of her. She took a job that paid minimum wage at a restaurant within walking distance of her transitional housing. Then, she faced the substantial court fines she’d accumulated prior to her prison term.

Once a returning citizen has their needs identified, staff at the DOC can reach out to the local Reentry Council. Sharp and her team hope to soon provide training to the DOC reentry coordinators, a fairly new position within the state agency that are specifically tasked with helping people who are leaving incarceration prepare for the transition.

“We’re bringing together all community partners that are touched by people who have re-entry concerns,” Sharp said, “private businesses, nonprofits, local government and faith-based organizations, and anyone who can provide a resource for people coming out of incarceration.”

“People have to have the opportunity to change. People in the community have to support that, as well…”

Read the entire article here: https://www.100daysinappalachia.com/2021/05/community-reentry-westvirginia/

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