If you're hesitant to speak up about your Christian beliefs because you're worried about being criticized publicly or shut down, even canceled, Well, maybe you're trying to help your kids or students build courage when they face challenges. The new Colson Educators course, Navigating Cancel Culture, is here and can help. Created in partnership with No Safe Spaces, the documentary by Dennis Preger, the course is led by the Colson Center and Brett Kunkel. Using real-life examples, the course explains cancel culture, how it shows up today, and why truth matters. How you can learn practical ways to stand firm and push back.
Ready to join? Go to Colsoneducators.org. That's colsoneducators.org. to sign up. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.
For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.
Well, according to Nashville's WTVF News, 170 inmates at the Sumner County Jail in Tennessee were baptized on a single day last month. According to Jerry Scott, one of the supervisors, and I quote, it matters because it's something they didn't expect. After all, many prisoners lose hope, believing I'm in jail, I'm incarcerated, and the world doesn't care about me.
However, two Sumner County churches who partner with that jail do care. And now it's bearing fruit.
Now, few things embody the reality and power of Christ as when believers care for the sick, the outcast, and the imprisoned. Like adoption, which reflects God's merciful care for those without hope, Ministering to those in prison reflects God's passion to love the unlovely. and to give grace to the guilty, after all. With few exceptions, inmates can't claim innocence.
Now, of course, anyone familiar with the history of the Colson Center knows why this matters to us. It was during the incarceration of our founder, Chuck Coulson, that seeds were first planted for what eventually became prison fellowship. Out of prison fellowship, which Chuck founded, and his deep concern that the church be the church, the Coulson Center was eventually born. In prison, Chuck saw people without hope. He saw a system that was built on wrong ideas about human dignity, justice, and the potential for transformation.
Just like those newly baptized people in Tennessee, prison became for Chuck a context for a new life. as his daughter Emily put it, and I quote, When the judge slammed the gavel, and pronounced my dad's sentence, it seemed like the end. But it wasn't. In fact, it was a beginning. ⁇ Well, that beginning meant reminding the world that committing a crime does not rob a person of humanity or dignity.
Chuck spent the next decades of his life after prison going back in. bringing the gospel to all those inside, including guards and wardens. He also adopted and expanded the Angel Tree program to reach the families of those in prison with the gospel and to keep children connected with their incarcerated parents. He also worked to reform the criminal justice system so that it was based on something better than just retribution. Chuck believed that the church behind the walls could have a significant impact on the wider culture.
Including the church outside the walls. Angel Tree demonstrates just how right Chuck was in this belief. An estimated 1 in 28 children in America have a parent that is behind bars, without either a mom or a dad in their daily lives, especially on important days like birthdays and Christmas. Angeltree does not merely provide these children with a gift on Christmas Day, It provides these children with a gift from their mom or dad who is in prison on Christmas. while also connecting the family to a local church.
Most of all, it's a way to share the love, the joy, the dignity of God to those who often cannot see it. At the Colson Center National Conference this year, Prison Fellowship's Heather Rice Minas shared her thoughts on the beauty of the Angel Tree Ministry. Here's Heather. I've actually had the privilege of being an Angel Tree coordinator for my church in Washington, D.C. And I've done this for five years.
And the first family I ever delivered to is one that we've remained in relationship with. I've invited them to my dinner table. We've gone to Angel Tree sports camps with the girls. They talked to their dad on the phone every week, but had never visited him in prison since he had been incarcerated. And so I asked, you know, if all the hurdles were taken away, because they're living paycheck to paycheck, but if you had a car to drive you there, if there was a hotel and you could stay, would you want to see your dad?
And they said yes. And so we got a minivan and we drove down and I got to be a fly on the wall for this reunion of a father and his daughters and his granddaughter, and they had not seen each other in person for 15 years.
Now, look, it's early to start thinking about the holidays, but please take time right now to learn about Angeltree and how you can be involved this Christmas and even throughout the year. Visit prisonfellowship.org/slash Angeltree to learn more. That's prisonfellowship.org/slash Angeltree and consider offering your prayers, your support. And maybe some time to this important ministry. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Paget. If you appreciate Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
