1. Headlining this week is a story from Vanity Fair about Chip Skowron, a hedge fund manager in Greenwich, CT who was indicted for insider trading and found himself facing prison time. What comes next is a story of grace if I’ve ever seen one, and one that continues to bear fruit (ht CB). Like […]
Hopelessly Devoted: Against Cynicism
This one comes to us from Kenneth Tanner. I run with cynics. I find them in the church. I find them in bars, coffee houses, and at baseball games, and on the screens we stare at all the time. And the first thing I want to say is that I am at times one myself. […]
Beggars, a Poem: Notes on Need and Circumstance
This reflection and accompanying poem come to us from Becky Carlozzi. The night before my husband and I left for our fifteen-year anniversary trip to Italy, I received a phone call that my friend had been arrested and would spend several weeks in jail. The following day, staring out a window at 30,000 feet, I […]
Tough Love Lessons in a Year of Jail Ministry
Before even beginning this post, you probably noticed the one giant, smug asterisk that naturally attached itself to the title: *Oh goodness, that’s right. Can’t believe I forgot to tell you! I do jail ministry. NBD. I’d love to, you know, grab a beer and tell you more about it sometime… Let me alleviate any […]
‘Twelve Angry Men’ Produced in a Lebanese Prison and Everyone Abreacts
From a Wall Street Journal Theater Review: Every Sunday for four months, inmates from the all-male prison, Roumieh, have performed an Arabic version of Reginald Rose’s “12 Angry Men” (interspersed with their own music and personal testimonials). The actors are rapists and murderers. The prison’s other inmates include the top al Qaeda convicts and leading […]
