Here's a sad prison story with a welcome light of hope

Back in 2016 I published this blog post about the untimely death of a man who had spent most of his life in prison but who had so thoroughly rehabilitated himself that he became an obvious candidate for release into a productive life on the outside. Instead, the state of Missouri's parole officials refused again and again to let him go.

Eventually he had a stroke and then a heart attack and died behind bars. It was a travesty, and I periodically think about how our world might have been different if the state had done the right thing and let Jon Marc Taylor go free.

It has been several years since anyone mentioned the Taylor story to me. But recently I received a note from a woman whom I quoted in this recent Flatland column about area retreat centers and why some people use them.

The woman, Teresa Pryor, wrote to tell me of the connection between Taylor and her son, "Ben Terry, who happens to be 44 years old and serving a life without parole sentence in the Mo DOC (Missouri Department of Corrections).  He remembers that you featured Jon Marc after his death." And, yes, Teresa and her son have given me permission to use both their names.

Here's what Teresa wrote: "He wanted me to let you know that he was one of those people that was positively impacted by Jon Marc as a friend, mentor and benefactor. Jon personally paid tuition for college classes that he (Ben) would not have been able to take otherwise. Ben said Jon Marc made a definite positive influence in challenging him to live with purpose and direction despite his life-sentence because where he was and what he had done did not define who he is and what he could be.

"My son pursued his college education due to Jon Marc's generosity and mentoring. Without his help, that avenue would not have been open under the current rules and policies of MoDOC regarding his sentence level and conviction. Ben has continued to pursue educational growth through other means. He has been working as a video/audio technician at the JeffTown Studio in the Jefferson City Correctional Center for the past several years. He is a writer and his works have been published in several literary reviews. Just last year his first novella was published through the help of another friend and mentor. 

 

"I just wanted to let you know that Ben and I totally agree, 'Faith Matters!'"

 

Jon Marc had embraced Christianity and tried to live his life in prison as one of Christ's disciples. When I wrote the 2016 blog post about him after his death, I felt certain that there were many Jon Marc stories out there, but I just wasn't hearing many of them except at his funeral. Ben's story confirms my suspicion, and Jon Marc can be a model for others who need to know there is hope and a productive life even in prison. Thanks again, Jon, and thanks to Ben and his mother for telling me this story.

 

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ISLAM GROWS WORLDWIDE BUT HASN'T YET CAUGHT CHRISTIANITY

A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that Islam now is the fastest-growing religion in the world, though its total number of adherents still hasn't caught up with the total number who identify as Christian. Not much of a surprise, except to note that for the last 50-plus years, a major story about religion in the U.S. is that the percentage of the population that identifies as Christian has been on a steady decline, and yet between 2010 and now, Christianity worldwide has added nearly 122 million people to its roles. So, at about 2.3 billion followers, Christianity still is the largest faith tradition on the globe. Of course, the differences among some of the branches of Christianity are so large and sharp that at times it feels as though some of the branches ought to call themselves by a name other than Christian.