A fishing partner and good friend of mine for more than twenty-five years is now in the Hardin County Jail and barring something unusual will probably be in Jail for many more years. Why he is there is beside the point of this writing, but he just confirmed something I have thought for many years:

There are no Atheists on the Battlefield OR IN JAIL!!

I just received a very nice, handmade, THANK YOU CARD, thanking me for my “friendship and for being a loyal friend” and letting me know that: “The Lord has (him) going in the right direction now.”

Coming from a lot of people I know, these sentiments wouldn’t be unusual, but coming from someone who has never once mentioned going to any church or religious meeting; has never voiced his intent to pray for or having prayed for anyone or anything; and who has never expressed anything more than a casual belief in God, and then only when I mentioned my beliefs, this was a complete surprise. Maybe it shouldn't have been.

It is probably no surprise from my opening statement, that this is not my first experience with Jailhouse conversions. During my last six years in the Army, at Fort Knox, I was the Unit Alcohol and Drug Education Specialist. As such it was part of my extra duties to give classes on the dangers of drugs and alcohol; to advise the Commander in ways to spot drug and alcohol abuse in the unit; and to be a point of contact for soldiers that wanted help with a drug or alcohol problem.

Without getting into an even longer story, because of my ADES duties, I was part of a support group that visited soldiers in the Stockade. I also made several visits to Eddyville State Penitentiary. In both places, I went to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings INSIDE. It didn’t take very many visits to either place to notice how many prisoners carried Bibles and spoke of their conversion to the Lord “and the right direction.”

Trying not to be being overly cynical, I will just mention that in both places (and I am sure in most jails and prisons), many inmates could get time off their sentence for good behavior, going to church, and seeing the error of their ways. Anyhow, I saw enough of these Jailhouse Conversions to convince me that THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN JAIL!!.

Grumpy