Religious Bias at Butner

This post is going to bring its readers up to date with the next example of religious bias here at the United States correctional facility known as Butner Low.

So one Sunday when I had just finished with my prayers I had a few minutes before Catholic services were to start so I sat on my walker in the hallway while the healthier prisoners set up the chairs in the small chapel. We were not going to celebrate Mass because we do not have a priest here at Butner Low so a priest from one of the local parishes comes only one day a month (usually on the second Tuesday of the month) so for the rest of the weeks we have a service with a local volunteer presiding over the said services. This is perfectly understandable due to the current shortage of priests. Maybe one day God our Father will smile on us and give Catholics here at Butner a complex of full time priests.

So anyway as I am sitting in the lobby I overhear a conversation between an inmate and a volunteer. They are talking about the religious services here at Butner. I overhear them and the inmate is telling the volunteer about programs that other religions have. The convict says that in one program in particular they invite other religious followers into their services and that we the Catholics should do the same. We should invite other members of different religions to our Catholic service so that they can more understand what we are about. I guess he doesn't understand that the doors to the Catholic church are always open to all. So he then states that he has been to other faith groups services and that there is at least one Christian group here at Butner who preaches state in their sermon, as well as literature that says that the Catholic church is the anti-Christ. I almost fell off my walker at such a repulsive statement. He says that he has spoken with the administration and that the only response has been that he was warned not to repeat this and to stop making a fuss or he would go to the SHU. He did name the religion but rather than add another brick to the wall of hate that already exists between most major religions, I choose to omit it as well as individuals names and all names of other religions that were mentioned in this bias-laced conversation. So as sick as it is to say such a filthy thing that Catholics are the anti-Christ just think of how sick it is that some of the members of the administration here at Butner (an arm of the United States Government) will allow this to go on and even endorse it by their silence. Imagine they are preaching this hate right from the podium. So at this point the volunteer leans in towards the inmate and I think she is going to chastise him for repeating such a thing. Instead she whispers that it is not the Catholics but the ------ that are the real anti-Christ. I shake my head in disbelief. He then quickly counters that this is not true and if the other major religions understood their holy books that they would surely all be Catholics. With that said I hurry inside the chapel, maybe prayer will erase the conversation of these two good but misguided hate-saturated people from my mind.

I know that many of my readers are organizing a phone call/letter writing campaign to the BOP to see if they can bring about some change in some of the policies but I feel that they can be much more effective if they contact members of congress and the media instead. In these times of religious persecution in my parts of the world we must ensure that it does not take hold here in America at a United States BOP facility. We must pull back the drapes, raise the shades, and open the windows to let the sun shine and fresh air on all the government black-bias and anti-Catholic hate. It is un-American.

Stronger today than yesterday.

SAVALOOO,
TSG