Mark Earley leads Chuck Colson’s prison ministry

    Former Virginia state senator and attorney general, Mark Earley, didn’t think much about prisoners before he became president of Prison Fellowship Ministries in 2002, but while reading the Gospel of Paul, he had an epiphany. Earley spoke at Campbell University’s annual Kenelm Lecture, Sept. 20, in Southern Pines.
     “As a lawyer, I viewed my role in the criminal justice system as making sure my clients got due process and defended them zealously, but if they went to jail, I considered my job done,” he said. “In reading ‘Paul,’ I realized that this person (Paul) was a co-conspirator in murder; he put people to death because of their religious affiliation, yet God loved and trusted him. ‘Okay, God, I get it,’ I said, while sitting at my desk one day. ‘You’re the same God now as you were then.’”
     After running for governor of Virginia and losing, Earley was at a crossroads in his career when he was approached to take over Prison Fellowship Ministries from founder Chuck Colson of Watergate fame. The former Nixon Whitehouse aide who did time for obstruction of justice, Colson accepted Christ while in prison and set about establishing an outreach ministry for prisoners. Today, Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) can be found in 50 states and 108 countries. It strives to inject biblical principles into the criminal justice system.
     “The ministry views prisoners as part of the community and prison ministry as an attempt to restore wholeness, justice and order to the community,” said Earley. “Of course, the prisoner should be punished, but justice also means restoring the individual.”
     Demonstrating God’s love to inmates and their children has made a tremendous difference in the lives and attitudes of prisoners and has helped decrease recidivism in the criminal justice system, added Earley. One of PFM’s many programs, Innerchange Freedom Initiative (IFI), attempts to prepare prisoners for life on the outside through mentoring, worship and professional training.
     “Out of the 600,000 prisoners in the United States who will be freed this year, approximately 70 percent will be back in prison within three years,” Earley said. “Among those prisoners who have gone through IFI training, there is only an 8 percent recidivism rate.”
     PFM not only ministers to prisoners, but to their children. Children whose parents are incarcerated are five times more likely to go to prison themselves. One aspect of PFM’s children’s ministry program was initiated when convicted bank robber Mary Kay Beard saw inmates saving personal articles such as shampoo and toothpaste, the only things they had to give to their children as Christmas presents. In 1985, a converted Mary Kay Beard established Angle Tree ministries under the auspices of PFM. Presently Angel Tree has expanded to include mentoring and a camping experience for children.
     Mark Earley also serves as chairman of Operation Starting Line, a multi-ministry, interdenominational outreach to prisoners in America that is helping the local church provide in-prison evangelistic events, in-prison mentoring and post prison assistance for ex-prisoners and their families. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., where he received a Bachelor of Arts in religion. He earned a law degree from Marshall-Wythe School of Law.

Photo Copy: Mark Earley delivers the address at Campbell University’s annual Kenelm lecture recently. (Photo by Todd Scarborough)