Heather Rice-Minus, the president and CEO of a group called Prison Fellowship, recently explained how her group partnered with another Christian non-profit called the Come and See Foundation to help prisoners at prison facilities with chaplains see “The Chosen,” and how watching that Christian show has helped change their lives for the better.
As background, “The Chosen” tracks the lives of Jesus and his disciples. Though it mainly appeals to Christians, it has also drawn in many non-Christian viewers, some of whom have decided to give Christianity a try because of it. That renewed or new faith that comes from the show seems to have occurred in the prisons as well, at least according to Rice-Minus.
Speaking about how her group helped get the Christian show shown inside prisons alongside the Come and See Foundation, Rice-Minus said, “The Come and See Foundation really wanted to expand their audience to reach everyone with the authentic Jesus from the palace to prison, if you will. And, so, we said, ‘Well, we would love to help with that.’”
Continuing, she explained the logistics of getting the show shown, saying, “The chaplains are able to set up their own screenings if they want … inside facilities.” She added, We also have several hundred prisons where Prison Fellowship runs in-person programming, and, so, in some of those facilities, we’ve been able to set up special screenings and watch parties of ‘The Chosen.’”
Then she got to the important part, explaining how the show is helping transform, for the better, the lives of those inmates who watch it. She said, “We’ve just been seeing such amazing transformation in the men as a result of the opportunity to see the authentic Jesus. And not only that, to see the people he chose — many lost, the least, and really being able to resonate with the disciples that Jesus chose to be part of the the greatest awakening the world’s ever known — and I think they really resonate with that in the position that they’re in.”
Continuing, she explained why the prisoners might connect to the show and the story of the Gospel as shown through it, saying, “The story of ‘The Chosen’ [focuses] on who Jesus chose … and he chooses all of us. But he especially hones in on the people in that time who we’re seeing at the margins of society … people perhaps no one else wanted to be with.”
She also explained why she, as a Christian, feels called to help those in prison, pointing to an oft-forgotten verse from Scripture and saying, “I look to Hebrews 13, which is ‘remember those in prison as if you were there with them.’ That’s our call … to know that Jesus came for everyone and he especially, as so brilliantly demonstrated in ‘The Chosen’ series, he especially came for the least and the lost.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: By Bart Everson – Flickr: Inmates, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18978577