NAMB documentary “A New Hope” screened at Angola Prison

By Diana Chandler

More than 800 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary gathered the evening of Feb.2 to view the documentary "A New Hope," which featured the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's extension program at the prison.

More than 800 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary gathered the evening of Feb.2 to view the documentary "A New Hope," which featured the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's extension program at the prison.

Chuck Kelley (right), president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, interviews former inmate Clifford Jones after the viewing of the documentary "A New Hope," featuring Jones and other Angola Bible College students and graduates.

Former Angola inmate Clifford Jones speaks to the crowd gathered at Angola prison to view the documentary "A New Hope." Jones, a graduate of the prison's seminary extension program, is now serving as assistant pastor at St. John Baptist Church in New Orleans.

Students attending the seminary extension program at Angola prison listen to a lecture by one of the extension professors.

The 54-year-old says he was "always coiled and ready to strike,”  “permeated evil,” and comparable to the possessed man Jesus delivered from a legion of demons in the town of Gaderenes, as recorded in the Gospels.

“What I really wanted was to be left alone. I trusted no one and I tolerated no one,” said Biermann, a resident of Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) -- known as the infamous Angola Prison.

Now serving a life sentence for second degree murder at Angola, his fourth incarceration, Biermann, too, has had a personal encounter with Jesus.

Biermann is a 2005 graduate of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s (NOBTS) on-site Bible college at Angola and a missionary to others imprisoned at correctional institutions across the state.

He was among some 800 Angola inmates in the audience for a Feb. 2 viewing of “A New Hope,” a recently released North American Mission Board (NAMB) documentary heralding God’s work through the LSP/NOBTS Extension Center at the penitentiary. The documentary was featured on season two of NAMB’s On Mission Xtra television program, which aired earlier this year on FamilyNet.

Since the college opened in 1996, violence at the historically bloody prison has declined 72 percent, and 147 former and current inmates have professed ministry callings and earned bachelor of Christian ministry degrees. Currently, 120 inmates are enrolled, said Dr. John Robson, extension center director.

“Seventy percent of our students became Christians after they came (to Angola),” Robson said.

“It’s bigger than any one of us,” he said of the center. “It’s not about us. It’s about God being allowed to come in here and do what he does best.”

Robson was one of several extension center professors, NOBTS officials, Southern Baptist Convention leaders and Angola staff members on hand for the viewing.
Among them was NOBTS president Chuck Kelley, who encouraged the crowd.

Kelley called the incarcerated believers “saints” and referenced 1 John 4:4, confirming all saints have God’s Spirit, which is greater than Satan’s.

“I guess we could translate 1 John 4:4 like this: ‘Who dat say they gonna beat those Saints?’” drawing roaring applause from inmates just days before the New Orleans Saints’ historic Super Bowl berth. “Do you know who taught me that? Not those football Saints, but those Angola saints.”

“A New Hope” chronicles LSP Warden and SBC Sunday school teacher Burl Cain’s work to morally reform the prison and its prisoners through the introduction of seminary training and its consequential effects.

When the U.S. Congress discontinued the use of Pell Grants for higher education in prisons in 1993, such opportunities ended at Angola. In an effort to restore higher education there, in 1995 Cain asked the seminary to open an on-site college. Kelley embraced the idea.

“The potential of what could happen in humans’ lives” was Kelley’s motivation, and the rare opportunity of a seminary to educate prisoners who can then minister to other inmates, prison visitors and others.

“God reached down in the most obscure place and raised up diamonds,” Kelley said.

Inmates must have a high school diploma or GED, profess a ministry calling and receive Cain’s approval to enroll in the school, which has the same academic requirements as the New Orleans seminary’s Leavell College.

Angola’s current population includes 70 NOBTS graduates. They lead congregations at the six interfaith chapels on the seminary’s grounds, assist chaplains in ministry and, in a new program, serve as missionaries for three-month stints at other correctional facilities in the state.

Currently, 28 incarcerated graduates are ministering in seven state correctional centers and the State Police Barracks, according to LSP communications officer Gary Young.

Many graduates have been released, including documentary subject Clifford Jones, who now serves as assistant pastor at St. John Baptist Church in New Orleans and owns a small home remodeling business.

Jones appreciates the education he received at the extension seminary.

“It has given me so much strength and study habits, hermeneutics to understand and explain the Gospel. The college has been a beacon light to me,” Jones said.

The seminary has changed the atmosphere at Angola. Violence is down and hope is up.

In 1995, the year before the seminary opened, the prison reported 1,016 violent incidents, including assaults, murders, suicides and escapes. In 2008, there were only 376 incidences of violence, mostly inmate-on-inmate assaults without weapons, according to LSP records.

"The Bible college here is a miracle story," said Robert Toney, a NAMB-endorsed chaplain who has served at Angola the past 10 years. "It has brought tremendous hope to the prison population. Inmates can graduate with a B.A. degree in religion, a legitimate degree. They can go to LSU or anywhere they want to go and build on that degree. 



"But it wouldn't have happened without Southern Baptists and the vision that Baptists had," Toney said.

Encouraged by its success at Angola, NOBTS has opened seminary branches at prisons in Mississippi and Georgia, and is making plans to do the same in Florida and Alabama. NOBTS can open a prison extension center for as little as $60,000.

Robson said the work God is doing through the extension graduates proves the school’s success, after a challenging beginning.

“The challenges were to convince the students, the prison population and the free people that it was a good and righteous thing. The value had to be proven,” Robson said. “We just let our men be our showcase.”

Says extension graduate Ron Hicks, a 39-year-old inmate who leads a Christian congregation at Angola, “God has invaded the prison. He wants to invade every prison in the country, throughout the world.

"My hope is that this whole prison will be born again and that it will be permeated with the agape love of God, that it will definitely be evident to the world."

Diana Chandler is a freelance writer in New Orleans, La. To view the documentary, “A New Hope,” visit www.omxtv.com. To support the seminary's efforts, send contributions to the NOBTS, 3939 Gentilly Boulevard, 
New Orleans, Louisiana 70126, designating the extension seminary, or make a donation to the Angola center through the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, www.bagbr.org.

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