InterFaith Conversations: An Interview with a Prison Chaplain

Throughout my time in a conservative Christian setting, I have noticed that I have inadvertently adopted a rather tight-knit view of what “Christian ministry” should look like. The Christian ministry to which I grew accustomed consisted of teaching children Bible stories or setting up tables and chairs before

people think that their faithis challenged by someone

else believing a different thing.

a luncheon. Although these various types of ministry may be essential to the life-blood of a midwest evangelical function, I have realized I was not being informed of some really groundbreaking work that other Christians were taking on.

I contacted Erika Spring, a former Greenville University employee, to ask about the ministry work that she is currently doing. Erika is a prison chaplain in Vandalia, Illinois at the Vandalia Correctional Center, a minimum security all-male prison. The work that Erika does is work that easily challenges the normal notions of “ministry” as many pastors or clergy people understand it.

Erika sat down with me and explained the challenges of her workplace. She described to me that because her workplace is minimum security, “the turnover rate is very high. Usually people are incarcerated for ten years or less, which means I am dealing with a ever revolving door of people.” The most surprising part of Erika’s job is the fact that she is required by the law to not be partial to a particular religion. this means that she is an inter-faith pastor: “the IDC recognizes 34 religions officially, all the way from Christian to Rastafarian and Wiccan.”

Before she prays for someone Erika always asks if they adhere to a particular religion. I asked Erika how she reconciles her Christian beliefs with the demands of her job and she gave me a thoughtful reflection on her perception of Christianity. “I believe that God is bigger than any one particular religion and l also believe that wherever people find truth they find God.” She also commented that, “It doesn’t mean that every single thing from every other religion is true but it does mean that every religion has true things in them.” The example she provided was that, “part of being Wiccan is a love of nature and the planet. I believe that loving nature is a truth from God that coincides with my Christian beliefs.”

truth and what is life-giving to them and transforming them into a better person… a lot of religious differences come down to a difference in words. Wiccans talk about honoring the physical wind and air and Christians talk about the holy wind. You really just have to accept that other people think differently.” The most powerful claim that Erika made was, “people think that their faith is challenged by someone else believing a different thing.”

Our conversation soon transitioned into her explaining some of the misconceptions that she encounters when she tells people about her job. The main misconception is people thinking that she is in an unsafe work environment. Erika quickly dispelled this by saying, “On a certain level they are right, but in another sense, security concerns are the number one concern in a prison… in the prison I work in these men are so close to leaving they do not want to do anything wrong anyway.”

Erika did offer up a critique of those who are quick to judge the men that she works with by saying, “people have a misconception that the things that I have differently than the inmates are greater than the things that I have in common with them… people spend a lot of time being afraid of seeing the humanity in someone else because if they see them as a real person it causes a lot of existential questions.”

Although Erika’s position is not one of traditional Christian ministry, I would argue it is a job of the utmost importance. Seeing a Christian in a space of acceptance and camaraderie is something worth noting. As Erika said to me, “there is something really important in being an interfaith chaplain. You have to trust that someone else’s authentic search for truth will lead them to God even if it doesn’t look like what you think it should look like.”

InterFaith Conversations:

Shelby Farthing

An Interview with

a Prison Chaplain

Erika explains that being an interfaith chaplain involves “taking joy in someone else’s