The Weight of Glory – C. S. Lewis (1980)
To repent is to have a change of heart about religion and a desire to pursue a more moral lifestyle. Act 3:19 of the bible advocates, repent your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away … but there are some that use this as means to an end.
There seems to be a trend, within the justice system whereby an inmate will turn to religion in order to curry favours with a parole board. Being involved in a religion is often looked on favourably in terms of it being a positive step towards rehabilitation. The Salvation Army do amazing work not just within prisons but, in my experience they have an aptitude for only seeing the good in people. Someone I was unfortunate enough to know had made crime a chosen career and as such was very apt at manipulation of the system (a real-life Fletcher as found portrayed by Ronnie Barker in the TV series Porridge).
Every time this person was sentenced the first thing that would happen would be a request to see the visiting Salvation Army office, then to attend church every Sunday and as things progressed to be part of religious based self-help groups. The SA Officer would phone, write or email specific people in that person’s life praising the commitment and new found direction of that person because they had found God. The officer would endeavour to reconcile family members and repair damages caused because of the crimes that had been undertaken before that person had repented. The same officer would then represent that person at parole hearings and if the victims and families had failed to accept the reformed person back into their lives that Christian officer would stand witness to the fact that no one else was listening as to the moral breakthrough that person had undertaken.
The problem was that this was the same scenario in every prison. Every time that person was convicted of yet another crime the whole process would start again. It didn’t matter if it was the same Salvation Army officer or a new one, that person would use every trick they knew to show that they had learnt from their ways and that this time they knew where they had failed, and that it wouldn’t happen again. Then, every time that person was given the benefit of the doubt the process would start all over again. They would get parole, or a reduced sentence, or the sentence suspended … committee another crime and end up back before the courts.
John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. However, if the families or victims had fallen foul of the repent and repent again scam, they would be rewarded with knowing that they had inadvertently contributed to the release, in other words … they had been used by the criminal and the system that is there to reinforce reform.