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WHY DIDN’T MY PASTOR TELL ME ABOUT THIS? PART 1

      There is NO separation of church and state…in the streets. Let this sink in.

      Our story begins a few years ago at the old Marion County Juvenile Detention Center at 25^th and Hillside. As I’ve been told, this facility has been closed, and a new MCJDC has been built and the detainees, staff and courts have been moved.

      Let me plug in some of my background and full disclosure at this point.

      As a wise preacher noted years ago: “You don’t choose your ministry…it chooses you.” I’ve been involved in Juvenile Justice for quite a few years, and not years of my choosing. I first got into the field during my days as a Reporter/Anchor for the old WTLC-FM 105.7. While my days and nights on the crime beat were memorable for the stories I covered, one particular story—literally—brought a house down through an investigative piece I did on the old MCJDC during the early 1980s.

      It was a miserable place where the county’s juvenile detainees were housed. It had been neglected for a number of years, and the Superintendent of the facility decided to give me a call—and a tour of the crumbling conditions. I did a number of stories on the facility, including several radio news documentaries. Needless to say, since my station was the only urban mouthpiece for the Black community (with a 30 percent Caucasian listenership, by the way), word soon traveled to other radio and TV stations and newspapers in the media power structure.

      By the time I was done with my series and reporting on the facility, the City-County Council came up with the money to fully rehab the place; the presiding judge over the facility left, there were numerous changes in staff, and a new presiding judge was brought in. It later turned out that the judge was a solid Christian—even more of an improvement to the Center.

      About twenty years later, after I had long left the local media. I was hired by this same judge to become a Probation Officer at the revitalized Center. I had become a Christian as well, which helped in better managing my high-risk caseload. I was in this position for a few years. Ten years after my last case, I had moved into my role as Gospel Minister and Bible Teacher, and returned to the Center to teach the young men in the ‘hardcore’ unit, otherwise known as J-John.

      This unit housed the roughest and toughest detainees in the Center.

      I was approved to teach Bible Based Life Skills. This was a curriculum that I had designed to address life issues out of The Book of Proverbs in the KJV Bible. My arrangement was to teach in the Center’s Chapel once a month. While the curriculum was solidly designed, and I had some great material to hit upon, the Holy Spirit led me in the way of teaching Bible Prophecy to these young men—and the Detention Officers who provided security. 

      One thing I do know about prison ministry of any size, shape or fashion: Whatever you teach had better be ‘the REAL deal’, because those behind prison walls can spot a phony a mile off AND they have ‘heard about this Jesus junk’ as many of them (believe it or not) were a part of someone’s church.

      On one chilly afternoon, the Lord heated things up with a Bible Prophecy lesson that had the detainees and their Detention Officers quiet and listening. You could have heard a fly walking on one of the Chapel walls, it was so quiet.

       When I got to the segment for questions from the young men, one brave young man, clad in his county-issued Center uniform spoke up without fear: “Why didn’t my Pastor tell me about this?” Meaning, he had never heard the subject of Bible Prophecy taught in his home church when he was on the ‘outs’ and back in the community.

      I looked at the young man, and said: “Perhaps, he didn’t know about Bible Prophecy, himself.”

      This is a true story. It is also a sad story. The good news? This was not about me, but about these young men. I was blessed to do so well with this group that my ‘rep’ got around about Jesus. For the rest of my time doing my monthly teaching sessions, at the Center, other young men and their Detention Officers from J-John provided minimum chatter and gave maximum attention. Future groups had questions even more profound than the first young man.

      If Bible Prophecy can open eyes and hearts behind prison walls, what’s wrong with our urban churches teaching on this subject in their walls?

      More to come

      Mike Ramey is a Retired Minister, KJV Bible Teacher, syndicated columnist and Bible Prophecy Specialist who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. “Street Level Bible Prophecy” is one of a variety of his columns appearing and abounding in print and cyberspace, written from a biblical, business, and common-sense perspective since 1996. Catch Mike Ramey’s columns on X (Twitter), Substack, Faithwriters.com, LinkedIn and in fine publications like this one! To drop him a line—or a whine—the address is still the same: mgmikeramey@yahoo.com.  ©2025 Barnstorm Communications International.