CREEDE HINSHAW: Choosing sides on the Law vs. immovable Pastor

The Badge versus the Bible: Those with eyes to see could have predicted this Polk County, Georgia, heavyweight fight looming.

In one corner stand the defendants, Polk County Sheriff Johnny Monts and Chief Jailer Al Sharp, their jailhouse regulations in hand. In the other corner stands Evangelist Stephen Jarrard, a Church of Christ evangelist, Bible and First Amendment in hand.

It is not every preacher who will take a sheriff to court for the right to baptize inmates. Brother Jarrard lost Round One when a judge denied him the right to sue. But the 11th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals recently ruled that the boys holding the jail keys must stand trial for denying Jarrard’s right to speak, preach and baptize. You can read their 56-page opinion online.

Normally, I’d predict the guys wearing the uniforms and pistols would win. County jails and state and federal prisons are fiefdoms. These people make the rules and get their way. Seasoned visitors know not to comprehend, reason, or argue. Do what you are told, and you will eventually get to visit and pray with the inmates.

But a Church of Christ pastor — like the law enforcement people — does not know how to back down. My 40 years of experience and theology degree are no match for these doctrinally convinced clerics. I’ve had conversations with Church of Christ pastors and have read their materials. These men of the cloth are 100% convinced that they have correctly interpreted the Bible on doctrine and practice. Their reasoning, sometimes circular, is ironclad. Professing to be open to correction if you can show them wrong is a hollow promise, because they are convinced they are NOT wrong. They give no quarter and cut no slack.

The Rev. Jarrard wants inside the jail to teach that without baptism by immersion, a person goes to hell. Period. It doesn’t matter what any other prison chaplain has said; they are all wrong. And it certainly matters not what the jailer thinks about baptism. Twenty-six Polk County inmates have requested — and been denied — baptism.

Sheriff Monts and Chief Jailer Sharp are probably in over their heads on this one. Relying on their rules and their authority and underestimating the tenacity of this preacher, they denied visiting and preaching privileges to Brother Jarrard, perhaps expecting him to turn the other cheek.

He didn’t. Now they have a fight on their hands.

I’m not sure who I’m rooting for. The fiery brother has been accused of being a troublemaking evangelist in other jails. If true, he has likely tested the patience of many public and civil servants where some Biblical diplomacy might have done the trick. On the other hand, my experience as a regular visitor to prisons makes me wish for more penal system flexibility. It’s hard to find sympathy for the sheriff here.

The trial, if it takes place, should be colorful.