This is the second half of an interview with Father George Williams, the Catholic Chaplain for San Quentin.
Would you share your view of the various faiths represented here at San Quentin?
One of my ancestors was a Puritan pastor named Roger Williams.
He left the narrow and intolerant Puritan church in Boston (well, he was sort of kicked out of it) and moved to what is now Rhode Island (he founded the city of Providence) and created a place that welcomed people from other religious denominations and faiths.
He was way ahead of his time – Providence offered to provide sanctuary to Jews and Quakers, even Catholics, while back in Massachusetts they were hanging people for witchcraft in Salem. (Another one of my ancestors was accused of witchcraft but was found not guilty!)
Anyway, Roger Williams was a tolerant man with an open mind. I either inherited those genes or I am just inspired to follow his example in my life. I have always been interested in how other people view God – and I believe there is good and truth in every faith tradition.
I believe Jesus Christ is the savior of the world – but God can save people through him without necessarily adopting Christianity – in other words, God’s mercy extends to all people who live and follow their faith tradition with devotion. So for me, it’s not about needing to convert people to Catholicism, even though I think there is great beauty and wisdom in my faith tradition.
For me, it is more important to help men here come to know God as they understand God – and to deepen their spiritual connection with the Divine. I believe that God draws all of us closer to him and to the truth as long as our hearts are open to receive that love and truth.
So if a guy is Muslim, I would want him to be the best Muslim he can be, same for Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Hindus or whatever faith group you can imagine. The key is that the person needs to be willing to be open to the power of love in his life.
The danger to the spiritual life is any kind of excessive fundamentalism in any religion that ends up creating a god in our image – a.k.a. an idol.
People become like the God they worship, so if they worship an intolerant, punishing, judge-in-the-sky kind of god, then it is no wonder they end up being intolerant, vengeful and judgmental in their own lives. Fear of God isn’t about being afraid of God; it’s about honoring and respecting the power of God as something so much greater than our own power.
I think that is why I found the late Bo Lozoff such a good teacher. I knew Bo well and am still in contact with his wife, Sita. He modeled for me a love of God that respected all people’s spiritual path as something holy and good.
Not all paths are straight paths, but Bo taught, and I believe, that all paths, when lived with Catholicism – the word Catholic means “universal” – that doesn’t mean we believe any or everything that others believe, that is impossible – but it does mean that we see in humanity, a universal longing for union with God.
What’s good about San Quentin and what needs to be changed?
I have always been impressed with the number and quality of programs here – it makes the place much more humane than other prisons I worked in back East. But the best thing about San Quentin is the people in it – both those wearing blue and those wearing green.
I have found the staff here easy to work with and very professional. In Massachusetts, they looked at chaplains (and sometimes with good reason) with suspicion and distrust. Here I have felt welcome and have been treated as a colleague, not a nuisance.
The men in blue who I encounter most often are a pleasure to work with – there aren’t a lot of differences with the guys here and those I knew in Massachusetts, except of course no one here speaks with a wicked “Bastin” accent.
I have enjoyed working with men on Death Row too. That is a place of contrasts. There are deep and troubling shadows there – spiritually it is a dark place – but there is also light and humor and humanity there – and that outweighs the heaviness and darkness of the place.
In your opinion, what is good and bad about the criminal justice system?
I think we have to own up to the institutionalized racism in our criminal justice system. That’s the most obvious flaw I think and because of it many lives and communities have been disrupted and damaged.
I’m working on a Ph.D. now in criminal justice. I started in 2007, when I was in Boston, long before I knew I’d be out here. Our prisons could be more humane places than they generally are (San Quentin being an exception) – and it’s a serious problem that we imprison so many of our people – way more than any other advanced countries do.
My impression of corrections workers is that they do the best job they can – but the public seems uninformed and oblivious to many of the issues around prisons.
I think too that starting in the 1980s the U.S. went on a prison binge that was fueled by a cynical political “get tough on crime” mentality that has not served our society well. So fairly radical change has to happen – but I imagine it will take time for us as a society to figure a way out of it.
I see many hopeful signs though – such as the changes in the Three Strikes law and the way that a lot more lifers are getting a chance for parole, which wasn’t possible only a few years back.
