NEWS

CHARLESTON, WV – Ruth Graham, the daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham, has agreed to lead a program for the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Mississippi Department of Corrections. This will include an agreement with Ms. Graham to start a 14-week program at the Huttonsville Correctional Center and Jail starting May 18, 2021.

 

“Every week, Ruth Graham will lead the men at Huttonsville through a study on how to forgive.” “In her acclaimed book, Forgiving My Father, Forgiving Myself, Ruth talks about having an absent parent and about what it means to forgive and move on.” Ruth Graham’s beloved father, Billy Graham, traveled the world with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for over 50 years, leaving his family for weeks at a time.

“When I visited Angola Prison in Louisiana,” said Ms. Graham, “I had an experience with a death row inmate story that made me realize I needed to understand more about forgiveness in my own life. My father was often gone when I was growing up, and though I adored him, my little girl’s heart read his absences as abandonment. That resulted in a deep sense of insecurity and many bad choices in my life. Once I discovered my ‘core’ issue, I was able to forgive myself, my father, and even feelings that God had let me down. Now I live in the freedom of forgiveness, and I want to share it.”

Ruth Graham will teach via Zoom. Joining Ms. Graham and West Virginia will be three prisons in Mississippi, including 27 women seminary students at CMCF.

“Forgiveness is the only real path to growth,” said Ms. Graham. “If you hold on to bitterness and anger, it is impossible to be happy.”

The 14-week Graham program is being funded by Catalyst Ministries, a West Virginia-based prison ministry.

“At no time in world history has forgiveness been needed more,” said Calvin Sutphin II, founder of Catalyst Ministries. Mississippi Dept. of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain states the key to true rehabilitation in prisons is Moral Rehabilitation. And it’s not just prisoners either. All of us need to soul-search with regularity.”

“You want a reduced crime rate in the streets?” asked Commissioner Cain. “Start with prisons. To quote the Apostle Paul, we really do war not against flesh and blood but against principalities. At the heart of drugs, alcohol and failed relationships is unforgiveness.”