Dr. Rev. Rip Van Winkle

The Executive Director of Opening Blind Eyes, Dr. Dwight "Rip" Van Winkle, earned his Ph.D. in Old Testament Studies at Cambridge and taught for 20 years at Seattle Pacific University. The Ultimate Recycler Last Tuesday, I sat across from Jamal-Abdul, a muscle-bound, bald-headed African American inmate serving a life sentence for murder. As a young boy, Jamal-Abdul's father was killed by the KKK, and Jamal-Abdul has hated white society and organized religion ever since. He's now incarcerated at WSR, a closed custody prison I've been working in since 2002. I can relate to men like Jamal-Abdul because my story is similar: I was raised in an abusive family and experienced poverty when I was young. By my late teens, I was an angry atheist and substance abuser. But by God's grace, in college I became a Christian, and my life was transformed. I earned a Masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary; a PhD in Old Testament studies at Cambridge University in England; and for 21 years was a professor at Seattle Pacific University. Cathy and I have two sons who are godly young men. Yet, I can still remember pain and rage much like Jamal-Abdul's. God is the Ultimate Recycler. Nothing in my life has been wasted. God uses my painful background to relate to the incarcerated. He also uses my education & professorial experiences. The men I meet with are not only angry, but many are also highly intelligent. They express finely honed intellectual issues against God. In all my life, I've never worked in a place where my skills were better suited. Also, I've never worked in a place where I was more aware of my minute-by-minute dependence on God.