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Ex-inmate brings evangelical message to South BayDaily Breeze In 1971, Dennis Rice, and fellow members of the Charles Manson "family," robbed the Western Surplus Store in Hawthorne. Their aim? To steal enough weapons to break Manson, and everyone else at San Quentin, out of prison. But a store employee tripped a silent alarm and police from all over the South Bay responded. Rice ended up alongside Manson, his leader, in prison. A product of the hippie movement of the 1960s, Rice was a lifelong rebel. He studied philosophy and religion, looking for meaning. He aligned himself with the Beatnik movement in San Francisco and idolized Allen Ginsburg. But, figuring he ought to settle down, Rice married, had children and moved to Los Angeles. He was selling papers at a newsstand in 1969 when he first learned about Charles Manson. "What spoke to me more than anything else was his eyes," said Rice, now 64. "I saw the picture on the cover of Life magazine and I was just intrigued by the whole concept." Before long, Rice became a member of Manson's "family." He and his children were regulars at the family compound. "I thought (Manson) might be the second coming of Christ," Rice said. But the state wanted to put Manson to death for his role in seven brutal murders. Rice and the family had to do something. They sent Manson hacksaw blades. They drugged and kidnapped witnesses. According to a 1971 Daily Breeze article, Rice was jailed after a prosecution witness was served an LSD-spiked hamburger. And Rice was among those who would steal more than 160 weapons from a Hawthorne store to free his leader. Fast forward 25 years. Rice is a Christian evangelist who travels the world to talk about how Jesus changed his life. The children Rice toted along to the Manson ranch are Church leaders today. Despite Rice's crimes and heinous association with Manson, Torrance pastor Bruce Callahan thinks Rice is the perfect person to talk to South Bay residents about Jesus. "The shock and horror of all that is what gives a platform for the presentation of the power and compassion of Jesus," said Callahan, of The Door Christian Fellowship. Rice, who conducts prison ministries throughout the world and shares his story in the booklet, "Free Indeed," took time out to talk to the Daily Breeze about his past and the message he now feels is his life's mission. Q: You speak to thousands of inmates each year. Are they receptive to your religious message? A: The reason that I am out of prison today and have been out of prison for 25 years and have experienced a complete change in my life was because of those people, free people, who went into the prisons and presented a message and information that could change a man's or woman's life. Believe it or not, inmates are very receptive. Last year, in the prisons of America, just through this one ministry, we saw over 50,000 decisions for Christ. Q: You grew up in a Christian home, but at that time, it didn't appeal to you. A: My parents were nominal Christians. Just as many people in America are religious, they didn't have any kind of real relationship with Christ. Their affiliation with a particular religion didn't necessarily mean they had a personal relationship. Because of that, and because I didn't see any evidence in their lives of what I wanted, I just said, "This isn't for me." I began to develop my own religion, which was a combination of Buddhism and existentialism and philosophy. I thought that Christianity was just too simple-minded, too narrow. I thought well, surely if I get all the world's religions together, then I will have the truth. But ultimately I wound up with a lie because I wound up with myself as my own god. I was still calling the shots and I was still the ultimate authority. Q: What was it about Manson's message that spoke to you? A: I was just intrigued by the whole concept. Then when Rolling Stone magazine did the interview with him and the family, I saw the smiling faces of the family and they looked so bright and so happy I was going, "Wow, this looks like a good thing." What Charlie seemed to be standing for was revolution, and I considered revolution to be a necessity to straighten out the problems in America. In the context of the 1960s, revolution was a possibility. The Black Panthers were blowing up police stations and young people were demonstrating against the war in Vietnam. Kids were hitchhiking from coast to coast and the drugs were coming into American culture. It was a transitory time in history when people were searching for values. It was a time of questioning, we were told to question authority. We wanted to find a deeper meaning so we became spiritually oriented in the 1960s. We were seeking a deeper significance to life than just plain materialism. It bred a generation of people who had a spiritual curiosity. We weren't so much consumed with making a living as we were in finding the meaning of life. Q: And you saw those smiling faces and thought this was worth looking into? A: Yeah. I thought this could play into the revolution. And visiting Charlie, I was just totally blown away by his genius, if you will, because he was able to tell stories that had parables. I had never heard anyone say these things and they all seemed to make sense. And a lot of it did make sense. There was much truth contained in what he had to say. There were actual concerns that they were addressing and problems with the injustice of the system, the insensitivity of people to other people, the racism. All those things were rampant in that generation and the kids were saying, "Well, something's gotta happen." I had heard that Jesus was coming back and here's a guy saying, "I am Jesus." I thought, that's great, he'll come back and settle the score. He's going to set everything right. I took my kids out there and we had family and acceptance and they loved us and we were able to be a part of something that I felt had meaning, so we just really loved being with the family and enjoyed all the benefits of what they were involved in. Q: When it came time to break him out of jail or kidnap and drug witnesses, why were you willing to do that? A: Well, I don't know how you begin to justify it. The ultimate goal was, in my way of thinking at that time, worth whatever we had to do. Ultimately, I felt still the responsibility of my children. I didn't want them to grow up in a society where they were just told they had to conform and were hammered into submission into a cookie-cutter society: Just grow up, go to college and get a job. I thought there had to be something more to life than that. And many people in the '60s believed that also. Q: At the time, did it ever occur to you that this guy might not be who he said he was? A: It didn't start surfacing until I read an article that appeared in a magazine called Prison Evangelism. This was an interview with Charles "Tex" Watson done by the magazine in his prison cell in 1977. That was the first time that I considered the possibility that we might be wrong. Because Tex Watson had come to a knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ, and up until that time I thought Charlie might be Jesus. He said he was. So I thought, if he is, it would certainly be a shame to do to him this time what we did to him last time, which was crucify him. And now we're going to kill this guy in the gas chamber. Q: Was that devastating to consider? Because you had done all this business in the name of this guy who might not be who he seems to be. A: Yes. I was paying with my life for what I had considered to be the truth and now I was faced with the possibility that I might be wrong, and that was hard to accept. I was thoroughly convinced that I needed to find out now, for sure, what was the truth, who was the real Jesus? That caused me to get into the Bible and start reading and I came to know him through reading the Bible. Q: How did you shed the skepticism you had before about Christianity? A: It wasn't easy because I had these preconceived notions that most Christians were simpletons and socially deprived. I was appalled by their self-righteousness and I rejected them part and parcel. But what I had done is I threw the baby out with the bathwater. I rejected Jesus because of what I saw in his people and in his Church. I didn't want any part of that because I felt they were just all a bunch of hypocrites. But then as I came to know him, that gave me a love for his people. Q: How did your life change after this discovery? Were you afraid the Church might reject you? A: It was very scary getting out of prison after being locked up for almost seven years. I got out several times and was put right back in for violation of parole. For anyone getting out of prison, it's a very scary thing. You learn how to deal with your environment while you're in prison, but this environment out here is completely different. You have many decisions to make -- you have to take care of yourself, you have to provide for your own meals and learn how to eat and learn how to drive a car and all the things people do out here. Most people getting out of prison fail at that point. They cannot make the transition. It's too overwhelming. I was afraid that people would not receive me well. But when I came into the Church, those people accepted me without reservation. Not because of me -- I told them I had just gotten out of prison -- but because they believed their God was big enough and was able to change me. They were confident that God had begun a work in me and would continue it, and I would be changed and I would not be a threat and I would not be a danger to their community. Because of their belief in God, I was accepted. I was very surprised that they would trust me and I didn't want to violate their trust. That provided a community for me. I think it's very important for people coming out of prison to be brought into a community of people who will trust them and love them and support them and set an example for them and try to help them deal with the realities of life. It was crucial for me. I think that's why I'm still out here today. Q: Did you, at any time, fear you could be wrong again? A: I didn't really worry about it. I just figured God was in charge. I guess what I'm really talking about is the aspect of surrender, when we really give up on doing things our way and decide to do things God's way. His way is right there in the scriptures. It's my joy to be able to go back into these prisons and tell these guys, "Here's hope. You can get out, you can stay out, you can have your family restored to you. You can have a sane mind and a clean heart. You don't have to do the things you used to do anymore." What a wonderful thing. It's such a joy for me to see that God gave purpose to my life. |
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