Tuesday, April 8th, 2025
ABOUT SHAWN TYLER BENSON
Just to remind you, Shawn is the man who killed a woman while he was completely wasted on meth, and later became a born-again Christian in the jail where I served as a volunteer chaplain.
He called me last week to tell me a story of how he’s serving God in a high-security prison in Minnesota. He’s become a resident chaplain there now and works with the chaplain who’s been hired to minister to all prisoners.
The chaplain asked him to speak with a prisoner struggling with his faith, and Shawn met with him in the chapel later that same day. This individual told Shawn he was falsely accused of a crime for which he was serving a long sentence. Shawn believed him, and so do I. In my experience, I found that inmates freely admitted their crimes to me, some even for offenses they hadn’t been charged with. They needed to confess to someone and felt I was a person they could trust. I expect the same is true for Shawn. In my twenty years in prison ministry, I have had very few inmates tell me they were wrongly accused, and it often turned out they weren’t falsely accused out of the blue. They were in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time and got caught up in a crime scene even though they didn’t commit the offense. For instance, one man told me he was with someone selling drugs when that person threw a large bag of meth into his car just as the police arrived.
When Shawn met with his fellow prisoner, he listened attentively to his story of being wrongly accused. After a time of prayer, Shawn shared with him the story of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, who spent about two years in an Egyptian prison before being freed by Pharaoh and made second in command during a time of famine in the land. This gave the young man a perspective that brought him a measure of peace.
As they continued sharing details of their lives in the chapel, it came to light that this fellow knew the young woman Shawn had murdered. Shawn and I both reflected that only in God’s Kingdom here on earth could something like this happen. Shawn will be serving 28 years in prison for his crime, but he’s happier and more at peace than many of the people I encounter in my life because he has the time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ that not many people outside of a prison or jail have.
April 8th, 2025 at 8:44 pm
Pat, Shawn’s story has always amazed me. It’s so wonderful to know he’s doing so well and multiplying the ministry you invested in him – which led him to a new life in Christ.