These poems are presented as entries in a prisoner's diary - one who is, by implication a prisoner of conscience. These entries, preceded by a brief prelude hinting at recurring themes, represent his thoughts and memories. He does not focus all the time on the daily realities of imprisonment - how could he, and remain still sane? He looks back in time, remembering people and places, all the while visited - indeed, illuminated - by a white dove, whose presence represents to him peace, love, freedom, enlightenment and, above all, in her coming and going, hope. But when the dove makes her final return, looking through the window bars she sees an empty cell. He has been released, love has triumphed. But has release been achieved because a government willed it, or by his passing beyond this mortal life? Let the reader decide.
Adrian Pierce Rogers was an American pastor, conservative, author, and a three-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rogers was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and decided to enter into the Christian ministry at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University. Rogers was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church (now known as The Village Baptist Church) in West Palm Beach. In 1972, he became the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, where he remained until March 2005. During this period, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to 27,000, and the church moved into a new, megachurch facility.
Rogers was instrumental in the Southern Baptist denomination's shift towards the right that began in the late 1970s, as he was elected president of the denomination during a theological controversy within the denomination. He published eighteen books and is featured on the internationally-available radio and television program, Love Worth Finding, which is broadcast in English and Spanish.
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