Ex-gang member helping ex-cons get on track
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Former gang member Matthew Taufetee leads Life After Prison, a residential,
faith-based program at Pacific Islander United Methodist Church in Honolulu.
A UMNS photo by John Coleman.
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A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Nov. 13, 2007
While many "preacher's kids" have a reputation for trouble, Matthew Taufetee may be the worst "PK" of all.
At 14, Taufetee joined a gang and began stealing purses from elderly
women. By the time he was 28, he had been in prison twice for violent
crimes and was addicted to alcohol and crystal methamphetamine.
"I kept hearing stories that pastor's kids are the worst," he said. "I can testify to why we are the worst."
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Taufetee (left) became involved in gangs when he was 14 and
served prison time for manslaughter. A UMNS photo courtesy of Matthew
Taufetee.
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Taufetee's father, a United Methodist pastor, often was called to help
the "guys who were making trouble." But those were the same guys with
whom Taufetee clicked as a teenager.
His first prison term came when he almost beat a man to death with his
bare fists. His second sentence was for stabbing another man to death
with a knife from his mother's kitchen.
Three months after he was in jail on murder charges, word came that a
rival gang had killed his brother in retaliation for Taufetee's crime.
"I felt responsible for taking my brother's life," he said.
"At that time I didn't really know about God even though I went to
church. I had people writing letters to me from different churches
telling me 'God loves you,' but I never really took that to heart."
After many hard years and many relapses, Taufetee finally turned his
life around and founded "LAP," or Life After Prison, a faith-based
program that integrates former prison inmates back into the community.
He is also a lay minister at Pacific Islander United Methodist Church
where his father, the Rev. Faaagi Taufetee, is pastor.
A life apart
Today, Taufetee finally has a loving relationship with his parents.
One of six children, he always had "issues" with church and also with
his Samoan, native Hawaiian family. When they moved to the Honolulu
suburb of Salt Lake for a new pastoral appointment, Taufetee felt like
an outcast because they were the only Samoan family.
"We grew up with strict parents who did the best they could in trying to
discipline us, but I just held a lot of things in and I became bitter,"
he said. "Eventually I just started turning to the wrong crowd."
Bloods and Crips, two notorious rival gangs that started on the
mainland, came to Salt Lake, where Taufetee became associated with the
worst gang in Hawaii: BSB, for Bad Samoan Bloods.
"They made me feel special," he recalls. "They were always encouraging me, but little did I know they were only feeding my ego."
“I really felt this was something I could
do — share the same love of God that I really felt and let them know
that God loves them and there is hope.” –Matthew Taufetee
At 17, Taufetee became the chauffer for one of the biggest drug dealers
in Waikiki. In 1987, he was charged with attempted murder after beating a
guy with his bare fists. "Till this day, he is brain dead," he said. "I
had to go to jail that time for attempted murder, but my dad got me out
of supervised release to home, which I know now was probably a
mistake."
After another gang-related fight, the victim died. Taufetee was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
"I had a chance of coming out at three and a half years, but they let me
out on furlough and I went straight to my gang friends and ended up
partying. I went back to jail under the influence."
The violation added another year to his sentence, and he spent 30 days
in solitary confinement. "I was just by myself with a toilet for 30 days
during my birthday, Christmas and everything," he said.
After completing his sentence, Taufetee quickly rediscovered gangs and
drugs. By this time, however, his father was transferred to Torrance,
Calif. For the first time in his life, he didn't have his family to fall
back on.
Burden lifted
It took "Men of WAR" to finally get him back to God.
Those Christian men of WAR (Wisdom, Authority and Righteousness) followed Taufetee into the bars where he was partying and told him about Jesus.
"I really didn't care to hear anything about the word of God because I
felt I was a pastor's son and I was going to heaven. That's what I
believed. I was so lost," he recalls.
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Life After Prison helps former inmates return to community life. A UMNS
Web-only video image.
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Taufetee finally relented, though, and went to church at the Word of
Life Christian Center. "I remember seeing this Mexican pastor just
ministering the Word, and all it took was for him to say 'Jesus loves
you.' It was a feeling I cannot describe. I felt like the burden was
lifted finally and I felt like I had a future."
His parents moved back to Hawaii and started Pacific Islander United
Methodist Church, where Taufetee began attending to support his father.
During this time, Taufetee began to envision a program to help other
people like himself when they are released from prison. "LAP" was
launched with a grant from the United Methodist Commission on Religion
and Race.
"They (prisoners) come back wanting to do this and that, to get a
relationship back with a girl or get a relationship back with their
kids, and they never really work with the issues that caused them to go
to prison in the first place," he said.
In Hawaii, one stipulation for prison release is that the inmate gets a
full-time job. The first hurdle begins when they have to check the box
that asks if they have been convicted of a felony. "Nobody wants to hire
a felon," he said. "They don't get called in for interviews, and it
kind of leads these guys to go right back to the same thing."
Because Taufetee has walked the same path, he gets a lot of respect from ex-prisoners.
"I really felt this was something I could do — share the same love of
God that I really felt and let them know that God loves them and there
is hope."
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Profile
Matthew Taufetee
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