Mike’s brother David gave me his permission to put Professor Mike Adams’ testimony here. Mike had been a progressive Democrat and an atheist, and he came to follow Christ after a trip to Quito, Ecuador. He died in July 2020.
Mike 的弟弟 David 同意我把 Mike Adams 教授的見證放在這裡。Mike 從前是進步派的民主黨人，也是個無神論者；去過一趟厄瓜多爾的 Quito 之後，他開始跟隨基督。他在二〇二〇年七月離世。
He was an American conservative political columnist and writer, and a professor of criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
他是美國的保守派政治專欄作家，也在 University of North Carolina Wilmington 教犯罪學。
When I was clearing out Mike’s house I came across various mementos of his trip to Ecuador in 1996, such as a picture he took, which are evidence that the trip was a significant life experience for him. But if you followed him long enough you would already know that, because he has written and spoken several times of how this was a crucial first step in his journey back to God.
我在清理 Mike 家裡東西的時候，翻到不少他一九九六年去厄瓜多爾留下來的紀念物，比如他當年拍的一張照片。這些東西說明，那趟旅程對他來說是生命裡的一件大事。不過，如果你跟著他夠久，其實早就知道了。他寫過好幾次，也講過好幾次，那是他回到神面前的第一步，而且是關鍵的一步。
The story is well told in his last book, Letters To A Young Progressive (How To Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don’t Understand), and here is an excerpt.David, Mike’s brother
這件事在他最後一本書《Letters To A Young Progressive (How To Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don’t Understand)》裡講得最完整。下面是其中一段。Mike 的弟弟 David
Mike’s own words Mike 自己的話
As I write, the clouds are descending Pikes Peak and making their way toward my little cabin at the base of the mountain. It is so much like that afternoon in March of 1996, March 7th to be exact, when I walked inside the gates of a prison in the Andes Mountains just outside of Quito, Ecuador. The weather was the same that day, but everything else in my life was different.
我寫這段文字的時候，雲正從 Pikes Peak 往下沉，一路飄向山腳下我那間小木屋。這很像一九九六年三月的那個下午 —— 準確一點說，是三月七日 —— 那天我走進厄瓜多爾 Quito 城外、安地斯山裡的一座監獄。那天的天氣跟今天一樣，但我生命裡其他的一切，都和今天不同。
I was an atheist trying to save the world. I was also a criminologist and an aspiring journalist hoping to change what was going on inside those prison walls. I did not know that what was going on inside those walls would forever change me. The existence of God, the fallen nature of man, and the source of our inalienable rights would all come into focus in a few short hours.
那時候我是個無神論者，想要拯救世界。我也是個犯罪學家，還想做記者，希望能改變那幾道牆裡面正在發生的事。我沒想到，牆裡面發生的事，反過來永遠改變了我。神的存在、人墮落的本性、我們那些不可剝奪的權利從何而來，這幾件事在短短幾個鐘頭裡全都清楚起來。
That prison was the closest thing to hell I had ever seen.
那座監獄，是我見過最接近地獄的地方。
First I made a brief visit inside a 36 square metre cell packed with 45 inmates. There was the unbelievable stench of rotting meat being thrown into vats of boiling water to make it barely edible for the inmates. There were puddles of urine mixed with fecal matter sitting near broken and rotting pipes. There was the young man I saw being beaten badly by baton-wielding guards. I still remember the sound that club made as it struck against his young bones. He was probably no more than 18 years old.
我先進去一間三十六平方米的牢房待了一會兒，裡面塞了四十五個犯人。腐肉被丟進一大鍋滾水裡煮，好讓犯人勉強吃得下去，那股臭味難以想像。破裂、發霉的水管旁邊，積著一攤攤的尿和糞。我還看見一個年輕人被獄警用警棍打得很慘。警棍打在他年輕的骨頭上那個聲音，我到今天還記得。他大概不超過十八歲。
At the end of the prison visit, I met a man who was awaiting trial for petty larceny. Even though the punishment for the offense was usually only a couple of months, he had been in prison for two years awaiting his trial. I spoke to him about his plight. He told me he missed his wife and his little girl. But there was a peace about him that still haunts me to this day.
參觀快結束的時候，我遇到一個因為輕微盜竊在等候審判的人。這種罪通常只判幾個月，可是他已經在監獄裡等了兩年。我跟他聊起他的處境。他說他很想念太太和小女兒。但他身上有一種平安，到今天還留在我心裡，趕不走。
Inside that man’s bunk was a Bible and a picture of Jesus. The man’s eyes teared up as he thanked me for coming to talk to him that day. “No one knows we are here,” he insisted. “No one cares that we exist,” he added as he smiled and shook my hand.
他的床位上放著一本聖經和一張耶穌的畫像。他眼睛泛紅，謝謝我那天過來跟他說話。「沒有人知道我們在這裡。」他一直這樣說。「沒有人在乎我們還活著。」他一邊笑，一邊跟我握手。
There is a statue of the Virgin Mary that sits atop a hill overlooking that small prison. It was the first thing I saw after the guard shut the prison gate behind me. I stood there in the light drizzling rain and stared up at that statue. “I was wrong” were the only words that came to me. As I was looking upward I spoke them audibly.
那座小監獄上方的山頭，立著一尊聖母瑪利亞像。獄警在我背後關上鐵門之後，我第一眼看見的就是它。我站在細雨裡，抬頭看著那尊像。心裡只浮出三個字：「我錯了。」我一邊往上看，一邊把這三個字說了出來。
What I meant to say was that I had been wrong about atheism and the path I had been following for years, a path toward a worldview based on moral relativism. This path led me nowhere. No honest person can witness the things I saw and heard about in that prison and flippantly dismiss them as cultural conventions.
我的意思是，我在無神論這件事上錯了，在我走了那麼多年的那條路上也錯了 —— 那是一條走向道德相對主義的路。那條路把我帶到一個沒有出口的地方。一個誠實的人，看過、聽過我在那座監獄裡看到聽到的事，不可能輕描淡寫地說那只是文化習慣不同。
The clubbing of the boy was simply wrong. Serving rotten meat to prisoners is simply wrong. Shocking confessions out of prisoners by wiring their genitals to car batteries is simply wrong. Telling prisoners they are free to go, shooting them in the back as they are walking out of the prison gates, and then reporting the incident as a thwarted escape attempt is simply wrong.
用警棍打那個男孩，就是錯的。給犯人吃腐肉，就是錯的。把電線接在犯人的生殖器上、另一頭接到汽車電池，用電刑逼出口供，就是錯的。告訴犯人他可以走了，等他走出大門的時候從背後開槍，然後上報說自己阻止了一場越獄，也是錯的。
And, of course, it does not matter where or when such things take place. They are wrong everywhere you go. And they will still be wrong long after you and I are dead. The moral law is not contingent upon our feelings or our perceptions. It stands outside of us and is eternal.
而且這些事在哪裡發生、什麼時候發生，根本不重要。不管你走到哪裡，它們都是錯的。等你和我都死了很久以後，它們還是錯的。道德律不是看我們的感覺，也不是看我們怎麼理解它。它在我們之外，而且是永恆的。
Think about the following question for a moment: If you suddenly decide the law of gravity is untrue, will you go floating off into space? Of course you won’t. It is the same with the moral law. You cannot escape it. It is written on your heart, but it is not bound by the thoughts or feelings of any man.
你想一想這個問題：假如你突然決定地心引力不是真的，你會不會就這樣飄到太空去？當然不會。道德律也是一樣。你逃不掉。它寫在你心裡，卻不受任何人的想法或感覺左右。
That afternoon in Ecuador, I came to understand that the source of that moral law is God. And I believe that God is seen most clearly when we cast our eyes upon abject evil. C.S. Lewis said that the shadow proves the sunshine. The shadow simply cannot exist without the sunshine.
在厄瓜多爾的那個下午，我明白了：道德律的源頭是神。我也相信，當我們把眼睛放在最赤裸的邪惡上面，神反而看得最清楚。C.S. Lewis 說過，影子證明了陽光的存在。沒有陽光，影子根本不可能存在。
That day at the prison is also the point at which my progressive political beliefs began to unravel.
在監獄裡的那一天，也是我的進步派政治信念開始鬆掉的那一刻。