Good & Bad
Saturday I was sitting at a local prison with a group of guys having a 12 step meeting. For 14 months I've been one of the volunteers that's had the privilege of helping start this group. This group doesn't help them with the parole board so they participate for their own benefit.
I've been very surprised at how connected I feel with these guys. They've helped me break down my stereotypes of what people in prison are like. If they weren't in prison, I would like to have some of these men as friends. A couple would be great mentors. A couple other guys could mentor me in faithful praying.
Watching some of them grow so much in the past year has been satisfying. They are becoming new people. They are changing. They are becoming alive to God, alive to others & alive to themselves. Prison has been a place where they hit rock bottom. They're facing their crimes & addictions and are moving toward sobriety & healing. Right now some are monitoring, teaching and sponsoring other inmates.
I don't know all the details of why each guy is in prison. Each of them is there because they've done some bad things to other people. The pain they have caused others is evident in their stories. I'm sure that pain would be even more evident if I talked to the victims.
Before I started volunteering in the prison, I would have looked at some of these inmates and said, lock em up, throw away the key. They are bad people, a danger to society.
But, what if people are changing, growing, becoming a different kind of person so they would never do those terrible things again? Is there room for them in our society? Yes, there must be!
For me the challenge has been being able to see that these men, like all of us, are a mix of good & bad. Because of the greater degree of injury, their bad seems more pronounced. I'm ready to give them a second chance at blessing people instead of hurting people. They have blessed me. They have a lot of good to give.
I've been very surprised at how connected I feel with these guys. They've helped me break down my stereotypes of what people in prison are like. If they weren't in prison, I would like to have some of these men as friends. A couple would be great mentors. A couple other guys could mentor me in faithful praying.
Watching some of them grow so much in the past year has been satisfying. They are becoming new people. They are changing. They are becoming alive to God, alive to others & alive to themselves. Prison has been a place where they hit rock bottom. They're facing their crimes & addictions and are moving toward sobriety & healing. Right now some are monitoring, teaching and sponsoring other inmates.
I don't know all the details of why each guy is in prison. Each of them is there because they've done some bad things to other people. The pain they have caused others is evident in their stories. I'm sure that pain would be even more evident if I talked to the victims.
Before I started volunteering in the prison, I would have looked at some of these inmates and said, lock em up, throw away the key. They are bad people, a danger to society.
But, what if people are changing, growing, becoming a different kind of person so they would never do those terrible things again? Is there room for them in our society? Yes, there must be!
For me the challenge has been being able to see that these men, like all of us, are a mix of good & bad. Because of the greater degree of injury, their bad seems more pronounced. I'm ready to give them a second chance at blessing people instead of hurting people. They have blessed me. They have a lot of good to give.
posted by Kevmo at 1:16 AM
2 Comments:
Hey Kev
I get what your saying. I think there has to be room for redemption also but the problem is this: If I have a friend who I know has had a history of abusing cats would I ask him to watch mine for the weekend? No matter how much I see change in him, I don't know if I could ever trust him with an animal I love. How do I love him with everything I have if I can't trust him with everything I have? It's an over simplistic example but I think it illustrates the problem in a free society with people who have been abusive toward others in the society. How do you trust them? How can you write laws to protect potential victims from somebody who is redeemed but still human and capable of falling back into old behaviors like all of us can and still give them the freedom we all enjoy? Or do you? Big questions. I don't know the answers. I do know that when I have children, if I learned someone who has abused children moved into the house next door, no matter what kind of work that person did or how absolutely, sincerely redeemed they are I would have a hard time letting my kids outside when I'm not around. My neighbor may have earned my respect by being obedient and faithful to God and turning his life around but he has also earned my distrust by stepping into such destructive behavior to begin with.
I struggle with the lock them up and throw away the key thing. It's just safer to those who are truly innocent. It's hard to take a chance when the stakes are so high. How do I as a man who has been given the job of protecting someone so vulnerable take that chance? The compassionate side of me wants to but I don't know that I can, even if it is unfair to the person who has experienced redemption.
Great post Kevmo. I agree - there is healing that takes place behind bar for those who allow Jesus to do it. Sethmo's right - the trust factor makes it very difficult for the felon to return to society. But once we get to know a person's heart, we realize how fine that line of steel bars is between those on the outside and those within. We're all capable of inflicting great harm. God help us.
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