vantage points

When I go to the prison on Tuesday nights the volunteers wait outside of the door for a Corrections Officer to run our things through the x-ray and walk us through a metal detector. Then we walk through a few different check points until we get to the chapel. It is through this process that the volunteers get a chance to talk. One of the volunteers told the rest of us that a 72 year-old man was killed last week. He made a joke saying, "ya know, he fell off of his bunk and was accidentally stabbed 50 times." We all laughed because of the stereotypes that we are accustomed to. Once we were in our groups at the chapel I thought about bringing it up and making a similar joke. I sure am glad that I didn't!!! Why was it so easy for us to make an insensitive joke about the murder of a 72 year old man? Probably because he was an inmate and most of our minds are not tuned into thinking of the sensitivities of inmates. We watch too many movies with big, tough, tattooed men that won't take crap from anyone. Well I can tell you that I gained a new vantage point yesterday.

Three of the men were very upset about the incident because they knew one or both of the men. The one who was killed and his attacker were both professing Christians. They wondered how a Christian man could just do that. It was as if they felt more vulnerable to falling into sin because of it. Many of them were in there for murder, but they were not Christians then. Now, seeing a fellow believer murder someone, they wondered how far they really were themselves from who they were before Christ. We talked about different men of faith who did terrible things as well as the possibility of the attacker not truly knowing Christ as Lord. We prayed for both men and their families and friends. But it was a sober time last night. I am grateful that I could learn from them while I ministered to them.