Knowing too much

Working as a volunteer with inmates at a prison, sometimes it's best to not know too much. You know they are in prison, but you don't know what they did or what were the circumstances. You can just accept them at face value. No labels except they are in prison.

As you get to know each other through your volunteer organization, in my case, a men's chorus, you begin to form an image of each person based on your own personal interaction with them. Are they serious, are they always joking around, are they distant, are they too personal, etc.

Sometimes someone tells you more than you want to hear. Details about their mental health, episodes from their childhood, a vague or vivid description of their crime. What do you do with this information?

You are not trained as a priest or a counselor. You can not say, "Your sins are forgiven. Do this for penance. Go and sin no more." You can not say, "How did you feel when . . . ? Can you forgive yourself and move on with your life?"

Now a label forms in your mind. You have an easy way to describe your inmate: a bank robber, an alcoholic, a drug addict, a wife abuser, a murderer, a pedophile, a con artist, etc.

Can you ever go back and relate to your inmate as a human being, now that you have this label in your head? Must you move on to a new inmate, one you don't know as well?

Why can a little knowledge be such a dangerous thing?

Sometimes I think I would like to stay in a safe, naive, non-judgmental place. Jesus said, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven" (Luke 6:37) and "I was in prison and you visited me" (Mt. 25:36).

But now I know too much. I need to grow into this knowledge and learn what to do with it.