I found this article about Mel Gibson’s fall from grace on People of the Second Chance’s Twitter feed. At first glance you may not think the article is germane for a prison ministry blog (though Mel has had his run-ins with the law). But there’s a good point here about how we see people once they’ve messed up. In Mel’s situation, drunk driving arrests, anti-Semitic tirades, and a more recent domestic abuse incident make for a good case study.
Author Max Dubinsky takes an empathetic tone in “Giving Mad Max a Second Chance,” which seems all the more relevant when thinking of ex-prisoners.
What if you had to write down the worst thing you’ve ever done every time you applied for a job? This thing, it’s all you are known for. No matter how good you once were, all people can now see are the bad things.
We all say things we could never imagine when we’re pushed too close to the edge. We’ve taken drinks we regret. We’ve gotten behind the wheel when we should have stayed home.
At the end of the day, Gibson is just another human being. He’s just like you and me. No matter how many Oscars sit on his mantel. God sees His sins equal to yours.
Dubinsky explores how close we all are to doing something really stupid. Considering some of the things mentioned in this article, the only thing that has kept me from a 5-7 prison term when I was younger is God’s grace – a thought that is quite sobering.
Now think for a moment about an ex-prisoner reentering society. Whether he or she is applying for a job, meeting new friends at church or just going home and seeing the neighbors again, the prospective employer, church folk, and neighbors will all be tempted to see only “the bad things.”
Some will say that these are simply the consequences of criminal behavior and that proving rehabilitation is the ex-prisoner’s burden to bear. True. But it can’t happen without an act of the will on your part to give someone a second chance.