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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]former prison volunteer and former public defender here.

Prisoners are generally really lonely and would welcome any conversation just to connect with another human being.  Prisoners are also humans in a very stressful situation and can become needy.  
If I could start from zero, I would talk to them about
family, schooling, work, interests (most prisoners are in for drug crimes and the stalking prisoner is a LifeTime  movie myths).  I Would Not try to help them materially, legally, or even in communicating with their families.  That's not your role and you'll never be able to solve all their problems.  All you can do is show them some [b]Christian kindness. [/b] Good luck and keep in mind that prisoner ministry is not for everyone (but also try to remember that "I was in prison and you visited me").[/quote]

How is Christian Kindness different from kindness from another religion? or from no religion --- just plain old kindness?[/quote]

You have it backwards.

The ancient Romans didn’t believe in kindness at all.  They killed and enslaved millions of people and thought it was a great achievement.   They raped women because women were second class citizens.   They threw babies into trash dumps — literally — because it was perfectly acceptable to avoid having an extra mouth to feed.   They had zero regard for the poor, the disabled, etc.   I could go on and on.  The earliest Christians had the exact opposite takes on everything.  Everything that we take for granted today as solid “liberal”humanitarism finds its roots in Christianity.   So, to be kind in the way that the term is used today, absolutely has Christian roots, whether you like it or not.  It’s a historic fact.

And yet … why did the earliest Christians act this way?  Did they just wake up one morning and decide “let’s be really really really nice to everyone?”   No.  They acted that way because they were inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus and wanted to emulate him.  His life and teachings were the exact opposite of what everything common in those ancient societies — compassion, mercy, grace, reaching out to the lost, a profound respect for women and children, and a life of serving instead of being served.

That’s why people say “Christian kindness” — because it really was different at one point, even if we take it for granted today that this is what all kindness looks like.

To the extent that many Christians in the United States have lost sight of this — and they absolutely have — this says more about those “Christians” than it does about Christianity itself.   [/quote]

This exactly.

We forget that most of the good, the achievement, the beauty in the history of humanity is a result of populations before us turning from human nature and following Jesus Christ. No other religion before or since has come close.[/quote]

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