Month: June 2018

I was in a conversation yesterday about violence. We were reflecting on recent events-a woman shot answering her door, a mother killed during a car jacking in front of her children, gang violence in schools. With each example there was a little more despair, a little more hopelessness. And in frustration we both wondered what could be done.

I have thought about that. Children are taught to be who they are. And as a culture we have to be honest about what we are teaching our children, how we are creating a world where this behavior can be conceived. Unfortunately when you think about the root of this behavior, you come back to the values and examples our children witness every day.

So what to do. Let’s start by taking away the guns. We have a system that makes it way too easy for people to shoot other people. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, there are things we can do to limit the availability of guns in our society. And when we do not, we teach our kids that using guns is acceptable, and that how we use them ultimately doesn’t matter.

Then we might consider how we treat our children. Aside from the obvious, horrifying examples playing out on the news of taking children seeking asylum away from their parents and locking them up, what is the message we send to our children when we underfund education, when we say it is acceptable for a number of them to be hungry or homeless, when we pay daycare providers and teachers low wages? Kids understand that in our culture it is money that is valued and not people. So how can we be surprised when they behave in ways that devalue people?

In the most practical sense we need to widen our circle. We need to love and intentionally form the children in our families to be compassionate and kind, to take care of people and themselves. The impact of this cannot be underestimated. We lead our children into what they become, and we are the examples they have in their lives to see how to be a humane, decent adult.

And we know there are plenty of kids just beyond our reach that need attention, affirmation, a chance to know they matter. There are kids in our neighborhood who are short a parent and could use some attention. There are kids in our schools who need someone to reinforce the values of critical thinking, reading and continuing education. There are kids in our churches who hear us talk about what Jesus would do but don’t always see us doing it, who need to figure out how that plays out in daily life. There are kids in our city who are hungry, homeless, whose parents are making bad choices. They need someone to care and intervene in order to be resilient enough to make good choices when they count.

So, we need to be an example, we need to love beyond our families, we need to send a message with our time and treasure that children in this country and other countries matter! We need to be a part of the solution in whatever way that makes sense for us. We need to speak up when our society, our government, our church acts in ways that devalue any person, take away the humanity of any person. That is how the world begins to change—one loved child at a time.

Because I want to be conscious of the log in my own eye, I have been examining the times when I have called people animals. And I have narrowed it down to two scenarios. The first is at sports competitions when people are achieving spectacularly. I would call someone an animal to lift up their extraordinary speed or strength, in astonishment and awe. In other words, it was a compliment.

The other time was when someone committed a particularly heinous crime, like hurting a child or being a serial killer. I would call these people animals to indicate the lack of humanity towards other people, the lack of human characteristics like compassion and empathy. This was not a compliment.

Now that I hear the President calling people animals, I am ashamed. I have done this, and so I cannot sit on that comfortable moral high ground. I realize that any time we dehumanize anyone, make them seem less that we are, take away the responsibility of being a person, we pave the way for even greater sin. If I don’t see someone as human then when their rights are taken away, when they are treated with disdain and disrespect, when their children are put in cages, I won’t pay attention. I won’t care.

We can only have a safe, holy and dignified world if everyone is my brother and sister, if everyone is equal and regarded with respect, if everyone is held accountable and considered trainable. The minute we treat people as less than people, I can be treated that way. My children can be treated that way. Because the problems and challenges for person at the bottom of the ladder is my problem, because we are part of the Body of Christ together. And any slope that leads to dehumanizing anyone is a slippery slope.

We have to fiercely hold on to each other’s dignity. We have to rigorously protect human rights for every person. We promise this in our baptismal vows. Do not let yourself be goaded into being less than you can be. Do not let someone convince you that any person is not created in the image of God and therefore does not deserve compassion and love. Taking away someone’s dignity demeans your own dignity.

It has to stop somewhere. Time to step up to being a bold Christian.