Tag Archives: violence

We have a choice

28 Monday May 2018

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There are many in this world that think that the only way to get what they want is through force.  Some will choose violence to get what they want and what they think is right.  Violence can come in many forms – physical, verbal, mental, emotional, etc.  It can come through dehumanizing comments, how people are treated, and by destroying property of targeted groups and individuals.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

There are many in this world who live their life in fear – fear of “those” people who are coming here.  They fear they will lose something – maybe the status quo, maybe some kind of rights or privlege, maybe a job or a job opportunity, maybe their definition of “normal.”  And so these people who live by fear and in fear strike out.  When someone feels cornered, sometimes they strike out.  Especially when that person had authority, or power.  They have lost their status and get angry about losing it.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

Yesterday I saw a video that showed a “Christian” family videotaping themselves going around degrading a Mosque – teaching their children hatred of Muslims and tearing down fliers about the Mosque.  There was dehumanizing language about Muslims.  This video was on Facebook, and it was meant to show how some people are hate filled.  Unfortunately, all these videos really do is give free rein to the message that is being proclaimed – a message of hate.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

We can respond in kind – saying all sorts of terrible things about this family.  We don’t have to think very hard to come up with some very harsh comments, belittling statements.  We don’t have to work very hard to dehumanize the dehumanizers.

But does that make us any better?  Or are we just using the same tactics that have been used – an in doing so, legitimizing the approach?

Oh how badly I wanted to let my comments rip this family a new one.  Oh how badly did I want to label them.  Oh how badly did I want to respond in anger.  Oh how badly.  My insides were hot with rage.

And yet, we have a choice of how we respond.

As I was watching, willingly exposing myself to this anger and fear, a small voice inside me whispered a passage of Scripture – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

The whisper was powerful and strong in a different way than the anger.  It offered words that touched the very heart of me.  It offered words that I needed to hear.  It offered words that others needed to hear.

And so I posted parts of this passage of Scripture in the comment section, along with a prayer.  A prayer that highlighted a response of love.

We have a choice in how we respond.

We can’t control what others will do, but we can control how we respond.

For those of us that are Christians, or Christ-followers, the question is this – do we really believe Jesus?  Do we really believe that love will win?  Do we really that peace is a way of life and not a destination – it is the now, not someday?  Do we really believe that love will conquer?  Do we really believe that 1 John 5:3-5?

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Do we really believe?

We have a choice in how we respond.

Here is what I will be doing going forward, when I see a disturbing or upsetting or angering or fear-filled article, video, or comment – I will be responding to it with Scripture and prayer.  I don’t promise that I’ll do this for everything – but for ones that I feel a response is necessary.

We don’t stop fear and anger and violence and hatred and prejudice and the -isms through fear and anger and violence and hatred and labeling.  We stop it by changing the focus completely.  You can’t put a fire out by adding more gasoline.  You can’t stop a war by dropping more bombs.  You can’t stop shootings by adding more bullets.  You can’t stop hatred by adding more anger.  You can’t stop fear by adding more anxiety.  You can’t stop dehumanizing by dehumanizing in response.

You stop it by changing it – you change how you respond.  You change how you talk and interact.  You change how you show respect.  You change by loving, being peaceful, offering mercy and grace. You change without expecting others will change, but inviting them to change too.  Jesus didn’t confront the Empire or the Temple authorities by using violence.  He didn’t use the same tactics that those in authority used.  He presented an alternative way of living, and invited others to participate in this way of living.  And by doing so, he change the world.

We have a choice in how we respond.

I choose this.  I invite you to join in.  Especially if you are tired of being angry, living in fear, and being upset at the world.  There is another way.  You don’t have to be fluent in Scripture – you can google passages that seem appropriate to the situation.  If you are going to respond, respond out of faith and love.  We have a choice in how we respond.

Live the way that Christ calls us to live.  Some will join in, some won’t.  You can’t control it.  But there will be an impact.  It’s how the world is conquered.

We have a choice in how we respond.  Respond well.  Offer a response that changes the world.

The appeal of violence

17 Thursday May 2018

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Violence has an appeal to it.

This may sound surprising to you.  But think about it a bit.  Violence makes up a great deal of our entertainment – from movies about war and crime to our professional sports that celebrate the hard hit.

Violence is celebrated when we attack whoever is considered the enemy.  Think back to the celebration that erupted with the news of Osama Bin Laden being killed.

But violence goes beyond just the physical.

We experience violence when we drive – how many times have you or have you wanted to give the finger to another driver on the road?  Or have it happen to you?  Or just witnessed road rage?

We hear stories of violence in relationships with others, even those that people claim to love.  We hear yelling and screaming.  We see violence through social media – people who are distant politically or on other identifications yelling at each other, demeaning and dehumanizing one another.  We may even participate in any number of these things ourselves.

We hear violent rhetoric from world leaders threatening others with weapons of mass destruction.

Violence has a great appeal – it is used often.

The late Walter Wink is quoted as saying “We trust in violence because we are afraid.”

I think there is great wisdom in this.  We are afraid that we won’t be in control, and so we turn to violence to get our way.  And it usually works. But it’s not a permanent solution or a solution that causes others to change internally.  People will comply when threatened with violence, but they will also look for a way to either escape it or return the violence.  Violence doesn’t bring about a positive change long-term.  It doesnt’ produce a thriving life.  It is totally focused on the short-term.  And, like any drug, it requires a greater dosage as time goes on.

How do we conquer the world?  The world answers with two answers – force and might.   The world conquers through violence and fear.  And it always falls and fails in the long run.  Once the person who has been doing violence to another goes away, there are very few who will remember fondly that person.  And they shouldn’t.  Violence leads to death.

Instead, Scripture gives us another option.  In 1 John 5:4, we are told:

for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

And John 3:16 says:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Violence doesn’t conquer the world.  It just brings destruction.  Faith and love conquer the world.  Not just for a short time, unlike violence, but for eternity.

Faith and love are both vulnerable.  It’s scary to be vulnerable.  And so when we are afraid, we turn to violence.  We take matters into our own hands.  We enact our own version of justice.  We put ourselves in the place of God.  And we end up suffering the consequences of these decisions.

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

(Matthew 26:52)

Put your sword down Christ-follower.  We are not called to fear and violence.  We are called to vulnerability – faith and love.

Headline: American Mosque plans to bless assault rifles, associates them with the coming of Allah

23 Friday Feb 2018

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Yesterday I read an article about a mosque in America that is planning on blessing assault rifles and associates these weapons with the will of Allah so that infidels can be crushed.  And the mosque is near a school.

What is your reaction to that?

Are you upset?  Do you feel anger at these people?  Are ready to fight?  Are you thinking about how we should nuke them before they get us?  Do you want to burn the mosque down and deport people? Are you sitting there calling them names?  Do you feel fear?  Do you feel the urgency to take action to prevent a tragedy?

Let those feelings linger for a bit.  Allow them to do their work in you.  Fully embrace those feelings that are besieging you.

Feel the righteous indignation.  Let it burn through your body.

Now what if I told you that I misled you a little bit – by changing just a couple of words.  Change mosque to church.  Change coming of Allah with the second coming of Jesus.

That was the real story that I read.

Read it here – http://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/02/pa_church_plans_to_bless_assau.html 

Has your reaction changed from when it was a story about Muslims?  Now that it’s about “Christians” do you have the same reaction, the same anger, the same fear?  Are you ready to take action?  Or are you less worried because it is a fringe “Christian” church that is blessing assault rifles near a school.

If your reaction is different – why?  Why is it ok for a “Christian” church to bless the means of violence and death, when we are told that God will return and beat swords into plowshares?  Why is it that we have hardly a reaction to when a “Christian” church plans to gather a whole bunch of people who feel so threatened by the world that they need to protect themselves with assault rifles?  Why is it that we don’t speak up when “Christians” take up arms and declare they are doing the will of God – a will that focuses on wrath, death, and destruction?  Why do we willingly stand by as “Christians” who buy into bad theology, try to usher us into some kind of apocalyptic war of destruction?

Why?

If you believe that God is only a God of wrath, then I’m telling you right now – you have got a lot to learn.  How do you match that up with Jesus?  You know the one that our entire religion is based on.

How do you match up your claims that God is going to bring destruction upon the world with Revelation 22 where God renews, restores, and transforms creation, and then comes down from heaven to dwell with us for all eternity?  How do you match up your claims that God wants us to seek out violence and destroy God’s enemies with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew?

Yes, the Old Testament is full of wrath and anger and fear and death and destruction.  And yes, much of it is done in the name of God, supposedly by God’s orders.  This is where people make arguments like this church doing a blessing of assault rifles.

Yet, do you ever wonder, how could a God who is so wrathful and vengeful and willing to order genocide because of having short fuse be the same as Jesus?

This isn’t an argument for two different Gods.  That would be heresy.  Instead, it is an argument about hermeneutics.  It’s an argument about the reality that we have had human editors of the bible that carry their own agenda.  That doesn’t mean that God is absent.  It means that the essence of the bible is that it is a story about God’s relationship with humanity and the rest of creation.  A relationship that is broken because of sin.  A story of God always coming to us – to forgive us, to offer grace, to transform us.

Yes, God has wrath – wrath about sin.  God is a God of justice.  And God is a God of love and forgiveness.  We can’t ignore these aspects of God.  Nor should we.  And we, who are Christians – the very people who claim Jesus’ name – should not ignore Jesus either.  Jesus didn’t pick up an assault rifle.  He picked up a cross and carried it to death in order to defeat death.  Not through armed rebellion, but through self-giving and self-emptying love.  That is a blessing to us.  Thanks be to God.

Idols

06 Friday Oct 2017

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An idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

The definition sounds more harmless than it really is.  Especially in light of one statement by Jürgen Moltmann, the German theologian.  In his book The Crucified God, he states the following about idols:

There is no threat to man which arouses more hostility than to threaten his idols or those of his group.

Let that sink in for a moment.  It’s a powerful statement of truth.

Want to see how this plays out in the world.  Just take a look at wars and violence – where those things are occurring, there’s a good chance that there has been a threat to another person’s or group’s idol.

The danger with idols isn’t that they separate us from the true God of the universe.  It’s the byproduct of putting our faith in these idols.  When the idols are what we put our salvation in, then they are bound to fail us.  And we have to commit ourselves even more to them.  It’s like a black hole – sucks everything within its gravitational pull and ends up destroying it and everything around it.

Why evil is allowed to exist

05 Thursday Oct 2017

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This is an age-old question – If we have a good God, then how could a good God allow evil to exist?

Good question.  And like most really good questions, there are very few answers.

The reason this question has been asked so much over the centuries is because there isn’t a good answer.  And I don’t have a good answer either.

Someone asked me this questions today during a bible study.  My answer went something like this – Because God is love.  And love doesn’t force its way into others or force others to do things.  That wouldn’t be love.  Love invites, but doesn’t force.  Love allows.  And sometimes that’s really painful.  But would it be love if God forcefully changed humanity instead of inviting us to relationship with God?

Is it a good answer?  I don’t know.  But it is my attempt to rationalize why evil is allowed to exist.  And maybe that’s the problem.  We think we have to have all the answers to life’s many questions.  Including the questions that have no real answer.

You want a real honest answer to the question of why evil is allowed to exist?  Because it is.  It’s a part of our existence and is comes from sin.

That’s probably not a satisfying answer to anyone, yet, it’s probably closer to the truth than anything else I’ve heard.  And even then, it’s still way off the mark.

But this hits a wider issue – difficult questions and problems.  Things like why violence happens, why abuse occurs, why wars break out, why senseless murders and mass shooting happen.  Too often we want a silver bullet solution – something that seemingly makes sense and can solve the problem.

The problem with this is that all of these problems involve people.  And people are complicated and messy.  If we could legislate away evil, then we would have by now.  If there was a nice easy fix, then I figure we would have done it by now.

Legislation may very well be a part of the solution.  But we are kidding ourselves dangerously if we believe that it is the sole or even most important solution.  We have a heart problem.  We have a culture problem.  We have a sin problem.  These problems certainly come out in the form of gun violence, but they also come out in the form of other violence too.  And what criminal justice looks like.  And how we do education.  And our focus on sick care instead of actual health care.  And our entertainment.  And the fact that our nation was founded on the basis of mistrust.  And…

Do you see why a simple solution to this problem isn’t so simple.  It’s mixed up with a whole bunch of issues.  You can’t just address one and think that it will be that simple.  This requires a change in culture, which doesn’t have over night.  It requires a change in attitude.  It requires a change in how we view our neighbor and who our neighbor is.  It requires a change of the heart and mind.

But we’d rather not deal with that – we’d rather just deal with the material.  It’s much easier to control.  But it will never solve the problem.  It’s much more complex than that.  It’s about humanity.

Before the next Las Vegas

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

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Before the next Las Vegas happens, and it will, can we be honest with each other for just a moment or possibly longer?

I’m going to take that as a yes.

I’m sickened by these shootings.  I’m also sickened by all the distractions that we pay attention to and claim are important, but really aren’t.  Are you?

I’m tired of responding.  If all we ever do is respond, we’ll never lead and offer an alternative.  We’ll be too busy responding to each violent action that happens.  And it will never change.

I refuse to be afraid.  Afraid of death, afraid of ridicule, afraid of having someone being upset with me over something I say or write.

This is the time for the church to be church.  To stop being a social club and to start living out the mission that Jesus sent us out on.

The culture has stopped giving preference to the church.  And that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.  We don’t end up with cheap membership that way – a whole bunch of people who come to church, but refuse to be church.

What does it mean to be church, especially in the age of mass shootings and terror?  It means that we tell the truth – that many humans are violent and destructive when left to their own device.  It means we offer confession and forgiveness.  We can’t shy away from sin.  It is real, just like evil.  Sin is a broken relationship, or rather many broken relationships.  And these breaks aren’t just metaphorical – they are real.  They rear their ugly head in yelling and screaming, in abuse, in violence, in manipulation, in addiction, and in death.  These are very real in our society and in the world.

To be church doesn’t mean we go around pointing the finger of blame.  It means that we offer the gift of forgiveness and a changing life and world.

Being church doesn’t mean we focus our effort on making the bad good, but rather on showing how Jesus brings the dead to life.  If Jesus is just a nice guy who had nice things to say, then he’s no different from any other guru who walked the face of the earth and hawks a book on self-help.  But that’s not who Jesus is and it’s not who the church worships.

The church is a beacon of light in the midst of darkness.  The church offers a message of hope in a hopeless world that would rather point the finger of blame, throw money or legislation at the problem as the sole solution, and then distract people from the pain they are experiencing.  There’s another Tweet or celebrity break up or sporting event to talk about don’t you know.

Here’s something else – the church exists to point out the reality of pain and suffering, not change the subject.  Forcing us to deal with the pain and suffering and death is a gift that this society doesn’t appreciate, but people desperately need.

We see this in every funeral.  As a pastor, part of what I am called to do is point out the reality of death in our midst.  The body is right there in front of us – either in a coffin or in an urn.  The person hasn’t been whisked away to a magical place.  No, they are right there in front of us.  Death is real.  It’s painful for those who are looking at it in the face.  It sucks.  And we shouldn’t distract ourselves from that either.  We should look at death in the face and be uncomfortable by it.

Because it is in being really uncomfortable that we finally let the walls that protect us from reality down – the walls we build around our hearts and ears.  We are finally ready to hear that death is there and that at some point death is coming for us and will get us.  It’s at this point that we can admit that death scares many of us.  It feels so final.

It’s when we are most uncomfortable, most hurting, most suffering in life that we know the reality of death.  And that’s not the end of the story.  God is the end of the story.  God’s promise of resurrection is the rest of the story.  The amazing power of God isn’t the miracles we experience throughout our lives – although they are amazing.  No, rather, I argue that the most amazing thing is resurrection – bringing the dead back to life.  Not just picking up where we left off, but rather in a renewed life where death will be no more because death does not have the final say.

The church has a message that is truly transformative – that an encounter with Jesus changes lives.  That an encounter with Jesus means the dead will be brought to life.  That an encounter with Jesus means that the status quo isn’t satisfactory any more – Jesus presents an alternative.

Church, now is the time, if ever there was a time, for us to be church.  To claim the mantle of sinner and saint.  To live lives of confession and forgiveness.  To proclaim the reality around us and the alternative that God is unfolding before us.  To do all this in the midst of the chaos of sin and death.

God is changing our lives as we speak.  Are we going to respond in doubt because we can’t see it and so we don’t live out this faith that is given to us because we just aren’t sure?  Are we going to respond in doubt because God isn’t doing it the way we would prefer and because God is messing up our comfortable lives?  Or are we going to respond in trust, not knowing what the path forward will look like, but knowing full well that God’s unfolding reality is far better than the alternative that this world offers?

Are we going to respond by trying to be safe?  Or are we going to risk it all?  The safe choice leads to more of the same.  It leads to certain death.  The risky response means we recognize we aren’t in control.  That God has a mission for us.  And that it is costly.  We’ll experience death – death of control, death of certainty, death of egotism, death of safety, death of more.  But in those deaths, Jesus will bring new life – life so much better than anything we try to hold onto.  Life in the Spirit, life in love, life in community, life in forgiveness, life in mercy, life in grace, life in care, life in peace.  Life.

God promised life.  God invites us to participate in that life.  How will you respond?

We are so removed from violence

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

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So for Holy Thursday, last week, I made a last minute decision to add in a specific prayer of intercession for the victims of violence, terror, and war.  I came across a website (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_April_2017) which lists terrorist incidents in the world.  It lists them by day, with the number of victims, and the location.  If you want, you can go to the bottom of the page and see incidents for a specific year or month.

During the prayers, I only read off the locations for incidents that happened between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday.  There were 25 incidents in those 5 days.  25.  Let that sink in for a moment.

In the US we are so far removed from violence and terrorism.  Yes, there are incidents here and there, but they are pretty rare compared to places like Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan which seems to dominate the list.

25 incidents across the world.  And that’s just related to terrorism.  That’s not counting war or war-acts, like when we bombed “militants” in Syria and killed 36 militants.  Or other wars – either declared or happening anyway.

And that’s not counting other acts of violence that happen in the world each day.  Violence against women and children, violence in the form of crime, violence because of gangs.  Those are traditionally thought of as violence.  Some would throw in violence against nature in that mix along with violence against animals.  There’s plenty of that to go around as well.

Death and destruction seem to have a hold on the planet and humanity in particular.

Yet here we are post-Easter.  We are told that Jesus has conquered death.  But sometimes it’s hard to believe it when we see violent acts continuing.  Sometimes even in God’s name.

But Jesus never said there would be no more death or violence.  Just that death has been conquered.  That means that death does not have the final say.  Death is not the end of the story.  Ultimately, God has the final say.  And while we may not like the fact that violence continues to stubbornly exist along with death, we have been promised that these things will come to an end.  It’s just not on our time.  It’s a reminder that time didn’t start when we were born and it doesn’t end when we die.  God looks at time far different than we do.

For the month of April, 2017, there have been 78 incidents as of this writing.  There were too many dead and injured to count up.  Death keeps rearing it’s head – in the name of God, in the name of country, in the name of ideology, in the name of theology, in the name of whatever.  Yet, regardless of whose name it happens, or rather it is claimed in, we should remember this – just because something is claimed in the name of God or country, doesn’t mean God or the country agrees with it.  I imagine God is looking upon humanity and saying – “here we go again…When will they ever learn…I don’t desire conformity of belief, but rather love.”  And God will continue to live out that love in creation.

Jesus’ politics

23 Thursday Feb 2017

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Yesterday I introduced you to The Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen.  Here’s another snippet from the book.  It’s actually from the author writing to a friend who is reviewing his book, chapter by chapter.

Jesus expected radically changed political circumstances but did not expect that they would be brought about through political change. His aim was “political,” but it was to come about without politics.  God would realize this aim. And that meant that people were not to achieve this aim by treating others violently. Nor, however, were they to be completely passive.

(pg. 92)

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know that this paragraph caught my attention like a crazy man.  This may be, in my opinion, one of the best summations I have ever read on Jesus being political.

This is the separation between being political and being partisan.  Jesus was here to unfold the Kingdom of God, to bring out a new reality – a reality that has a new governance too.  He wasn’t here to do this through violence.  He wasn’t here to exchange one empire for another. He isn’t involved in our world to shift power between two faulty and failing political partisan forces who only care about power.

Jesus has a different aim.  And we are a part of it.  We participate in Jesus’ aim when we live out his call for us – to be peacemakers, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute, to offer mercy, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, the visit the sick and imprisoned, to care for the widow and the orphan.  That’s Jesus’ political platform in a nutshell.

Now is the time…

22 Wednesday Feb 2017

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For one of my seminary classes, we are reading The Shadow of the Galilean, by Gerd Theissen.  It’s a fictional account of a man, Andreas, who lived during the same time as Jesus in Galilee.  Andreas has many things happen to him and in the course of his adventures, he comes across a range of people who all have various opinions about Jesus and his teachings.  In one such conversation, Andreas is talking with a friend of his who is a Zealot – someone committed to getting Rome out of Israel.  Here’s what Andreas’ friend had to say:

Without the pressure of force nothing will change in this land.  See how the Romans are more and more intent on incorporating our country into their empire. At first they still allowed us to be governed by our own rulers. Then they replaced our princes wiht the Herodians, who owed all their power to the Romans. Finally, in Judea and Samaria, they took over the government themselves.  They respected our religious traditions for twenty years.  But now they’re having pagan coins minted. They’re bringing effigies of the emperor to Jerusalem.  Step by step they’re blurring everything that separates us from other peoples.  Soon no one will be able to say, ‘Rulers are oppressing their peoples everywhere but mustn’t be like that among you.’ Rather, they’ll be saying, ‘The Romans rule everywhere as benefactors of the peoples. And it will be just the same for you.’ Then oppression will no longer be called oppression nor exploitation exploitation.  So now is the time for violent resistance. Now is not the time of Nehemiah.  Now is not the time for Jesus of Nazareth.”

(pg. 88)

The very end of the section is what caught my attention. “Now is the time for violent resistance. Now is not the time for Jesus of Nazareth.”

Sounds almost like it could have been said yesterday.  Then again, it is something that could have been said for most of human history.

We have this penchant towards violence to get our way.  Going the way of peace is never opportune.  There is never a good time to start walking the peaceful way.  We will always find a reason to fight.  Yet, hasn’t that path led to more violence in response?  Is that’s insane, yet we keep trying the path of violence. It’s crazy.

So, Christians, when is it the time of Jesus of Nazareth and his call to be peacemakers?   When is it time for us to love our enemies?  When is it time to pray for those who persecute others?  When is the time?

Now.  It starts with you and me.  Each one of us taking a step out in faith.  Will it be easy?  Nope.  It may even be extremely costly.  But that’s the call.  If the world is going to change, then it needs to start somewhere and with someone.  Why not you and I?

Now is the time.

Treating people with respect

01 Wednesday Feb 2017

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I thought we learned how to treat people with respect in kindergarten.  Maybe I was wrong.  Either that or some people have selectively forgotten this life lesson.  How else to explain how some people interact with others.  There is a general lack of respect when it comes to many people concerning politics, religion, and pretty much any important issue we face these days.  I’m not sure if people fight like their lives depend on being right because they are insecure in their beliefs or what the deal is.

I know this much, if we continue down this road, the harsh language, judgement, condemnation, and dehumanizing of opponents will shift from verbal assaults to physical violence.  There really isn’t any other option when we head in that direction.  We’ve already seen previews of this during the 2016 presidential campaign.  I don’t see this getting better after the election unfortunately.  We can debate the reason why, but that’s not the point.  Blaming people, sides, and parties isn’t going to help the situation, just make it worse.

If we want to stop this then we have to start thinking and acting differently.  We can’t wait for someone else to start because that will never happen.

And this change needs to be more than just our individual interactions with each other – although that’s a good place to start.

I’m talking about changes in our culture.  I recognize that cultural change doesn’t happen over night.

One area that should change is our criminal justice system.  There are many opportunities for change here.  One way to do this is to see what works else where.  I recently read a story about a Norwegian prison where the inmates live in cottages, farm, and do other productive things.  The focus of the prison is on treating people with respect.  Not surprisingly, there is a 20% recidivism rate in Norway for prisoners who have gone through this prison versus a recidivism well above 50% in US prisons.

Now, I’m not interested in taking this and plucking it down somewhere in the US.  I would guess it would be a failure here because it would stand out by itself and not be supported by the larger system or the culture.  Norway is a different culture and history.  They have a different relationship between authorities and those governed, and with interactions between people.  Those things matter.

However, we can look at the foundation of why this system works in Norway.  We can look at why it wouldn’t here by itself.  The gap is where we have an opportunity to make changes in a positive direction.  But this requires leadership and an openness from people to build respect and to change the culture.  That won’t happen on its own.  However, the church has an opportunity to lead where our leaders seem to be failing.  And we don’t have to start from scratch either.  Remember all those bible stories you learned as a kid – they can make an impact on the culture.  Talking about universal human values in practical terms would help.  Not in condescending ways, but rather as addressing the needs that people have.  There is a great level of anxiety in the air, uncertainty, anger, and fear.  Our government officials don’t seem to want to lower those levels.  The church has an opportunities to be what it is really good at being – a place of refuge in a stormy sea of anxiety and uncertainty.  And we can start with respect for one another and build from there.  Not only is this good for society, but it’s part of who we are called to be as Christians.