The past two weeks I’ve been faced with the sheer depravity of mankind.
I spent this past weekend preparing lesson plans by listening to and reading individual accounts and reflections on genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.
Last week, I walked through the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, MI with my 7th graders as the tour guide described to them the process by which ordinary people were taken from their homes, often by their own people and sold into slavery.
I cannot get the image out of my mind of the dark, dirty dungeons where people would wait up to a year before being sent across the Atlantic on overcrowded ships. Places where they were crammed together so tightly that they stood up to their waists in human waste.
I am haunted by the stories of Holocaust survivors, of Sudanese refugees, and those who lived through the Rwandan genocide.
Standing on the outside of such tragedies, it is almost impossible to comprehend how people could do such terrible things to other people and became complicit bystanders and participants in such horrific atrocities. Because, these things could not be pulled off by one evil person or group, but required thousands to actively participate. It required average citizens.
How did they do it? How could they justify their actions? Reasons may vary, and while justifications may fail, in many cases, participants had dehumanized the victims. They could justify their actions in this way—by making their victims the “other,” focusing on the differences they had, rather than the similarities they shared, they could disassociate themselves.
And, this is what haunts me today.
Nothing good comes from division.
Yet, I’ve watched as our nation is quickly dissolving into divisive factions.
People are quick to throw out over-generalizations and stereotypes with little regard or empathy for those who they are speaking about.
And, I admit that I am also guilty of judging others based on what they share on social media, and I’m guilty of over-generalizing and rushing to conclusions.
In the current political climate, we’ve been quick to put people in boxes and define them through derogatory remarks. And with modern technology, we can flippantly add these comments on the Internet, where we don’t have to see the faces of those on the other side of the screen—faces of people who were created by a God who loves them and made them each uniquely. These are the faces of our neighbors, colleagues, friends, family, and even strangers.
When we begin labeling all Muslims as terrorists, all Mexicans as rapists, all Conservatives as racists, all Liberals as baby killers, [insert horrible, offensive stereotype of your choice], etc. we are running the same risk as the people I’ve been studying. When we fail to acknowledge the uniqueness of each person we’ve placed into a box, it is easier to categorize them as “other” and begin the process of dehumanization.
And, if we label someone something long enough, they might begin to believe it.
So, if we are going to call people something, let’s call them children of God.
Because that is what we all are—image bearers of Christ, heirs to the Kingdom.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” -Galatians 3:26-29
