I wrote the following blog at the end of November 2016. A few weeks after the United States elected Donald Trump to be our Commander-in-Chief. After praying about posting in, I felt that it wasn’t time yet. But in organizing my google drive a few days ago, I came across it again. In the past month, God has been calling me into a season of boldness by allowing the world to see more of my inner thoughts, revelations and opinions through acts of vulnerability such as this. Enjoy.
“The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. Several variables help to explain why the bystander effect occurs. These variables include: ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility” Wikipedia – (I apologize to teachers everywhere for the reference material).
In the past month, it has become painfully obvious to everyone just how much this beautiful world is hurting. Hope and hate battle each other because one derives its power by disarticulating the past, while the other indebts itself to the power of an imagined future. When life is scary and we crave a sense of self-determination, power or control over our own lives it is easy to become so detached from the present that lashing out in anger, hatred and fear feels like the only option. I have actually heard and felt the power of this emotional response from my bedroom window for the past several nights.
Life was intended to exist in a communal space where the love of God, made manifest in creation, would thrive in perfect life-giving unity. God’s presence is exactly here, in the present. We feel glimpses of this Eden as a sun sets over the ocean, in the giggle of children, the warmth of friendship, the beauty of the mountains and a thousand other things. But the existence of sin, our knowledge of good and evil, entered the story and we have been living between heaven and hell, past and future, ever since.
Never ever forget that we live in a fallen world.
But it is a world that God loves so much that He died to save it. He saw the pain, the confusion, the worry and the sadness and He arrived to battle, defeat and redeem it. And He has stuck around ever since to continually comfort, teach, guide, and save every single human that has ever been conceived. Wow. Outside of time, God calls us to forgive a past washed clean in his blood, to pray into existence His Future and to live here now.
While some friends have alluded that the timing of this trip is perfect for escaping what is brewing, I am heartbroken at the thought of leaving this country right now. There is so much work to do on a macro level and there is so much hurt in the lives of individuals around me.
As a woman, I am gutted by the evidence that 60 million Americans think sexual assault is either excusable or a joke. As a Christian I lament the very inkling of a religion-based registry. As a Social Worker I’ve developed deep relationships with adults with disabilities, with survivors of assault, with brave parents making a life for their kids in a new country. As a human I am at a loss in understanding how precious humans, made in the image of my God are publically treated like lepers or beasts. As a white person, I have no choice but to reach out to every single person in my white community and wake them up to the dangerous evil that thrives between privilege and ignorance.
I think we all expect that in traveling to these remote corners of the world, I will be given a chance to witness pain, confront evil, hear God speak and play some small role in realizing heaven on earth. And yes, I am eager and expectant to witness His generosity, salvation, humor, and ever-present love and to learn more about how God moves and speaks and breathes life into his lost creation. But so should you be.
As ‘little Christs’, we are the refugee, the immigrant, the minority, the outcast, the rebel against everything the world tells us we should be. Our identity is in Him who the world killed. When the illusion of comfort disintegrates to reveal the instability of life on Earth, will you cling to the idea that a dangerous ‘other’ has stripped it from you? Or will you praise God that he has given you life for this long? That perhaps He is calling you to deepen your faith, expand your trust and find true comfort in His sacrifice? We serve a God who asks followers to “… do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” 1 Timothy 6:18-19. Are you storing up treasures in heaven, building a foundation for the kingdom and taking hold of that which is truly life by letting go of everything that isn’t?
Let’s talk about the three variables that cause bystander effect:
Ambiguity. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17 really strips the ambiguity from our position as Christ-followers in the world. As a white person, there is no ambiguity in my ability to affect change. In my little suburban Oregon life I have argued with cops, debated with administrators and demanded answers at detention centers. I have attended meetings with lawyers, spent money at minority-owned restaurants and establishments, silently supervised apartment applications and negotiated social service appointments. There is no ambiguity in the fact that these acts were absolutely necessary but also impossible without being in the white skin I am in.
Cohesion is a human inclination that creates community, family and identity. It becomes a problem when we fail to examine our cohesiveness. Who have we surrounded ourselves with and what we are doing because of that group? Is it our ‘race’, suburban bubble, socioeconomic class, political party, and people who think the same way we do? Jesus ate with the tax collectors and the prostitutes!
If you are thinking “This election won’t affect anyone I know”, then you need to meet some more people. Cohesion with a throng of bystanders reduces our ability to experience empathy for the attacked and more than once, Jesus was the attacked.
If you are shocked by this election results; if you are confused about how this person rode a wave of ignorance and hatred straight into a position of power; if you don’t think it’s a big deal; if you have the option of waiting it out: You Have Privilege.
Privilege is by definition: ‘a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.’ Millions of people right this minute are terrified that a person who threatened to do horrible things to them – will actually do them. If that’s not you – THANK GOD – and then bear the responsibility that comes with that reality. Sharing in your privilege with millions of other people does not reduce the weight of your personal role. There can be no diffusion of responsibility.
The acceptance of your privilege does not need to cause defensiveness nor shame. No, because it can be leveraged into something incredibly useful. We need your position, we need your brain, education, money, time, and voice, anything that your privilege affords you, the world needs it and we all need you!
Because you have been given – freely give. Because you have so much, give it away. Do not receive but fail to look up, give thanks, be broken and then give away (Matthew 14:19) The disciples watched Jesus in this then immediately slipped into a poverty mentality of fear “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened” Mark 6:52. Life is found and multiplied in the poured out nature of brokenness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born into privilege and he stewarded it well. He fought hatred with the education his family had afforded him, he spoke out against the Nazi’s with the platform afforded him by that education and he acted out against them with money and support from affluent, privileged and educated friends and with a peace that comes straight from obeying our God.
God moves and works today but he waits for our hands, he waits for our voice. God wants to use me to show His love in Madagascar, Myanmar and Nicaragua. And he wants to use you to show His love to your literal neighbor, greater metropolitan community and entire country of residence.
I honestly don’t care if you are democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, independent or a hermit. That’s besides the point. The call to action was just as relevant 2000 years ago as it was 100 years ago as it will be in January and for the next 4-100 years. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Luke 10:27.
Real Love is not apathetic. It doesn’t stand by. It goes to the cross.
I want to come back in November of 2017 a different person to a different America. I want to sit across a tiny coffee shop table and tell you story after story of how good God is. How many ways he stretched me and instructed me and challenged me and loved me. And then I want to buy a biscotti for my cold forgotten coffee and listen to your story. About your community and all of the ways God asked you to represent Him in supporting your neighborhood to be unified, diverse and safe. That’s your challenge.
