When any person or group are denuded of their humanity, the lesser natures of mankind are more liable to continue the stripping till not only is personhood wiped away, but so is the person.
Let us look around us today and see the places we are stripping away the humanity of others. It happens many times in the "isms" of our culture. It happens where people are weak, and especially to the weakest among us.
It happens when fear or desire make us think more OF and ABOUT ourselves than is healthy, right, or just. When fear rules, we find ways to fight fear, and it usually starts with blaming people and denuding them of equality among us. When we are afraid our comfort will be disrupted, we'll do the same.
In NAZI Germany, many were looking to blame others for the problems in their culture. They blamed Jews, Gypsies, people with disabilities, academic and cultural asocials, homosexuals, and various religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, for the breakdown of German culture and economy and for the losses of WWI.
Fear led to lies, lies to inculcation of lies, inculcation led to culture shift, culture shift to majority consent, majority consent to alteration of law, alteration of law to right of force, right of force to mass injustice, mass injustice to abrogation of law, abrogation of law to lawlessness, and lawlessness to utter corruption and destruction of their own society and the societies of those they felt emboldened to attack. Pretty soon, the nation killed itself and murdered other nations, and, along with other powers, threw the world into spastic turmoil.
What do I blame today? What do I see at the root of the ills in my world? How do I "combat" those ills?
I blame sin and Satan. Thank God for Jesus. I can totally disagree with my neighbor and be given both command and power to love them. My calling is the share and show the gospel. The true ills of mankind WILL be dealt a final blow, and they are even now in their own spastic fits of dying. In Christ, we see the old dragon wiggling, swinging its ugly tail, even as the Lion of Judah pulls its teeth, yanks its claws, and plucks off its spiny horns.
Our Champion will win!
And as our final foes writhe in their death throes we serve in Him who wars well for His beloved Church.
And where God's people forsake our call to love others and proclaim Jesus, something besides salt will fill the vacuum.
Each life is valuable to God. We'd do well to remember that. EVEN those people in direct opposition to Him are His. We'd do well to remember that.
Today reminds me to remember to value every life. Today reminds me to be in the right war, and to war the right way. Today reminds me...
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