I just said it and I’ll say it again: wrong, wrong, wrong.
It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t there to see and understand it.
It doesn’t matter that it isn’t from my culture.
It doesn’t matter that it happened a long time ago.
Some things are just wrong.
And we should speak out against them.
Strangling a person who happens to be walking in your area of the park is wrong.
Beating your wife senseless is wrong.
Abusing children is wrong.
Turning another human being into your slave is wrong.
Sacrificing a human to appease a god is wrong.
Forcing a widow to throw herself alive into the funeral pyre of her husband is wrong.
Hating someone because of his skin color or nationality or social status is wrong.
Exterminating a race of people is wrong.
Bullying someone into suicide is wrong.
Getting pleasure from someone else’s pain is wrong.
We should be intolerant of these things, not excuse, glamorize, condone, and ignore them. All humans feel terror, pain, injustice and outrage. That doesn’t change from tribe to tribe, city to city, or century to century. We can say: “what happened was wrong.”
We should say it.
Are we judging? Certainly. And let the judgment come right back to us if we do these things. Oh I know it’s not the polite, the politically correct thing to do.
It is the right thing to do.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that hurt.
It said “Against abortion? Don’t have one.”
That’s like saying: “Against slavery? Don’t own one.”
“Against cigarette smoke? Don’t breathe.”
“Against drunken driving? Don’t drink and drive.”
It says: “don’t call anything wrong, and we’ll both be ok”.
But we won’t.
Most victims didn’t plan to be one.
Innocents are hit by drunken drivers. Innocents die of lung cancer. Innocents are caught by slave traffickers.
When innocents are sacrificed…innocence is sacrificed.
In every culture. In every time.
It’s wrong.
It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t there to see and understand it.
It doesn’t matter that it isn’t from my culture.
It doesn’t matter that it happened a long time ago.
Some things are just wrong.
And we should speak out against them.
Strangling a person who happens to be walking in your area of the park is wrong.
Beating your wife senseless is wrong.
Abusing children is wrong.
Turning another human being into your slave is wrong.
Sacrificing a human to appease a god is wrong.
Forcing a widow to throw herself alive into the funeral pyre of her husband is wrong.
Hating someone because of his skin color or nationality or social status is wrong.
Exterminating a race of people is wrong.
Bullying someone into suicide is wrong.
Getting pleasure from someone else’s pain is wrong.
We should be intolerant of these things, not excuse, glamorize, condone, and ignore them. All humans feel terror, pain, injustice and outrage. That doesn’t change from tribe to tribe, city to city, or century to century. We can say: “what happened was wrong.”
We should say it.
Are we judging? Certainly. And let the judgment come right back to us if we do these things. Oh I know it’s not the polite, the politically correct thing to do.
It is the right thing to do.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that hurt.
It said “Against abortion? Don’t have one.”
That’s like saying: “Against slavery? Don’t own one.”
“Against cigarette smoke? Don’t breathe.”
“Against drunken driving? Don’t drink and drive.”
It says: “don’t call anything wrong, and we’ll both be ok”.
But we won’t.
Most victims didn’t plan to be one.
Innocents are hit by drunken drivers. Innocents die of lung cancer. Innocents are caught by slave traffickers.
When innocents are sacrificed…innocence is sacrificed.
In every culture. In every time.
It’s wrong.
3 comments:
Tolerance is one of the key issues here. Our world is screaming for tolerance in gay marriage, legal abortions, illegal immigrants, the list is long and our younger generations are seeing and hearing all this trying to decide how to process all this information. We as parents need to talk to our children and those we have influence over and explain that intolerance is not sin. Many of the topics Lilibeth listed are very black and white issues... murder, abuse, slavery... but some are not... bullying, social status, prejudice. Some of those areas can be very gray and when the offender never comes up against any resistance (intolerance) to the activity or conversation, then it is believed to be acceptable (tolerated). We as adults need to be very intentional and proactive in our training of our young people. Discipleship is the other key issue I see here... it's almost a lost art. When around young people (8yrs old- 18 yrs old), I often just sit and listen to them. I cannot tell you how many times I hear the victim mentality come from their speech... "they can't do that.... it didn't happen on school grounds... they can't tell me how.... but, I didn't even..." It goes on and on. Many of our innocents aren't receiving very good discipleship and therefore, allowing themselves to become victims instead. Maybe their parents are victims, too, thus creating a whole family of "victim" thinking. This, too, is wrong. Where should our tolerance meter run on this gray area? *Sigh*
So glad you wrote this, and I wish I could post it everywhere.
Judgement is necessary for civilization and life. You can't survive if you refuse decide between right and wrong, safe and harmful, acceptable and unacceptable.
It's because our society has become so complacent that they wouldn't think of "rocking the boat" with thoughts against popular opinion.
I am very glad you wrote this psot, I agree with you 100%.
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