The Story
The more I look at this news story, the more it both breaks my heart and sickens me. It is unreal that things like this continue to happen. As I read the story and looked at the coverage, I am saddened by the fact that such hatred is not only in people but continually encouraged and fed by political, religious, and ideological hate speech that demonizes and "others" groups of people. It's easy to say that this was an isolated incident by a crazy person. When these things happen, the excuse is typically that this person was unsteady or unbalanced, and that's why they did what they did. While I don't disagree that it takes a level of mental illness to do this level of calculated damage, it tends to begin with the kind of common ideology that people spew without thought. Sadly, it only takes one unstable person to take that kind of thought to the extreme and it ends up with 93 people being killed.
The issue is that the mindset about differences tends to be such that they cannot coexist. When two things are different, one must automatically be decided as inferior to the other. And when this is the case, the inferior/superior dynamic can be used to demonize the inferior. When this happens, someone is no longer just different in terms of the way they think, speak, or act - the person has become evil just because of a part of their identity. And, as we are taught in fairy tales, the evil - be it a dragon, a villain, or other bad guy - must be killed so that it doesn't hurt us or take over our "good" way of life. The problem with this kind of thinking is that most of the people who are different from us have no desire to harm us or to change our way of life. But in this strongly dualistic society, that doesn't matter, and all Muslims become a targeted group because of the actions of a few. Should this be an acceptable means of handling things and groups of people? Should I as a black person assume that all white people are racist because much of history has confirmed that? Or should I judge each white person based on my interaction with them and assume that not everyone has a slaveholder mentality? Should I as a female assume that every man is sexist and desires to oppress women? Or should I judge each man on how he treats me and those close to him? Should I assume that every Christian is as close-minded and intolerant as Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, or should I speak to each person based on my experience with them and their faith? Such assumptions will never be widespread, because these are the groups in power here in America.
Just because someone is different than you doesn't mean that they are wrong, nor does it mean that they have any less right to live and thrive than you do. The killer man had strong issues with both immigration and Muslims, and he sounds a lot like the Republicans in this country. Should I fear them as well? Because ideology is where it starts. Ideally, someone like Michelle Bachman isn't going to pick up an assault rifle and start gunning people down because of what she believes, but my concern is that even sane people thinking along such lines can create a sort of terrorism, especially when they maintain places of power.
In Sunday School, we touched on manifestations of living according to the Spirit of God v. living according to sinful and destructive philosophies. The one that stuck out in my mind relates to this occurrence: "the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival" (Galatians 5: 21 MSG). When you lump people into groups based on something you know (or assume) about them or based a label that's been ascribed by someone else, you cease to try to love them and begin to critique based on an assumption. This makes it easier to use or even kill someone, because they do not fit what you agree with. This was the argument that justified African American slavery, this was the argument that justified the slaughter of people in the Hebrew Bible book of Joshua, and this will continue to be the argument to deny rights and even life to people who are demonized by the majority or those in power.
Once again, think about what you believe. If what you believe is not based in love and the caring, equal treatment of others, you many need to re-evaluate your beliefs. You may not bomb anyone, but hatred can be lethal in any form.
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