08/29/2020
Godly perspective for the journey...
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 7:12 (NLT)
Listen...murdering ANYONE as a remedy/solution/response to ANYTHING is simply inhumane and fundamentally uncivilized. And, the fact that some in our society have ALWAYS sanctioned brutality, abuse, and violence as a means to MANY ends is not up for debate, it is a historical fact.
Now, the cold hard reality is that when you consistently dehumanize (i.e. devalue) others you also dehumanize yourself. There is no way to avoid this because, having the same Creator, we are all connected — what I do to you first happens to me. There are a lot of ills that need to be fixed and corrected in our world and one thing that would help us to be better is if we could all truly agree that life at its very essence and core is a sacred gift from God. The sanctity and sacredness of life, respectfully, is not merely at inception, conception, and birth. Human life is categorically sacred at every stage, age, and in every context. Period.
When someone says that their life matters, and asks to be granted the basic dignity, respect, peace, and protection that every human wants and deserves, it is not a political statement. It is not an invitation to be chastised, demeaned, and berated. Moreover, when I say, Black lives matter, I am articulating truth and asking to be seen, heard, loved and appreciated beyond (and sometimes in spite of) what I may think and do. I am saying that my life is important whether or not I’m employed, whether or not I have a lot of money, whether I have a good reputation or I find myself struggling to recover from one bad decision after another.
IF life is sacred, my life is sacred. Your life is sacred. If my life is not of value, your life is not of value. Life itself is without value. We cannot be separated from one another. So, the moment you decide that ANYONE else is expendable, extinguishable, and unworthy, you have made this true about yourself and everyone. Until our attitudes, choices, words, and actions affirm the TRUTH and centrality of life as a beautiful gift, none of us should expect to be okay. Until we can all live in peace, none of us will truly know peace. Until we can all experience life, liberty, and the unimpeded pursuit of happiness, those truths will continue to elude and evade us all. There is one race, the human race.
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Fannie Lou Hamer
“If we in America have reached that point in our desperate culture when we must murder children, no matter for what reason or what color, we don’t deserve to survive, and probably won’t.” ~William Faulkner in 1955
