We get up out of our comfy beds each morning, generally apathetic to the world around us. We eat breakfast not really thinking about or caring that others will go hungry this day. Perhaps we read or watch the news in horror but soon realize how helpless we are to do anything about what’s occurring. Those poor people! Where is God when all of this is going on? If He can’t help, how can I? We pray for those we cannot physically or geographically comfort or assist, developing a pattern of self-preserving indifference and detachment to protect our own mental health (apathetic syndrome).
Occasionally, we might tithe a bit more to our churches or even open our purses and give a few shekels to “the cause” (and then deduct it from our taxes at the end of the year). We go home after a long day at the job, complaining about our aches and pains and relating the dramas about the people we work with. We consume a “more than adequate meal”, watch a few hours of entertainment on television, and then jump back into our comfy bed to repeat the familiar scenario day after day after day.
It doesn’t make us bad people. Most of us do what we can with what we have to help others. It just is what it is. We are human beings after all.
Having said that, what about those individuals amongst us that understands what is going on; those that make a conscious decision to add fuel to the fire; to exploit the frustration and anger of the people, to disrupt the path to acceptance and social justice?
Pick up a newspaper or turn on the television. Well-funded re-active groups, political parties, quasi-religious organizations, unscrupulous welfare entities, etc… that perhaps start with a compassionate positive reaction and plan for action to end inequality, often take advantage of abhorrent conditions to promote themselves or their own agendas. Some have “crossed the line”, and by their very words or deeds end up fanning already incendiary situations. The key is to diminish the ugly voices, bad intentions and actions so that truth-tellers can be heard and equal justice can prevail.
Is total equality even possible? Are men (and women) altruistic “enough” that they would desire less for themselves to afford others the opportunities they already enjoy by a comfortable birth, or do we just go through the motions to convince ourselves we are doing our best? Do those in a perfect position to help or hinder equality act responsibly and/or do “enough” to address inequality?
In the current issue of Time Magazine are verbatim statements made by public notables that either promote or hinder a true desire for equality. The conversation around the water cooler has been evenly mixed. You be the judge:
“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.” Viola Davis
“We don’t ever want to sell or go public.” Yancey Strickler, CEO of “Kickstarter”
“This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people.” Iranian President Rouhani
Pope Francis will certainly be remembered by a historic speech delivered to a politically divided Congress in which he paraphrased The Golden Rule, amongst other things: “Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion that we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities that we seek for ourselves. Let us help others as we would like to be helped ourselves.”
There are at least thirty-seven verses on equality (addressing gender, income and economics, race, and social justice, etc…) in the Bible. Equality is not only desirable and necessary, it is mandated by God:
Galatians 3:28 : There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Leviticus 19:15 : You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
John 13:34 : “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another
But still the question remains: Can real equality be obtained? We have perfected what seems like a reasonable explanation and excuse to perpetuate illogical convictions (i.e.; “Well-adjusted children need a male father and female mother.”) but the truth is that many of us find it difficult to erase generations of racial hatred, religious bigotry and gender inequality without a cultural acceptance open to such radical change.
Make no mistake, prejudice swings both ways (rich/poor, black/white, gay/straight etc…). We are hard-wired to disregard alternative information that disturbs or contradicts our long-held belief systems, dismissing whether or not the info is based on hard fact or merely accepted as conventional truth. Feeding erroneous “truths” to our children, the very truths that were taught to us by people we loved and trusted, still doesn’t make them true.
Women will never father babies. Men will never give birth. Some differences are logically and biologically insurmountable, but that is where the blurring of the lines should begin. Men must be equally acknowledged as sensitive nurturing beings, capable of providing compassionate emotional and physical care to their children. Woman should be equally compensated for their skills in the work place commensurate with the same skills as any man or woman doing the same job. That’s common sense right? You’d think so, but isn’t always.
In America, there was once upon a time (not long ago) a prevailing assumption that a black man was racially inferior and nothing more than a second class citizen. Women were considered too stupid to vote and too frail for manual labor. Today, we have a proud black President of the United States with two highly skilled and intelligent women in opposing political parties running for his coveted office as soon as he vacates!
The United States remains one of the largest melting pots of immigrants in the world. There are no logical or biological arguments at this time in history supporting judgements for or against another human based solely on ethnicity, sexual preference or the color of a person’s skin. Yet, we know such arguments do indeed exist and negative judgements run deep. Racial and religious profiling continues to be an embarrassing historic barrier to true equality.
What will it take to break down a barrier erected to divide and prosper a few? The Almighty endowed inalienable rights to each of His/Her creations, plus the United States Constitution was developed to protect those rights under penalty of the law. How’s that working out for us when justice is so unevenly applied?
The Pope’s “intimate” message to the American people and the entire world is destined to be a meme of this generation. The once nightclub bouncer priest to inner city slums declares a “new era of evangelization” in the Catholic Church as an invitation to offer mercy for both pious and sinner, oppressed and exalted alike while promoting “God’s brand” of equality to the world of disenfranchised:
“You are gay? You’re divorced? You had an abortion? Come home.” To be committed to the dialogue of equality as a precursor to viable , sustainable action is a real beginning. Francis is not afraid to agree to disagree. Despite criticism from fundamentalists and conservative Catholics, the heart and accepting arms of the Pope expands to include everyone.
It’s a great place to start for all of us.