A Letter to the Editor I Might Write

Dear Editor,

In recent days we’ve all been forced to endure some of the terrible realities of human life.  We faced reports of violence in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.  We endured threats and speculation about shopping at Wal-Mart in our own hometown.  We wring our hands over the safety of “church” on Sundays and if our kids are truly safe at school.  And now we’ve learned again in our town and especially in cities, violence isn’t just at school, it happens at home and in our neighborhoods for inexplicable reasons. 

The thing we’re tempted to believe is that while we hear the news about mass violence in other places, that at least, “it isn’t happening here.” 

But one life is too many.  It doesn’t take multiple lives; one life in our community is enough to diminish us. 

In this conversation, it’s usually presumed we must talk about repealing liberal gun laws if we want to make a dent in human safekeeping.  But what needs to be repealed, is the attitude I have for my neighbor. 

We don’t just disagree—we actually think the worst about other people before we ever talk.  Especially the people we’re taught not to like.  Even worse, we not only call other people names, we say ugly things about them having already believed in their ugliness without ever having spoken.  We trust these created lies as truth, we deceive ourselves pointing to people who will agree with us, and attempt to make the world again in our own image—we’re right and the others we choose to be wrong! 

What needs to be repealed is this attitude of our neighbor by which our innocence is stolen, and by which we participate in the diminishment of human life. 

Too many people simply cannot believe that all of this is supposed to be different.  That life is more than a mere handful of days.  That the Bible teaches that the one who lives to be a hundred will be considered a youth and that anyone who dies at less than a hundred will be considered accursed.  That our attitude toward one another ought to be helping each other live, not letting each other die. 

We must stop letting each other die; and it starts in how we perceive our neighbor.

For Christians, Jesus teaches us that loving our neighbors is on par with the greatest commandment—that we love God.  We cannot love God and not love our neighbor.  When our neighbors die this way, it is a failure of faith. 

So, what needs to be repealed, is this attitude where we think another’s life should be or is less valued than our own.