Are We Living Like Human Beings?

Are we living like human beings?

Is it wrong to call people names?  Scream obscenities at someone?

While Justin and I were away over the summer, taking time to rest and to be with one another and with God, something happened.

And it wasn’t pretty.

In fact, it was terrifying, truth be told.

For some of you it won’t be surprising.

For others, perhaps you’re more like me, and you’ve been living more at a distance from this, so it really hasn’t been or it’s not currently your experience.

It was vicious.

That word keeps coming back to me.

It’s an adjective describing behavior that cruelly and deliberately distorts human life.

It doesn’t see humans as beings at all.

To act viciously is to deliberately be cruel in the way we treat each other.  See each other.  Speak to one another.

Justin and I experienced this firsthand from a man on the street.

What would possess someone to scream “F*ck you!” “F*uck you!” “F*uck you!” over and over again at us in an almost frenzied state without blinking an eye?

In the bigger picture, vicious language is all over our news from the aftermath of horrific shootings, to political accusations and characterizations, to foreign policy maneuvers, to online posts, to the way our leaders speak about other human beings.

Since when is it okay to call another human being an animal?

Is this vicious?

Cruel?

Distorted?

Do we hear it?

Why do we think it’s okay to act viciously to one another with no moral awareness or sense of right or wrong?

Is it wrong to call people names?  Scream obscenities at someone?

What do you think God thinks about this?

What should we think about it?

Anything?

Or should we just let it go on?

Or respond another way?

As a Christian, I believe we need to respond.

We need to care.

To begin.  To start somewhere.

And perhaps were we start today is by recognizing that each us us is a human being, intricately created in the image of God, no matter what country we come from, what accent we have, or what our socio-economic status is.

Even to those who say vicious, atrocious things and act in dehumanizing, cruel ways to us.