A picture is worth 1000 words…so the saying goes. Perhaps a visual theology speaks even more words than that! Welcome to my first image in a new project called Digital Theology. If you come across images that speak theological volumes please send them to me. What do the images speak to you?
Here we are again…
Another inciting incident.
Opinions flow like a river at flood stage.
As our nation labors under the weight of serious systemic issues we choose to herald our cyber-bullhorns, which are more about shouting than listening and resolving.
Broad-brushed soundbites of polarized rhetoric.
And then…
We saunter off to the next thing showing that we really don’t care at a deep level about the current thing, it’s just the popular outrage. Sure, it seems important enough to flame and shout out loudly what we think (as if we have perfect-objective reality firmly in our grasp), but not important enough to get off the couch and actually DO Something…DO justice.
It amazes me that so many of us think a perfectly worded tweet is the final word on an incident that results in lost lives, lost income, lost values and even lost humanity.
“Surely my Facebook rebuttal is enough to end generations of racism”
“Surely my #hashtag is enough to end corporate greed”
“Surely my instagram picture will be enough to prove a 911 conspiracy”
Have we become the NEXT generation? Have we become a NEXT culture?
In other words, is our current outrage more about entertainment and consumerism than it is about the actual tragedy or incident?
I think they way we respond and then quickly disengage moving onto the NEXT thing reveals an apathy and a narcissism that perpetuates systemic issues.
We live at the surface, and the problems we face are much deeper than the “facts.” And I know someone will more than likely cry out against that last statement.
Courts have to deal with facts, we as a society must deal with truths that lead to justice acknowledging the facts.
Today, consider how fast you move onto the NEXT thing.
Today consider how fast you move on from the LAST thing.
Today consider whether or not an incident will incite you to use your bullhorn only, or actually get off the couch and enter into the pain and brokeness as a healer and helper.
A closing thought to ponder from Martin Luther King Jr.:
“The Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice.”
In light of the current #ferguson battlefield, consider the deeper conversation that is needed before you go NEXT.
We live in a hyper-sensitive and hyper-aware culture where events pour into our social-media streams like flood season. How we respond to the onslaught reveals that free thought is often not in vogue. Pick an issue and say the wrong thing and a waterfall of viciousness ensues.
One area where our “tolerance” has hurt us is seen in the insanity that is happening in the Middle East. I recently returned from a trip to Israel and Jordan. It was an intense trip for many reasons, but the conflict between HAMAS and Israel created a unique adventure. Never before have I witnessed a rocket shot by a group like HAMAS at my location and then witnessed that rocket being intercepted by a defense system (the Iron Dome) that Israel uses to protect her people from constant attacks.
Imagine standing on the beach in Tel Aviv as the sun is beautifully setting…experiencing the first night of your trip with a group hungry for a God-encounter…the sun gracefully easing its way down past the water line…fun, laughter, beauty, excitment…and then:
…sirens
…people running for shelter…
…survival mode kicks in…but not til I get my rocket-selfie!
I installed an app called “Red Alert Israel” I still have it…it still goes off…and I pray. This app plays a siren as soon as HAMAS shoots a rocket at Israel. The app also shows where the rocket is going. The other night the siren was a constant drone of a depressing tune of violence just as it was every day while I was in Israel.
Each day during the journey, HAMAS was shooting between 20-80+ rockets into populated areas of Israel…by the way, one of the the stated goals of HAMAS is to eliminate Israel.
Israel responded to the attacks…with three warnings. First a warning to the innocent Palestinian people communicating when an counter-attack would be coming so that they could evacuate. Second, they sent texts and made calls to known numbers of people within the response zone. Third a “tap on the roof” announcing that the time was imminent. Have you ever heard of a war where one side worked that hard NOT to hurt people…HAMAS sure has not operated similarly. But we sure didn’t hear about that from our news media.
Unfortunately while HAMAS soldiers hid in the numerous caves they built in order to attack Israel, they would not allow their people to find safety in them nor were they allowed to leave…why? they needed dead bodies and images of destruction so that media like CNN would become their propaganda machine. It worked, we bought it…but it was a lie on the ethical level.
HAMAS wants genocide…Israel wants to protect her people.
I was stunned watching news reports about the conflict when I was there. I was amazed at the twisting…I was angry at the deception…I was sad that our reporters bought a lie and then spoon-fed it to the public who also bought the lie. our media made Israel the aggressor and HAMAS/GAZA the victim.
It has consistently been HAMAS that has refused to negotiate.
It has consistently been HAMAS that breaks the cease-fires.
It has consistently been HAMAS that fires the first shot.
Come on, be honest, If Canada or Mexico did to us in the States what HAMAS is doing to Israel…you would demand that we do whatever it takes to end the conflict and protect our people…yet we don’t allow Israel the same option. Perhaps the reason we don’t think as logically when it comes to Israel/HAMAS is because we have perverted the understanding of tolerance.
No one wants to see innocent children or families killed…but has our “new tolerence” blinded our eyes to the truth.
ISIS is out of control in IRAQ crucifying people who convert from Islam to Christianity…forcing people out of their homes if they won’t convert to Islam…Destroying religious relics like The Tomb of Jonah…We could go on about Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah etc.
But here we are fighting a tolerance notion that all faiths are the same…that Islam is a peaceful religion…we now have neighbors who follow Islam so we need to be nice, right?
True, we need to be nice…True, there is a growing number of Muslims…True, there are some commonalities between the faiths…
But what is not true is that militant Islam is a religion of peace…non-committed muslims may be peaceful but they seem to be the exception not the global norm.
In some ways it seems like we are being set up for a modern-day crusade…have we learned? Some have, but not all it seems.
We are called to compassion, mercy, and grace…but we are wrong when we think we must choose between Truth and Tolerance…if we do that, the body count will continue to rise, and no one should tolerate that.
My fear is that we won’t wake up to this truth until it hits us hard in our streets…and then it will be too late.
As I typed that last line, my Red Alert Israel app just went off…two more HAMAS rockets were shot into Israel at a town called Moatza Ezroit Eshkol…
Pray for the innocent people in GAZA and Israel who are living this every day…
Pray that the global community would wake up and deal with the real threat of militant Islam…
These genocidal atrocities won’t go away just by being nice and tolerant.
The joy, happiness and transformation that results from acts of generosity are felt by the giver…the receiver…and beyond. The small acts of generosity make the biggest impact when compounded over time with many people.
I may not be able to change the whole world, but I am able to make a small impact here and there that have ripple effects that I will probably never see.
Too often, people choose to isolate, look the other way, and distance themselves from the very real needs they encounter.
I get it…
The needs are always there…
You can’t fix everything you see…
But as God is a generative God, and He dwells within us…we are being transformed by His presence into His likeness which means that I am growing in generosity.
A friend sent me the following video…about 2 minutes in I teared up. Take a look, and may your heart grow in generosity.