When Did It Become Okay?

I am baffled by the hurtful and sheer viciousness people attack other people in words, even physically, based on basically nothing…sometimes for having a simple difference of opinion. I am perplexed at the evil things people accuse others of doing without having any proof. They villainize people based on superficial reasons and unsubstantiated information.

 When did it become okay for people to hate others and speak ill of them for being different?

 Generation after generation has fought for justice. Millions of lives have been lost to fight the hatred of slavery and tyrannical governments who exterminate lives for being different from them. People have been ridiculed, beaten, jailed, to fight the injustice of child labor, women’s rights, inequality and the right to be treated fairly.   

 Yet, today, people are stripping away justice all in the name of tolerance…but not an equal tolerance, but a decimating tolerance…a tolerance based on personal feelings, not reality or truth. The Nazis used this tactic to incite “normal” people to justify the eradication of not only Jews, but gypsies, blacks, foreigners, educated people, scientists who disagreed with them and any other person or person-group they deemed “undesirable”.  

 The Word of God tells us that we are made in the image of God. This gives all humanity an intrinsic value not based on economic status, skin color or gender.

 “Then God said, “Let Us make man(kind) in Our image, according to Our likeness..”  

 We are also taught in Galatians 3:27-28,

 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus…”

 We reflect the image of God and in Christ there is no inequality. We are all one.

 So, because of these truths, it is not okay to diminish, debase, or degrade another human being. It’s not okay to call people names or categorize people into groups that villainizes them.

 We are told to, “love your neighbor as yourself.” We aren’t told to love only those who look, act and have the same opinion as we do. We are told to overcome evil with good. Love will always ultimately win.

 Don’t allow yourself to come into agreement with any cultural fad that categorizes people in to worthy or unworthy, justified or unjustified, forgivable or unforgivable. Any cultural philosophy that determines a groups value at the expense of devaluing another will ultimately end in the justification of mistreating others. And, that…is not okay.

 We are all made in the image of God. Let’s start treating people worthy of His image and His likeness.