One new humanity out of two . . ..
. . . for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If
you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise. (Gal. 3:27-9, NIV)
For
he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has
destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting
aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His
purpose was to create in himself one
new humanity out
of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of
them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility. (Eph. 2:14-16, NIV)
South Korean born American citizen,
Euna Lee, was captured by North Korean border guards as she was
filming in a remote area along the Chinese/North Korean border.
Imprisoned for 140 days and interrogated repeatedly, she
nevertheless kept up her courage and formed a relationship with the
two young women who were her keepers. In a TED talk entitled, What
I Learned as a Prisoner in North Korea,
she provides us with a poignant, alternative picture of North Korea
when the focus is not on the government
but on people: women who were functionaries under a dictatorial and arbitrary
regime—but were also girls obsessed with things like their
appearance, their sexuality, their humanity.
If you don’t
have time or interest to read the rest of this, do click on the link
above and watch the short video; it says it better than I can.
(It
bears defining: what do we mean when we refer to our
common humanity?
That your neighbour is a human,
and not a horse goes
without saying, but considering that you hold person-hood
in common, what else do you and he share that is common
to both, but not to beings that are not persons?
That we all masticate, defecate and urinate doesn’t define common
humanity; horses do that as
well. But that we are conscious, sentient beings
capable of moral thought, of creative planning, of predicting
outcomes, of guilt and remorse, of love and forgiveness, of reasoning
generally, these are components of common humanity.
Most importantly in this case, that our longings for love,
acceptance, safety, pleasure, health, beauty, etc. are not
characteristics that define “us” and not “others”, but are
common to all of us.)
In
the case of Euna Lee, the knowledge of the depth of common
humanity had to be relearned, but
I would guess that for all of us, either accepting or rejecting our
kinship on everything that’s important has been taught by our
environment. It’s terribly tragic, somehow, that the denial of
commonality among
people seems to be the first lesson taught to next generations. And
let’s not make the mistake of thinking that yours and my prejudices
are not learned; children in a sandbox can be as different in
language, skin colour, dress as is possible without it colouring
their companionable play.
What
humanity today needs most is a determination and a way to teach
something better than is demonstrated by the Donald Trump/Kim Jong
Un, Alt-right/Antifa, conservative/liberal divides. Obviously, there
are forces that feed on the denial of common humanity,
persons who profit more when we hate each other than when we get
along. I admit that it’s most difficult for me to accept that even
the oppressors and profiteers share a common humanity
with me, a commonality most apparent at the moments of birth and
death when the meaning of our divisions simply doesn’t apply.
It
seems to me that the work of reconciliation begins with the embrace
of the concept of common humanity,
and that the bulk of that learning—or lack thereof—has already
been done by the time we graduate kindergarten. I may be exaggerating
here, but we have to concede that our curricula—in public and
parochial education, in cadet corps, in summer camps, in clubs, even
in Sunday schools and homes—can be unconsciously skewed toward “us
and them” or
common humanity
emphases. But it can’t do both.
Wherever
breakup or conflict arise, the denial or neglect of our common
humanity is clearly implicated.
In a church congregation, the point at which dialogue ceases to
revolve around commonalities
and focuses on differences,
the demon’s fingerprints will certainly be found. In a democracy
that features an antiquated party system that thrives on difference,
the strength that could support common cause endeavour
is wasted time and again.
I
leave with an intriguing conundrum: A liberal-minded tourist from
Canada is traveling through the Ozarks and his car breaks down on a
secondary road. A “red-neck” pulls up in a rusty pickup and the
tourist doubts by his appearance and demeanour that he’ll be of
much help. His attitude towards the man reveals itself in his tone
and body language and the “hillbilly,” sensing the air of
superiority, can’t help but lay it on a bit. “Maybe candy asses
oughtn’t drive through the backwoods, ya’ll think? Car breaks
down, they’re in trouble and no help fer miles ‘cept’n for us
hayseeds!”
The tourist
replies, “Maybe you people should have stayed in school long enough
to learn the English language.”
“Y’all don’t
like us much, do y’all?”
“I don’t “like
you much” because I don’t get why you live like you do.”
“Well, I’ll
tell you, sir. We lives like we does ‘cause y’all don’t like us
much.”
“That makes no
sense.”
“Does to me. Now
let’s see why your engine has suddenly ceased to function as
engines ought to do! See? I can speak English if I have to!”
Comments
Post a Comment