I’ve asked the question before. “Would my life be any different if I hadn’t heard that?”
It came up more and more frequently in recent months as it seemed the dialogue on line and that which I saw each day on the news was becoming more vitriolic and far less enlightening. So, really: “Would my life be any different if I hadn’t heard that?” Did what I just heard add value?
Normally, I’d be glad to hear it all. I consider it learning. If you aren’t listening to and considering all points of view (or at least, a lot of them), you run the risk of a dull life.
But now it gets tricky.
At the end of Part I, I conclude, “To think any one person or culture is superior is certainly an illusion.” But then I ask, “Or is it…?”
Yes, whole cultures and the flavor they bring with them do add value. But what about people?
I am a Christian. I believe that all people have value. They are all made in the image of God, and they all share the same privilege as I – that is, life, and an innate desire for freedom. Some abuse the freedom they are given to deprive others. This is ironic in the sight of the Christian because the true root of freedom is in our very humanity, a gift of God. It might seem alien to many in this day that the American founding fathers thought along these lines. Within a few lines of beginning the Declaration of Independence, they say it far better and more famously than I: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator [my emphasis] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The idea was there. The execution? Not so much. But that is for another day.
So, to ponder the question I ask that seems to cast doubt on the statement “To think any one person or culture is superior is certainly an illusion,” I must be clear that in the Christian sense, there is no doubt. No one person is superior to another, and no one culture as valued by the people who live within that culture is superior either.
But this is not human nature. As we can see so clearly upon closer examination within our own culture and the circle of those within that culture with whom we are closest, no one perfectly honors the purity of what they value. At least not when it comes to others getting theirs. We all tend to twist things to our advantage, and so while you know of (or may be in) a culture that is considered very polite to those outside of that culture, you may be surprised to hear that they in fact discriminate horribly against such people. When it comes to ourselves, well, we deserve it all, don’t we? But when it comes to others?
I try to practice giving others the “benefit of the doubt.” When I’m cut off by a maniac in traffic, I try to say (after my initial tirade) that “maybe they need to be somewhere quickly,” or, “maybe it’s an emergency” (more often though I say sarcastically, “he must be on his way to a fire”). I mean, I’ve cut off my share of people, and of course, I had good reasons then, right? I should afford others the same courtesy.
But we’re so bad at that.
Yes, we are all of value. We all bring flavor. We all should be listened to. But we all lack grace to some degree, some more than others. No one is a Hitler, but there is a scale, and Hitler is on it. And so are we. And plenty of people are a whole lot closer to Hitler than Mother Teresa. But even more so, from the Christian perspective, we’re all sitting in Hitler’s lap when the scale includes Jesus in the definition of “good” (another post for sure; i don’t want to distract anyone by saying “hey, you’re Hitler!” It tends to rankle).
So, is there a person or culture that is superior? Well, I did just kind of give that away from my point of view. But let’s look deeper.
When you realize there is indeed a scale based on some kind of objective morality (read the opening chapters of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity for a wonderful perspective on this), our answer should tend toward “yes.” All people and cultures are of value, but we can all agree that those who live more closely to the objective standard upon which we all agree – those who adhere to the golden rule if you want to put it simply – can be considered superior in that they contribute more to the flourishing of all of us. These are the givers; those who sacrifice for others and truly make the world a livable place. But even these fall far short of the one who is truly superior.
Is there such a person? My answer to that (quite obvious if you know me) will be left for another day…a Part III.