Sunday 23rd February
When I take our dog for a walk in the early evening, I initially take her to the off-leash area so she can walk around, picking up the scents of other dogs that had been there that day, and, hopefully, meet other dogs that may also be visiting. While I am there I do a ‘mosquito dance’: check the left leg, check the right leg, check the left arm, check the right arm, check the ears and the back of the neck, check the face, and repeat the steps. There are few things more primal than the fear of being bitten by a mosquito. One of the few things guaranteed to initiate a wild waving of your hands about you head and a furtive looking around is the familiar yet unwelcome buzzing near your ear.
The relevant Authorities take a dull view of you hunting toads with a cricket bat, recommending instead that the humane method is to place them in a plastic bag and then place that in your freezer. There are no such humane recommendations regarding ‘hunting’ mosquitoes; whatever you can do or use as the situation warrants will do. No-one complains about ridding the World of another mosquito, yet you will receive severe criticism from others if you took upon yourself the task of ridding the World of butterflies. Why is there this difference in approach with different insects? What differentiates the value of one such that you respect and protect its life, and the non-value of another such that there is virtually ‘open-warfare’ aimed at eradicating the species? Whether or not the reasons are rationally thought-through or just that the behaviour is ‘learnt’ from childhood, killing a mosquito is not just socially accepted behaviour but is socially expected behaviour.
Two recent situations have raised the question of why people in more critically important circumstances, fail to act in ways that are not just socially accepted but are socially expected.
The upsetting images of the nine year old boy, so distraught following another day of being disgracefully treated by others at his school, raises the question of why, after so much has been said on the matter in the past, children are not being taught nor held to account for the insidious nature of valuing another person less than they value themselves. Why have they assumed the right to devalue the worth of another person less than they value themselves, when God clearly does not? Jesus made it clear that God places equal value on all people when he said, “For God makes His Sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.” (Matthew 5:45b)
The tragic news of the mother and her three children murdered as an act of domestic violence, raises the question of why, after so much has been said on the matter in the past, males, as the disproportionate gender associated with acts of domestic violence, are not being taught nor held to account for the insidious nature of valuing another person less than they value themselves. Why have they assumed the right to deny another not just a safe and healthy wellbeing but to deny them a future? Why have they assumed the right to disregard the sanctity of life, when Genesis 2:7b tells us that it is God alone who gives life and who is Lord of Creation.
We read in Psalm 119, “Happy are those who follow God’s commands, who obey Him with all their heart. They never do wrong; they walk in the Lord’s ways.” (verses 2 and 3) As we submit ourselves to God as Lord and Saviour and as we seek to faithfully walk in His ways, it is then that we see our value in God’s eyes and the equal worth of others in God’s eyes. That is the message that the Church needs to be shouting loudly. It is only on that basis that people will not just know what is socially accepted behaviour but will desire to do it.
Geoffrey.