Rather than going through all the hard, messy work of loving our enemies or hearing what they have to say, we zombify them.
\n\u00a0
\nThey\u2019re no longer people anymore in our eyes, they\u2019re \u201cDemocrats\u201d or \u201cRepublicans,\u201d \u201cCalvinists\u201d or \u201cArminians.\u201d Because of this zombification, they no longer have to be treated with respect and dignity because we\u2019ve stripped them of their humanity, reducing them to nothing more than a caricatured, soulless enemy ripe for\u00a0destruction.
\n\u00a0
\nWe zombify our opponents because it lets us sleep at night and go to church in the morning knowing we didn\u2019t just destroy a real person or groups of people of Facebook. We did what we had to do. We killed the zombie and held off the apocalypse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When I originally wrote those words, I had theological and political debates in mind.<\/p>\n
While I think what I said back then about politics and theology still holds true, the events of recent months have reminded me that stripping others of their humanity is far more widespread and insidious than our never-ending political bickering and theological infighting.<\/p>\n
We have a deep-seeded mistrust and often outright fear of the other in general, but we seem to have a particular disdain for others who don\u2019t share our ethnicity, race, or socio-economic status. Rather than taking a moment to listen to their cries of oppression and pleas for justice, we \u201czombify\u201d them.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been on Facebook or Twitter or really any corner of the internet lately, you know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
When President Obama announced a new approach to immigration, hispanic immigrants were reduced to nothing more than \u201cillegals.\u201d When Michael Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, MO, his death was justified because he was a \u201cthug.\u201d When Eric Garner was choked to death in the streets of New York, the absence of justice was tolerated because he was a \u201ccriminal.\u201d And when the CIA report was released this week, we were told it was ok to torture other human beings if they are \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether intentionally or not, whether we\u2019re racist or just ignorant of what we\u2019re doing, when we use\u00a0words like \u201cthug,\u201d \u201cillegal,\u201d or even \u201cterrorist\u201d we often do so because they allow us to dehumanize our enemies. By r<\/span>educing \u201cthose people\u201d to nothing more than pejorative names, we strip them of their humanity, making it easier\u00a0to justify their mistreatment, oppression, and even their death<\/p>\nWhile this sort of \u201czombification\u201d is\u00a0inherently problematic, for Christians, it\u2019s the most unholy\u00a0sort of irony.<\/p>\n
Recall the crucifixion.<\/p>\n
Although\u00a0the gospels often vary in their retelling\u00a0of events in the life of Jesus,\u00a0one particular phrase is repeated often and in each of the four gospels\u2019 accounts\u00a0of the crucifixion: King of the Jews.<\/p>\n
Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews.<\/em><\/p>\nThe crowd cried out for the King of the Jews to be crucified.<\/em><\/p>\nKing of the Jews was nailed to the cross above Jesus\u2019 head.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd the soldiers who stood guard next to the dying messiah, mocked him for being the King of the Jews.<\/em><\/p>\n2,000 years later, we tend to lump \u201cKing of the Jews\u201d together with messianic titles like \u201cEmmanuel\u201d or \u201cLion of the Tribe of Judah.\u201d But in the gospels\u2019 telling of the crucifixion story, King of the Jews is anything but an acclamation of praise.<\/p>\n
As the four gospels tell us,\u00a0King of the Jews was nailed to the cross because it was the crime (insurrection) Jesus was being crucified for. However, King of the Jews wasn\u2019t part of the legal code in ancient Rome like \u201cspeeding\u201d or \u201ctheft\u201d are today. By branding Jesus the King of the Jews, Roman authorities were making a mockery of him. By caricaturing his identity and reducing him to nothing more than pejorative name, Rome\u00a0stripped Jesus of his humanity and\u00a0turned into nothing more than a soulless enemy who deserved death.<\/p>\n
However, the specific name that was nailed to the cross was ultimately irrelevant in the practice of crucifixion. After all, Jesus wasn\u2019t the only one crucified in the ancient world. Anachronisms not withstanding, Rome could just as easily have nailed \u201cterrorist\u201d or \u201cthug\u201d or \u201cillegal\u201d or even \u201cone of those people\u201d to the cross and it would have had the same degrading, dehumanizing, and justifying effect.<\/p>\n
Though the days of ancient Rome have\u00a0long since passed, when we brand people \u201cthugs\u201d or \u201cillegals\u201d or \u201ccriminal\u201d or whatever derogatory name we choose, we participate in the very same sort of mockery\u00a0and stripping of humanity that justified the execution of\u00a0the one we call Lord.<\/p>\n
This must stop.<\/p>\n
As Christians, we can\u2019t preach about the cross as a life-giving moment, while continuing to participate in the same dehumanizing, degrading, and justifying of violence that allowed\u00a0Rome to nail our Savior to the cross.<\/span><\/p>\nThat doesn\u2019t mean we should ignore crimes when they occur or cease to hold people accountable for their actions. But\u00a0as Christians, regardless of the circumstances, we are to love both neighbor and\u00a0enemy alike, not strip them of their humanity and justify their oppression whenever we see fit.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, we\u2019re no different than the Roman soldiers who stood at the foot of the cross and mocked Jesus until his dying breath.<\/p>\n
So, at the very least, while we may never agree on public policy or the validity of a grand jury\u2019s decision, as Christians, we must never forget\u00a0that we are called to uphold\u00a0the dignity and defend the\u00a0humanity of\u00a0the least of these.<\/p>\n
Even when the least of these are people with a checkered past.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of years ago\u00a0I wrote a post on what I called \u201cthe zombification of America.\u201d It was about how we strip our enemies of their humanity in order to feel justified treating them however we see fit. If you\u2019ll let me be that guy for a moment and quote myself, I wrote\u2026 Rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":13358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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