“There is none so blind as he who will not see.
We must not close up minds. We must let our thoughts be free.” (From “Everything is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens
I had never heard of Charlie Kirk until two days ago when he was shot and killed in Utah. If I had I would have disagreed with almost everything he stood for. What I have learned about him in the last 24 hours indicates he was instrumental in converting many vulnerable young Americans to the Trump political campaign that gave us a disastrous threat to our democracy.
That saddens me greatly, but it does not in any way justify violence against those who hold different political views, even diametrically opposed ones. Gunning down any young husband and father is cause for grief and one more reason America needs to do serious introspection about the state of our political divisions.
One thing I can heartily agree with Kirk on is his defense of free speech and his willingness to engage in dialogue with those who disagreed with him. I suspect, although I don’t know, that his public debates with those who came to hear him may have been largely political theater. Regardless of that, the principle of our constitutional right to freedom of expression must not be lost in the grief or the debate that will follow this latest mar on America’s image.
The commentaries and testimonials about Charlie Kirk have gotten me thinking about eyes and eyesight, not from an ophthalmological perspective, but from a theological one. Back in 2016 when Donald Trump was running for President the first time I read about an interview where a reporter asked Trump what his favorite Scripture is, and his response confirmed my already low opinion of him. He said his favorite Scripture was “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” revealing how stunted and misguided his faith development is. Those who never get past Deuteronomy or even read the first book of the New Testament where Jesus directly repeals that revengeful notion of justice have a very low, un-Christlike theology. (Cf. Deuteronomy 19:21 and Matthew 5:38-39)
I love the quote from Mahatma Gandhi that says, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” Gandhi like Jesus knew that violence and retribution never solve anything. One offense leads to a counterattack, verbal or physical. One war only sews the seeds of the next one. Jesus’ unpopular advice to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) when someone hurts you is not about weakness but about the courage to stop the ever-escalating cycle of violence.
One of the other familiar quotes attributed to Jesus about eyes is, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)
Those words from the Sermon on the Mount should serve as a reminder to all of us to prioritize a careful examination of our own faults and biases before we level criticism at others. I know that when I have even a tiny speck of dirt in one of my eyes it itches and waters and I cannot see clearly until I can get it out. The same is true of our spiritual vision, especially when it comes to our feelings and opinions about the beliefs, words, and actions of those we disagree with.
For example, as soon as I read a news alert on my phone about the death of Charlie Kirk on one of my favorite left-leaning news outlets and learned that he was a big Trump supporter, all of my assumptions and biases about the whole MAGA community kicked in. The fact that I didn’t even know who Kirk was speaks volumes about my failure to listen to voices from opposing political perspectives.
I am still very uncomfortable that this spokesperson for what I believe to be undemocratic and dangerous views is being made into a hero and martyr. I am also incredibly upset that President Trump and his supporters who are speaking eloquently about free speech need to take the logs out of their own eyes. When a government servant shares economic reports that run counter to the Trump narrative and is summarily fired, that is not freedom of speech. When a Federal Reserve governor stands up to the President over economic policy and the President attempts to fire her, that is not freedom of speech.
When the head of the CDC refuses to sign off on policies that fly in the face of scientific evidence and is fired for her integrity, that is not freedom of speech. When the President’s entire cabinet spends whole cabinet meetings offering flowery praises to the President instead of engaging in productive debate and collaboration, that is not freedom of speech. When the entire GOP membership of the House and Senate are too fearful to do their constitutional duty of providing checks and balances on the President, that is not freedom of speech.
And finally, when flags are lowered to half-mast for Charlie Kirk but not for Democratic legislators killed in Minnesota or for dozens of innocent school shooting victims, or for anyone else not aligned with the Trump philosophy, that is not freedom of speech. That is pure partisan propaganda.
We desperately need freedom of speech, but it has to work both ways or it is not free. The future of our democracy is at a scary tipping point. If we demonize and refuse to see our common humanity with even those we feel are political enemies, the death of Charlie Kirk and other political leaders will fuel a continuing spiral of decent into chaos and military take overs of our cities.
But if we remove the proverbial logs out of our own eyes and make a disciplined effort to see every human as a sister or brother then there is still hope that our fragile democracy can be preserved. It’s a choice, as Ray Charles reminds us, “There is none so blind as he/she who will not see. We must not close up minds. We must let our thoughts be free.”
Tag: eye for an eye
“Hurt People Hurt People”
“Hurt people hurt people.” I first heard this piece of wisdom from Brene Brown, a popular speaker and author. Brene is a research professor at the University of Houston who spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. I thought about her words this morning when I awoke to yet one more horror story of 8 people shot to death at an Indianapolis Fed Ex facility. After reading the news article I decided to google that phrase to see where it occurs in Brown’s writing.
I didn’t find it which means I probably heard her say it in one of her podcasts. But what I discovered is that dozens of people have expressed that phrase in a variety of ways. One that especially caught my eye was this one: “Hurt people hurt people. That’s how pain patterns get passed on generation after generation after generation. Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion and cruelty with kindness. Greet grimaces with smiles. Forgive and forget about finding fault.” That quote is from Yehuda Berg, a contemporary Jewish Rabbi and author, and his words reminded me of a key Christian teaching.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” (Jesus of Nazareth, Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:38-39.) Nowhere in the Bible is the stark contrast between the different ethics of the two testaments more clearly stated. Interestingly as different as the older quote in Leviticus 24:19-21 is from Jesus’ teaching; both represent radical new thinking for their time and context. In the Hebrew Scripture an eye for an eye was an attempt to set boundaries on the amount of revenge a person could take on someone who had wronged him/her. In other words its aim was to redefine justice so the punishment fit the crime.
Fast forward approximately 600 years and Jesus attempts to set an even higher standard by urging his followers to “turn the other cheek.” Suffice it to say this is a very high bar to live up to, and most of us who call ourselves Christians fall far short of emulating the sacrificial love of Jesus. What I like about Berg’s quote on this theme is that he unpacks what it means in terms of how the retaliation ethic results in generation after generation passing that way of living on to their children and grandchildren.
I have no way of knowing what motivated this recent shooter to commit his violent act, and we may never really know since he, like many of the other mass shooters, killed himself. We have now learned that he was a 19 year-old man, and that is significant because research into male emotional and mental development has shown that young men are not fully developed in those areas until their early 20’s. Obviously this young man was not responsible enough to have a gun, much less an assault rifle.
It seems to me the rash of gun violence may have something to do with the stress we have all been under for over a year now due to COVID-19. We are all hurting, some more than others, from the restrictions, grief and fear from this invisible enemy that has killed 560,000 Americans and millions more globally. If we are all hurting and hurt people hurt people it makes sense that the stresses of this past year could account for some part of this awful trend. But if that is true why have we not seen similar violence in other countries?
Knowing that it can take less stress in a pandemic to trigger a violent response to others is complicated by the number of guns in this country. In Moses’ day when the Levitical laws were developed the only weapons available to folks were clubs, swords and spears which could of course be deadly, but they were weapons designed for one-on-one combat. They could knock out a tooth or put out an eye, but they were not capable of killing multiple people in a matter of a few seconds. And I would note that weapons had not advanced into the ability to create mass destruction and killing by the time our second amendment was written.
My theory is that the fears and dis-ease of the pandemic motivated frightened people to own firearms, including assault weapons. There were more guns sold in this country in 2020 than ever before. Coincidence? I think not. And the fact that many radical members of the Republican party want to still live in the days of Levitical law makes the spiral of violence begetting more violence all the more dangerous. Since I began writing this blog this morning there have been two more incidents of gun violence that I know of in this country. One was in a Bob Evans restaurant in Canton, Ohio and the other in a routine traffic stop in San Antonio, Texas. There have been at least 45 mass shootings (which means 4 or more people killed or wounded) already this year. 45!! That’s about 3 per week.
What is unique about Americans that we cannot resolve this issue? It took just 1 mass killing in Australia in 1996 to institute strict gun control. It also only took 1 in New Zealand 2 years ago for them to do the same. The rash of killings this time in the U.S. began at Columbine in 1999 and has run unabated ever since. Why can’t we Americans agree on common sense gun control? If guns made us safer we could be the safest country in the world, but that is certainly not the case.
It is obviously more important in 2021 than ever before and perhaps harder to “Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion and cruelty with kindness. Greet grimaces with smiles. Forgive and forget about finding fault.” This seems so hard if not impossible to do, but individually for Christians and other pacifists turning the other cheek and breaking the chain reaction of violence is the only way we will survive without creating a whole population of blind, toothless or dead people.
Peacefully Harsh 