Say No to All Violence

I recently attended the athletic director session at Federal Way High School. A smattering of parents from kids in different sports were there. Lots of good information was shared. We are happy to be part of their teams!

At one moment in the evening, the director shared a shocking stat:

Yes we live in a culture where referees feel unsafe. They can’t recruit new folks to say yes. Games have to be played almost every night of the week because the few refs they do have end up working all the different shifts. The district we are in used to have 156 refs and now they are down to 45. The threat of violence, acts and words of disrespect, and lack of accountability, total up to a disasterous way of being in the world and it is affecting all of us. Every sphere of life is being impacted by the violent cultures we live within. It’s exhausting – devastating – it is killing us.

On a day when more assassinations take place and school shootings ring out we mourn and are wrenched into absolute devastation. Lord lord help us.

I am thankful for these words from Leonard Sweet today, on a day when I have sighs too deep for words.

Some Thoughts on Violence and the Loss of Humanity – Sweet

When Mahatma Gandhi came to England in the 1930s for talks on Indian self-rule, a reporter asked him what he thought of Western civilization. Gandhi, who had just visited the London slums, famously replied, “I think it would be a very good idea.” His point was piercing: the word civilization implies civility, humanity, and neighborliness—but these are often the very things missing in our cultural practice.

Today, we live in what might be called an anger and assassination culture. Violence—whether verbal, digital, or physical—has become a first resort when facing disagreement. To disagree is no longer to enter a conversation; it is to declare war. We cancel, we condemn, we caricature, and too often, we kill.

Why? Because we are losing our humanity. Civilization is dimming. Civility is crashing. Humanity itself is waning and wanting. The world needs a Jesus-shaped humanity more than ever: one that does not strike back but turns the other cheek, one that does not curse enemies but prays for them, one that does not pick up the sword but carries the cross.

Without the restoration of our humanity, we truly should “be afraid—be very afraid.” That phrase, lifted from the 1986 film The Fly, was originally a warning about what happens when human beings merge with something less than human. It is a parable for our moment: we are mutating into something monstrous when we abandon the image of God in ourselves and in others.

But with the restoration of our humanity, fear loses its grip. Violence is no longer the knee-jerk reflex. Battles are won not by sending in the cavalry, but by showing civility. Not with hostility, but with hospitality. Not with the sword, but with the Spirit.

So what transforms the human into the humane? What is the “e” that makes the difference?

Empathy. To feel with, to suffer with, to listen before lashing out.

Engagement. To move toward, not away from, those who differ from us.

Encouragement. To speak life instead of cursing death.

But the greatest “E” is Emmanuel—God with us. Jesus is the Word made flesh, humanity in its fullest bloom, divinity embodied in solidarity with the broken and the enemy alike. Only Emmanuel restores what we have lost. Only Emmanuel re-humanizes the dehumanized. Only Emmanuel makes it possible to live fearlessly, even in an age of anger and assassination.

If we live in Emmanuel, the culture of death is displaced by a culture of life. Fear gives way to faith. Enmity gives way to embrace. Humanity, once lost, is found again in Him.

#JesusHuman #RestoreCivility #FromHumanToHumane

#EmmanuelInUs #FearlessFaith #CivilDiscourseMatters

#HealingNotHate #FaithOverFear #LoveYourEnemy