We have left behind a time when a person’s word was his/her bond and people were recognized and respected for their humanity. Now we celebrate people for the sizes of their bank accounts and amount of material possessions that they have acquired, regardless of the manner in which they acquired the possessions. Society now frequently judges the quality and stature of a man by his wealth rather than by the quality of his character. People and institutions are afraid to rein in a
rich man for bad behavior while those that we perceive as poor have just about lost their right to be considered human. Consequently, advocates for the poor must now work harder than they ever did to ensure that the poor are fed and housed, and that the poor can maintain a hope that somehow, our world can regain a conscience and become a just world that includes them. Unfortunately, the task of caring advocates for equality and justice is made even harder because even the poor and oppressed
now have among them very large contingents of bigoted and ignorant individuals that are cheerleaders for their oppressors. As a result, hateful bigotry, pride and cruelty has become prevalent at all levels of society, even among those who virtually live in houses of worship. Truly, it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Through history, wars have been fought against bigotry. That was the reason for World War II, the American Civil War and America’s involvement in Kosovo as recently as 1999. Today, the hateful rhetoric constantly directed at Nigeria’s new president, Buhari, by members of the party that he vanquished, the cruelly racist venom spewed daily at President Obama of the United States, the
inhumanity that is perpetrated by racist and oppressive police officers, the Islamic State (ISIS), Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), Latin American drug lords and other terrorist groups around the world are such that one is left wondering when the world went off the rails and what hope there is for future generations. Today, we have people all over the globe who wish that slavery never ended, people who would have our world apologize for rising against ethnic cleaning and authority figures who would rather that a big part of our population did not exist because they possess the “wrong” skin color, bear the “wrong” names, live on the “wrong” side of the tracks, practice the “wrong” religion and belong to the “wrong” political parties.
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| President Buhari of Nigeria |
one another to maintain high ratings, evangelical pastors must shout at their congregations through microphones to build up their prestige and fill their pews. Regardless of race, class or culture, many men in today’s world continue to perpetuate the old faulty thinking that they must shout down their female partners if they are to be considered qualified to lay claim to manhood.
As I see it, this is an increasingly unjust world replete with failed institutions and organizations, failed leaders and failed followers. Our world has lost its way and must begin a journey back to basics. Everyday, we are digging for ourselves holes from which we must begin to climb out because it could become too late. Perhaps we should long and work for a day when love, justice and truth take their rightful places in the community of mortals. I write this knowing that I may be asking too much. But it is perhaps also because there is a part of me that believes in the inherent goodness of man. This is not to say that I think that man is by nature good and imperfect but that I believe that it is possible for man to possess, attain and display some measure of goodness because man, after all, was made in the image of a good Creator.