What We Fear, We Destroy

“If you talk to animals, they will talk to you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them. And what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.”
Chief Dan George

It is so true! And so sad: What we don’t know, we fear. And what we fear, we tend to destroy. Doesn’t make any difference if it’s a spider or another human being. One day we’re walking home and we see a large spider crawling toward us. We don’t know if it’s harmful or not, but were fear-filled. So we step on it. Minutes later, we encounter a person with a different skin color, accent or lifestyle. We don’t know if they’re harmful or not, but we feel threatened. So we zap them with a cold, fearful “keep away from me“ glance as we hurry on our way.

Once we’re safely home, fear leads us to seek out hearsay from “our own kind.” We exchange gossip about “those people” and fuel our fear with stereotypes. The end result: We develop a prejudice stoked by our own ignorance of those who are different from us. Prejudice begets hatred. And, worst of all, our fearful, prejudicial hatred can lead to violence-- through words, fists or bullets-- against people who are guilty of nothing more than looking, or sounding or acting different.

Prejudice is learned. No one is born prejudice. God has no prejudice against anyone or anything; just as God marginalizes no one. Only humans-- through fear and prejudice-- marginalize others. We marginalize people based on gender, skin color, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, religion, intelligence-level, physical attractiveness and age. We also marginalize people based on their political beliefs, their mental, emotional or physical abilities, their moral choices and their financial stature. And let’s not forget health. For centuries we’ve marginalized people for health issues, ranging from leprosy to tuberculosis to AIDS; or from epilepsy to cerebral palsy to missing limbs.

God creates. We destroy. God unites. We divide. It’s a sad story that runs through our whole history. And it’s a story that needs an ending-- pronto. There are two ways in which we can begin to eradicate this story. One way is to properly educate ourselves, and the other is to keep guard over the judgments we make. When we encounter someone who is different in any way, we need to seek out truthful information about them, not hearsay. One of the best ways to learn the truth is by simply talking to the person. Only they can know their truth. No one else can. If they are from another culture, or practice a different faith, we can also learn more about their culture or faith through the internet or books. When it comes to judgments, we need to practice awareness. We are constantly judging other people, and we need to challenge our harsh judgments and individual prejudices if we are to become better people in the eyes of God.

Everyone on this earth is a unique reflection of the image and likeness of God. And as such, everyone has value-- no exceptions. We are all necessary. Think about it: Everyone in this world is like an individual shard of glass gloriously painted by God, and when we are all placed together-- side by side-- we form a human mosaic of the one true image of God. God looks at all of humanity united and sees his very image and likeness. So allow yourself to see the God-beauty in everyone and allow your soul to shine!