A few nights ago, I found myself watching a cable news network, hoping to stay informed as best I could with relevant developments, both locally, as well as internationally. As I watched, report after report flashed across the screen, relaying some of the heinous and hideous acts that have occurred in this very young year of 2013 . From a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to innocent young people being gunned down in cold blood in Chicago, to an explosion at the Boston Marathon that killed 3 people and left 264 people injured, to Philadelphia Police shooting seven people in one 24 hour period; the television was literally showing one tragedy after another. I called a friend to ask him if he had noticed the theme of tribulation that I had seen on TV. When I asked him, he replied “Yeah, but it’s no big deal. It’s always like that. That’s just the way the world is.”
The times that we currently live in are troubled ones. Our society appears to be ridden with more poverty, violence, death, injustice, corruption, and war now than perhaps any other time in history. As we all live through these times of turbulence, I found myself taken aback by something deeper than the dilemmas we face and hear about regularly. More concerning than the problems we face is the position that we, as a culture, have taken towards them. The frequency of these instances that we see has desensitized us to the horrific nature of them. Many of us share the same view as my colleague; believing that as appalling as these atrocities may be, our emotions towards them are minimal because we conceive them as commonplace.
I found myself becoming extremely concerned about something far deeper than the dilemmas being broadcast across the airwaves. As I thought about this, my emotions began to focus on the reply my friend had given me moments ago. Eventually, I found myself wondering if his response was an indicator of the emotional direction our society was pointing. Have the effects of violence, death, and injustice so numbed us to where we now consider that which is reckless to be regular? Do you and I really live in a space where atrocities are now acceptable & calamities are now conventional? Have we as brothers and sisters…as Americans…as children of God lowered the standards of society so much that now kindness, love and decency have all been replaced with a new normal in which indecency, injustice, and irresponsibility are inopinate?
This is a troublesome trend for our culture to adopt. We must be concerned when we are no longer disturbed by destruction or sickened by sinfulness. When we choose to be casual about the immoralities we see regularly, we give license to those who would violate and oppress us to continue unimpeded. We may acknowledge the inhumanity that surrounds us but, as followers of God, we must never accept it. God plan is not to for us to sit idly in violent silence while all around us grows increasingly insane. Is striving for heaven really worthwhile if those around us are catching hell? As upholders of the will and way of God, we must choose to speak out against the wrongdoings we see and experience so often. The Bible teaches in Matthew 25:37-45 about the charge God gives to His followers to tend to the “least of these” while they are here. We are called to set societal standards, not succumb to them. Our nation, cities, and people will continue to spiral downward as long as the people of God allow them to and their behavior will remain unbearable until we make it unacceptable. So whether its 100 Syrian protesters shot in front of a mosque by police, 7 innocent people killed in Chicago, or an 11-year-old boy randomly shot at an African-American Freedom festival in Columbus, Ohio, we must decide to no longer accept what the world is telling us is normal. We must redefine the term; investing both our effort & energy into creating a new normal. A new normal where the principles of God are priority & tragedies are not tolerated. A new normal where we celebrate life instead of death; where equality is for everyone, politics are people-centered and all of humanity is viewed as valued members of God’s beloved community. The way things are is not the way they have to be. We must choose to reform the norm; its time for a new normal.