Over the past few weeks, I’ve been ruminating on what it would look like to demonstrate love when witnessing another person being harmed (e.g. by terrorism, racism, sexism, a criminal act, or a serious accident). Of particular concern was a post I read on Facebook where a person was experiencing a significant racist verbal attack. Several people witnessed the berating incident, but did not intervene. The victim of the attack left the experience feeling abandoned and unsure whether all the bystanders condoned the attacker’s behavior.
Source: Yahoo Images
While I mulled this post over in my head I wrestled with the short and long term consequences of what effectively were people suffering from the Bystander effect. As is usually my process I decided to seek some examples from the life of Jesus. It occurred to me that his death may have been the ultimate example of the Bystander effect; of course the phrase was coined.
According to the Gospels, Pontius Pilot effectively did not find a reason to execute Jesus. To help the people calling for his crucifixion to be reasonable, he suggested that one prisoner be set free (this was a typical good will gesture from the Romans during Passover). He assumed the crowd would set Jesus free since the other option was to free a known murderer. To his dismay, the crowd demanded that he crucify Jesus! Although he could not believe their choice, he followed through with the crucifixion.
I wonder if we ourselves are guilty of the Bystander effect. Have you ever examined a situation, knew the right thing to do, but failed to act because you thought someone else would? Or, you were worried about how you would be perceived for coming to the aid of a victim? How to you reconcile in your heart, the abandonment you cause when you fail to answer humanity’s call?
Of course we should protect ourselves from dangerous situations. However, action is required for us to show LOVE and continue to move our world forward. We can do this by examining the views and values that are dear to us. We need to prepare ourselves to join others in action to drive out behaviors and attitudes that do not reflect the highest form of our humanity. The great thing about being ready for action is that more often than not, our action is simply a word of support; not some life threatening mission we must carry out.
Be ready to provide kind words and support for another person being devalued. On that note, this week’s sound track is “Brother’s Keeper” by Indie Arie, because we are called to be our brother’s keeper.
Until next week,