the Human Image

So I was struck by an interesting thought yesterday when I was reading about the Ray Rice story. Before I share it though, a few things.

First, I don’t follow sports. Really at all. So I don’t know anything about Ray Rice before this story broke out beyond what’s listed on his Wikipedia entry page, which I read glancingly this morning. Given that I don’t follow sports, I pretty much don’t understand most of what it says about him other than “he’s good at sports stuff.”

Also, let’s just get this out of the way. Hitting people is bad. Hitting women is bad and honestly, hitting men is bad too. Don’t hit people. They teach this in kindergarten. For someone to hit their wife(then fiancé) is also very bad. This conclusion shouldn’t really be up for discussion and really shouldn’t need to be said, but I need to get that out of the way to be sure you all understand where I’m coming from.  Spousal abuse is a terrible terrible thing, but I’m not looking at that specifically at the moment. I read a terrific blog by Steve fuller this morning over on the Rebel Storytellers site that covers this very well, and I recommend that you read it. http://rebelstorytellers.com/domestic-violence/

What I’m struck by in this is the nature of morality in regards to visibility. I used to have a roommate who would say all the time, “it’s not wrong unless you get caught” and he lived by it. This situation seems to be a great example of how this type of worldview writ large impacts inter-human interaction. The fact is, Ray Rice’s actions were not taken seriously back when they were simply reported, but not seen. After the abuse was reported, he was briefly suspended, but beyond that, no further action was taken. When he returned to the practice field, there were even fans who cheered for his return. Now, with video showing the act released, Ray Rice suddenly finds himself released from his team, and the center of a firestorm of media commentary.

But why? It was known well before that he had hit his wife. It was general knowledge to those following the sport, and well reported in the news. We just didn’t see it. In the fictional series, The Dresden Files, the stories follow a modern day wizard working in Chicago, and he’s asked why no one would believe in things like magic and trolls running around in the modern day. The response that he gives is that it’s largely because of walls. Humans don’t believe things they don’t see. We can be told about it, and we may even accept it on an intellectual basis, but we don’t truly believe it until we see it. (it’s interesting, he actually uses spousal abuse as an example to explain this phenomenon, so I can’t claim originality by tying the two together)

It got me thinking of other items I’ve been seeing in the news repeatedly. Immigration is always a hot topic, and it certainly has been gaining more attention as of late. I’ve seen repeatedly posts from my Christian friends, many of whom lean more to a conservative political stance, regarding the topic. Images attached are often of border security guards, or of the President, talking about wanting to prevent legislation that would offer “amnesty” to illegal immigrants. However, what I don’t see are images of the children being put in holding cells at the border, or those families that are starving in their home countries before they decide to make the arduous trek to come to the United States. We don’t see images of the complicated and often very expensive process of trying to become a citizen legally. (though, admittedly, this might make less of a powerful one-shot picture or even a 30 second video)

Why does an evil need to be seen for us to know it’s evil? More importantly, why do we need these images to remind us of the human element behind these stories? It seems so much easier to pretend that when we read about a football player hitting his wife, or about people being held in a detention area at the border, or of someone abused by a police officer, they’re not a “real person.” We can overlay our own ideologies and political tendencies, instead of recognizing the human element behind the issue.

It can be so easy to see these individuals as “other” when we’re reading in the paper or following on cable news, but Jesus commanded us to see all as our neighbor. The one who served the man at the side of the road wasn’t a fellow Jew, but a Samaritan, someone from another people group, another community, and in many ways, another religion. Our responsibility as Christians is to look past these barriers that the world would say are causes for hate, and seek the opportunity to love, serve, and welcome those who are different than us. The only image we should care about is the fact that they are made in the image of God. We shouldn’t need the video to slam it in our faces.