the heart of injustice

Like the battle against terrorism, I recognize that some tough choices have to be made when it comes to school shootings and safety. Locker checks and metal detectors are just some of those choices. But, like the war in the middle east, there are things that we could have done to prevent them, and things that we can still do to prevent them in the future.

America just suffered three more school shootings and one near miss over the past two weeks and, like the Columbine shootings, these new events have led many to wonder “how could this happen?” Personally I’m flabbergasted every time I hear somebody ask that question because all you have to do is ask somebody who has ever been bullied to find out the answer. If you’ve ever been bullied, you know what it’s like to lay in bed at night and wish for revenge. Maybe even pray for it. You might even know the feeling of wishing you could “kill that guy!” Yet every school and youth group has bullies, every school and youth group has those who are being bullied, and every school and youth group has adults that stand around and do nothing about it. Maybe the adults are intimidated themselves. Maybe they simply want to fit in. Or maybe the adults themselves are a part of the bullying. After all, bullying isn’t just physical abuse, it’s also emotional abuse and often simply comes in the form of teasing, put downs, or intimidation.

Two Sundays ago the Salvation Army was asked to focus on human trafficking, a huge problem across the world and one that the church could help to stop if it got half as involved as it has been on abortion. But justice starts at home and at the root of all injustice is bullying. Those who would enslave a human and then force them into labor camps or the sex industry are nothing more than bullies who have taken their craft beyond the school yard, or youth group, or even office space, and gone global. And yet, many of us who talk about human trafficking, and fair trade, and dictatorship, and watershed campaigns, and child pornography, and child abuse aren’t even prepared to stand up to the bullies on our own playgrounds, places of business, or churches. We do our best to look noble, talking and advertising for global issues, all while we allow and sometimes are even the cause of people being bruised and battered all around us.

Justice starts at home. Bullying is bullying. Stand up to the bullies in your own back yard and you’ll have the tools to stand up to them on a global scale.