It’s not news. We can’t help noticing on a frequent basis that our people seem divided in so many ways. Political parties and elections especially seem to stir up a lot of division and antagonism among us. Two contentious issues that have divided us for years involve life and death.
Many on the left have a concern about Americans dying by gun violence. They find it hard to understand why owning guns should be a priority when we routinely hear of people dying at the hands of fellow citizens who shot them. And each time it happens, they look to lawmakers to legislate new encroachments on “the right of [citizens] to keep and bear Arms.”
Many on the right have a concern about Americans being conceived and then terminated before birth. They find it hard to grasp the concept that anyone could justify ending a pregnancy by abortion. They look to lawmakers, as well, to limit some “reproductive rights” of women.
But it seems each side takes the wrong approach to correct what they see as a problem. Each wants to get laws and government to stop a problem behavior that relates to life and death of Americans. And they each firmly defend their own cause. But each is defending something that has implications of darkness.
It’s hard to say that there is anything good about abortion. It may solve what a woman may see as a problem. She may also see it as her right to make choices about her own body. But that choice also represents the termination of a particular human life, one made up of particular DNA from a mother and a father, one that was never given a chance to experience life outside the womb, to grow, develop, and pursue happiness. The light of that life was snubbed out in a sterile, cruel moment.
It’s also hard to justify ever using a firearm (or other means) to take the life of a fellow human being. Self defense may be an exception, but only if loss of life is the likely outcome otherwise. Again, the situation involves the loss of a human being with hopes and dreams, challenges and struggles–people like the rest of us, people worthy of basic respect.
No human being has any right to take the life of another. Animals hunt and fight to kill their prey or kill threats to themselves. But we humans are capable of living at a higher level than that, to act on values, to value human life and preserve it.
Laws will never be a substitute for good personal values. The current laws regarding guns or regarding abortion aren’t the real problem leading to the loss of life–and new laws are not likely to substantially improve things. I believe the real problem is how people view each other. If we believe someone doesn’t deserve basic respect as a human being, perhaps because of their skin color, their body type, their choices in life, or because they are still in the womb, we are personally taking on some of the darkness that darkens our nation and the world.
Light, on the other hand, leads us to accept a person as valuable just because they are a fellow human being; they are part of the human family. We acknowledge that they and we are the work of the same Creator. We can treat them decently even if they look or act differently, if we don’t agree with their beliefs or don’t like their life choices, or if we question characteristics of past generations that they come from. We are willing to lend a helping hand if they are in need, because they are part of our human family.
Lightward Bound exists to spread light, eventually making this sort of attitude the norm in our nation. Our individual values, attitudes, and behaviors collectively weave the tapestry of our culture. Let’s build a brilliant and beautiful cultural tapestry, one positive human interaction at a time.