For an individual or loose group of individuals to kill another individual may be unlawful, but it is at the same time law-full: a taking the law into one’s own hands and applying it to its full extent – “Your very existence offends me, and so I shall take your life.”
In contrast, grace says, “Your very existence delights me, and so I shall affirm your life.”
When Adam is presented with Eve, who is both the same and yet different, he declares, “You are bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” Indeed, Adam does not exist as a discreet entity prior to, or without, Eve.
When I am presented with someone who is of a different socio-economic background to me, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
That is, we are made of the same ‘stuff,’ and, indeed, without ‘the other’ I am myself less complete (I do not mean that economic inequality is a positive thing, but am referring to our attitude towards those who have more or less than we do).
When I am presented with someone whose skin is a different colour from my own, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
When I am presented with someone who is of a different generation to me, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
When I am presented with someone who is of a different gender to me, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
When I am presented with someone who is of a different religion to me, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
When I am presented with someone who is of a different sexuality to me, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
When I am presented with someone who is less able to enjoy the educational or relational opportunities I enjoy, as a result of disability, they are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
We live in a legal society that legislates against discrimination in all of these cases and more. But a legal society can never change the attitude of the fractured human heart towards ‘the other.’ Neither legislation, nor consciousness-raising, can adequately address the issue. They can only highlight the need for the issue to be addressed, and our inadequacy to address it.
What is it that causes me to fear the other, to strive to exalt myself above the other? It is the fear that the image of God reflected in them exposes the ways in which that image is marred in me. If I can get in there first, pointing out the ways in which God’s image is marred in another – or calling that which is not marred ‘marred’ – perhaps others won’t notice…
teenage killers , graceless society , theology
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