Any mom knows that there are a couple of problems with making equality your primary focus. First of all, it's impossible because each individual is different. What works with one child, fails miserably with another. Second, even as an involved, on the ground and loving parent, it's just so difficult to manage the task of keeping everything equal. Trust me, I've tried. Two things happen:
Massive contention. My kids see what I am trying to do and suddenly they are looking constantly to see what the other kid got and how they are measuring up. Lots of finger pointing and fighting ensues.
Even worse, the kids immediately resort to entitlement behavior. Meaning, they wait around for the great equalizer (me) to fix any inequity they see. And trust me, they start to see it everywhere. Lots of whining and unhappiness ensues.
I'm certainly not suggesting that general equity isn't healthy and desirable in any society. Everyone should be treated fairly by others, regardless of their race, gender, religion, status... and I believe the USA has largely achieved this! But if equity is the whole focus, if this becomes my "cause" things get pretty hazy.
I love being a Mormon and really studying Christ's words and the words of our apostles and prophet today. In studying Jesus Christ's life, I noticed something interesting. He wasn't an activist. He didn't incent the Jews to rise up against their oppressors. He saw inequity everywhere he went: The way the Jews treated the Samaritans, the way women, the poor and sick were treated generally. But did use his power and influence to demand change? Not at all. In fact that's part of the reason so many of the Jews couldn't accept him as the Messiah. He offered no deliverance from their oppressors. They wanted fire and justice! And this wasn't an unreasonable thing to want. Things were decidedly unfair and unequal in Israel at that time.
But Christ didn't organize any marches or send around petitions or encourage violent rebellion (or peaceful rebellion for that matter). Instead, he spent a significant amount of effort showing us the value of each person on this earth. He chose simple, uneducated and poor men to be his apostles. The first person he ever declared his divinity to was.... drum roll... a woman. A Samaritan woman. Probably pretty much the lowest on the society totem pole. Christ spent his time with publicans, "sinners" (of course we are all imperfect but I think he was hanging out with known and unrepentant sinners) and those who were unpopular. One of my favorite stories in the New Testiment is about Zacheus. I love this story because it is so applicable to everyone. Zacheus was not well liked. He was a tax collector, he was Jewish but worked closely enough with the Romans that the Jews resented him. He was short, probably not the coolest guy in the room. And Jesus walked past all the people who were more attractive, maybe more pleasant or influential and invited Zacheus for supper.
Jesus didn't just show us how to make the world better, he said it. Clearly. "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant." We've all heard this so many times but do we really get it? Your status, your success, your looks, your money, your piousness... none of it matters in the end.
How about more time reflecting on our responsibilities and less time thinking about rights? We do happen to live in the THE MOST FREE society on earth. Are there racists here? Yep, mostly because there are humans here and they tend to do that. Maybe I'm a Pollyanna to the end but I believe most Americans don't care where you are from or what color your skin is or who you are sleeping with. Most Americans will judge you on the content of your character. And the constant drumbeat of "It's not fair" is probably having the opposite effect of it's intent.
I'm certainly not suggesting that general equity isn't healthy and desirable in any society. Everyone should be treated fairly by others, regardless of their race, gender, religion, status... and I believe the USA has largely achieved this! But if equity is the whole focus, if this becomes my "cause" things get pretty hazy.
I love being a Mormon and really studying Christ's words and the words of our apostles and prophet today. In studying Jesus Christ's life, I noticed something interesting. He wasn't an activist. He didn't incent the Jews to rise up against their oppressors. He saw inequity everywhere he went: The way the Jews treated the Samaritans, the way women, the poor and sick were treated generally. But did use his power and influence to demand change? Not at all. In fact that's part of the reason so many of the Jews couldn't accept him as the Messiah. He offered no deliverance from their oppressors. They wanted fire and justice! And this wasn't an unreasonable thing to want. Things were decidedly unfair and unequal in Israel at that time.
But Christ didn't organize any marches or send around petitions or encourage violent rebellion (or peaceful rebellion for that matter). Instead, he spent a significant amount of effort showing us the value of each person on this earth. He chose simple, uneducated and poor men to be his apostles. The first person he ever declared his divinity to was.... drum roll... a woman. A Samaritan woman. Probably pretty much the lowest on the society totem pole. Christ spent his time with publicans, "sinners" (of course we are all imperfect but I think he was hanging out with known and unrepentant sinners) and those who were unpopular. One of my favorite stories in the New Testiment is about Zacheus. I love this story because it is so applicable to everyone. Zacheus was not well liked. He was a tax collector, he was Jewish but worked closely enough with the Romans that the Jews resented him. He was short, probably not the coolest guy in the room. And Jesus walked past all the people who were more attractive, maybe more pleasant or influential and invited Zacheus for supper.
Jesus didn't just show us how to make the world better, he said it. Clearly. "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant." We've all heard this so many times but do we really get it? Your status, your success, your looks, your money, your piousness... none of it matters in the end.
How about more time reflecting on our responsibilities and less time thinking about rights? We do happen to live in the THE MOST FREE society on earth. Are there racists here? Yep, mostly because there are humans here and they tend to do that. Maybe I'm a Pollyanna to the end but I believe most Americans don't care where you are from or what color your skin is or who you are sleeping with. Most Americans will judge you on the content of your character. And the constant drumbeat of "It's not fair" is probably having the opposite effect of it's intent.
