Today's Morning Reflection

Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Job 19:1-7, 14-17
Acts 13:13-25
John 9:18-41

Victimizing the Victim

Job to Bildad: "...are you not ashamed to wrong me?"

The authorities to the man born blind: "'You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?' And they drove him out."

One of the major themes of the book of Job is that sometimes the innocent suffer. The world does not always work justly. Cause and effect is not upright. Often the wicked prosper and the righteous fail. Anyone who grounds their faith in a belief that life will reward the diligent, upright and honest is failing to see reality. Anyone who persists in defending systems they believe to be just, will end up victimizing those who suffer unjustly, victimizing the victim. Usually the defense of the broken system will become abusive, adding a layer of oppression to the misery.

Job is innocent, yet he suffers terribly. Bildad and the others insist that God rewards the good and punishes the sinner, therefore Job must be a sinner. These friends of Job are defending God -- or better -- defending their orthodoxies about God. Job accuses God. It is God who is hunting and punishing him, Job accuses. Job says, "I want to face God with this truth." The innocent suffer, and God's people only blame them for their suffering.

Jesus heals a man born blind. But Jesus does so on the Sabbath, in violation of religious practice and teaching. The authorities cross-examine the healed man. The blind man sees. He understands. He tells them, only God's power could heal a man born blind. This man Jesus must be from God. But the conventional belief is that God punishes sin, and anyone born blind must himself be a punishment for sin. They dismiss the blind man and his insight roughly, "You were born entirely in sins..."

Our nation allows 5,000 laborers to immigrate legally into the U.S. each year while our economy lures and successfully employs 300,000 in jobs that raise their standard of living and allow them to save enough to send some money home to help their families in poverty there. Our naturalization services make it extraordinarily difficult for immigrants to become citizens, a process that averages 11 years. A hard-working, hopeful immigrant father pursues the American dream for his family, contributing to our nation's economic vitality by working and having taxes deducted for services he doesn't qualify for and having payroll withheld for social security that won't match his name when he is 65. If he is discovered, he will be fired, or possibly deported. Treated like a criminal. Why? He has violated the law. But it is a bad and unjust law. It's the law, say the authorities. And his now fatherless children hide with other illegal relatives. They might have grown up in this country since they first learned to talk. But if they haven't worked the complicated system to gain citizenship before age 18, they become criminals on their birthday.

To enforce such an unjust and broken system is to victimize the victims.

A child grows up in a family that is stressed and barely getting by. A single mom works two jobs that pay by the hour. She's not home much, because she's got to work so long to cover rent, food and the transportation she needs to get to work. There is precious little time or money for incidentals. There is no margin for misfortune. There is no insurance for illness. She gets very sick. She ignores the symptoms as long as she can. She tries to gut it out, but can't. Her only option is the emergency room. Every clinic or doctor in town will refuse her appointment. They have no more places for uninsured. Only the emergency room must take her. When I go to the emergency room, my insurers have negotiated a discount rate with the providers. I have a modest co-pay; the hospital gets the agreed rate from my insurance company. When the uninsured woman goes in, she is billed at the top rate. When she can't pay it, her credit rating is ruined. If she tries to pay it, her meager economic life constricts more tightly. If she's sick too long, her employer will fire her. She should have come in earlier when the doctors could have done something before she got so ill. What will she do about the child? Too bad. That's just the way it is, they tell her. That's the system. Anything else would be socialism. And you'd better not try to get a quick buck by selling drugs, or yourself.

Often -- hard working, honest people living in the richest country in the world can't make ends meet. But America is the best nation in the world, we tell her. It must be your fault.

Too often we try to defend the systems we believe in and the teachings we've been taught even when their failings and shortcomings are right in front of our eyes. Instead of practicing empathy, we rationalize. When our empathy fails, we will victimize the victims. And we will do so in the name of that which we most treasure.

Unless we let empathy, love, compassion and understanding reshape our reality, we're part of the problem.