Otherness

-
Otherness
assumes harm against me.
Otherness
leads to misunderstanding.
Otherness
exudes fear and violence.
Otherness
leads to rightness/ better than
Otherness
inequality and ungodliness.

When will the other become human?
When will the other become the divine?
When will the other become enough?


Today I've been thinking about the allies of the Civil Rights Movement.  Not those who were at the forefront like Martin Luther King, Jr, John Lewis, and Rosa Parks, but the allies who put their lives at stake in different ways.  The likes of Anne McCarty Braden, J. Waties Waring, and James Reeb, who took a stand and began working against the systemic injustices. They opened the polls to persons of color, defied real estate practices, and marched alongside MLK.  

Men and women who felt propelled to do the unspeakable.  
Putting their careers on the line.
Pushing against systems that were engrained in one's foundational beliefs.   
Drawing a line in the sand at the cost of friends and family.
Stepping into the lion's den.

They did not see individuals as the other, they saw humanity. 
They did not see individuals as the other, they saw God's divine creation.
They did not see individuals as the other, they saw them as love to be found. 

Webster's dictionary says “ally” is “one that is associated with another as a helper; a person or group that provides assistance and support in an ongoing effort, activity or struggle.”  I know that my faith propels me to be an ally in this world.  I know that I've been invited into a life of lending help to others and that my Creator has placed their own fingerprint on each human being that enters this world.  In my own baptismal vows, I have said yes to standing up against evil and injustices in this world no matter what.  Injustices of otherness, of the ones that have been silenced. 

The road isn't easy, it is fraught with pain alongside healing, disappointments alongside new paths forged, pruning that leads to fruitfulness, choosing forgiveness over judgment, and having a love that is greater than hatred.  I seek to see humanity. I choose to see the divine over differences.  I believe in worthiness over rightness.  

What will you choose? 
Otherness or the divine.......
Fear or being an ally........

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