I've been thinking a lot lately about justice. What's wrong and what's right? Whose side are we on? And who are we fighting against?
I used to clearly know right and wrong. I could tell you who the good guys and bad guys were.
The pimp? Bad guy
The slave? Good guy
The abuser? Bad guy
The abused? Good guy
The dictator? Bad guy
The refugee? Good guy
On and on it goes, on one side is the victim and on the other is the perpetrator.
Until I realized the one who abused me was also abused.
That pimp who trafficked that child was also trafficked when they were young.
The bad guys were good guys at some point, now they are desperate for some sort of security, a shred of power that will help them feel safe.
So here we are, in this endless cycle of good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things and who really is the good guy in all of it?
I recently went to these two temples. They are on opposing hillsides, one called Phnom Broh (Man), and the other Phnom Srey (Woman).
We were first led to the temple of the man and so we looked around. It was breathtaking. Filled with ornate paintings and stupahs. Every way you turned there was some new, intricate detail that had been missed before. There were statues and tombs and temples, it was gorgeous. A few monks and laypeople walked around, enjoying the beauty and doing whatever rituals were required.
Then we went to the temple of the woman. There were still a few paintings and buildings, but in contrast to the man's temple it was pathetic. It obviously hadn't been kept up over the years as the other had. The temple of the woman required no fee to enter (as the man's did). And instead of people enjoying it and doing rituals, there were beggers on the steps.
Honestly, it infuriated me. For days I couldn't let go of my frustration at an overt example of women being treated as less than men. But who is there for me to be mad at? The builders? No, they were doing what they had to in order to feed their families. The people visiting the temple? No, they are only going to see that which was placed in front of them. The culture? Maybe, but the culture has made great strides- As my friend said, “at least they have a temple for the woman”.
While I look around and am surrounded with the issues of Cambodia- slavery, homelessness, disease... I am also hearing about the issues in America- institutional racism, police brutality, and gun violence. It's all too much. There is such great injustice around, once again I look for the villain to be mad at. Is it the police? No, there are good officers who are protecting American citizens. Is it Trump? Not fully, if anything he deserves pity more than anger. Is it white people? Not fully, most white people are working with the culture that was handed to them and are unaware of the systems that keep racism alive.
Once again, the problem is so much bigger than any individual.
There is a verse in the bible that says “we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities”. For the first time in my life, I deeply believe that to be true. Misogyny, racism, superiority- these things are more than any one person. They are about the way power has been distributed, it's the principles we choose to live by rather than fight against.
So how do we fight it? Lately I've been wondering if the key is to stop fighting.
I get so preoccupied with fighting my enemy, that I don't realize they have also been beaten down by injustice. No one chooses to abuse or harm another unless they themselves have been hurt. This abuser, this pimp, this dictator- he/she has been hurt in the same way that they are hurting me and my loved ones. Maybe if I could learn to love them, together we could heal the scars. Maybe we could both learn to stop acting out of our woundedness and to instead seek wholeness.
Maybe Jesus was onto something when he said to love our enemies.
I don't fully know what it looks like yet- for my enemy to be a system rather than the individuals. But something tells me there is more to this than I ever knew.
I used to clearly know right and wrong. I could tell you who the good guys and bad guys were.
The pimp? Bad guy
The slave? Good guy
The abuser? Bad guy
The abused? Good guy
The dictator? Bad guy
The refugee? Good guy
On and on it goes, on one side is the victim and on the other is the perpetrator.
Until I realized the one who abused me was also abused.
That pimp who trafficked that child was also trafficked when they were young.
The bad guys were good guys at some point, now they are desperate for some sort of security, a shred of power that will help them feel safe.
So here we are, in this endless cycle of good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things and who really is the good guy in all of it?
I recently went to these two temples. They are on opposing hillsides, one called Phnom Broh (Man), and the other Phnom Srey (Woman).
We were first led to the temple of the man and so we looked around. It was breathtaking. Filled with ornate paintings and stupahs. Every way you turned there was some new, intricate detail that had been missed before. There were statues and tombs and temples, it was gorgeous. A few monks and laypeople walked around, enjoying the beauty and doing whatever rituals were required.
Then we went to the temple of the woman. There were still a few paintings and buildings, but in contrast to the man's temple it was pathetic. It obviously hadn't been kept up over the years as the other had. The temple of the woman required no fee to enter (as the man's did). And instead of people enjoying it and doing rituals, there were beggers on the steps.
Honestly, it infuriated me. For days I couldn't let go of my frustration at an overt example of women being treated as less than men. But who is there for me to be mad at? The builders? No, they were doing what they had to in order to feed their families. The people visiting the temple? No, they are only going to see that which was placed in front of them. The culture? Maybe, but the culture has made great strides- As my friend said, “at least they have a temple for the woman”.
While I look around and am surrounded with the issues of Cambodia- slavery, homelessness, disease... I am also hearing about the issues in America- institutional racism, police brutality, and gun violence. It's all too much. There is such great injustice around, once again I look for the villain to be mad at. Is it the police? No, there are good officers who are protecting American citizens. Is it Trump? Not fully, if anything he deserves pity more than anger. Is it white people? Not fully, most white people are working with the culture that was handed to them and are unaware of the systems that keep racism alive.
Once again, the problem is so much bigger than any individual.
There is a verse in the bible that says “we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities”. For the first time in my life, I deeply believe that to be true. Misogyny, racism, superiority- these things are more than any one person. They are about the way power has been distributed, it's the principles we choose to live by rather than fight against.
So how do we fight it? Lately I've been wondering if the key is to stop fighting.
I get so preoccupied with fighting my enemy, that I don't realize they have also been beaten down by injustice. No one chooses to abuse or harm another unless they themselves have been hurt. This abuser, this pimp, this dictator- he/she has been hurt in the same way that they are hurting me and my loved ones. Maybe if I could learn to love them, together we could heal the scars. Maybe we could both learn to stop acting out of our woundedness and to instead seek wholeness.
Maybe Jesus was onto something when he said to love our enemies.
I don't fully know what it looks like yet- for my enemy to be a system rather than the individuals. But something tells me there is more to this than I ever knew.
