Taking Responsibility

Have you looked around our world lately? Have you seen the news? Do you ever wonder why all of it is so bad?

It is because WE DON'T CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER.

When you read about a baby with leukemia, or children in Africa who have only dirty water to drink, or parents dying of AIDS and leaving young children to fend for themselves, or people being killed just because they are the wrong skin color or religion or nationality, what is your reaction?

Do you ever think that this world could be DIFFERENT?

Do you ever think that there is ANOTHER WAY?

Do you ever think that maybe there is another way to live besides being afraid of the person next door, or watching the person in front of you throw trash out the window of his car, or reading about how yet another terrorist wants to kill everyone who believes something other than what he believes?

Is THIS what God intended when S/He created us?

Some people have tried to convince me that God INTENDED it to be this way - and that Satan is responsible for all of the “bad stuff” that happens to us.

No, I say. WE are responsible. Satan makes for a nice scapegoat – but that is all he is: a scapegoat. What happens to us is a result of choices we make, both individually and collectively. Satan is just an excuse. The devil made me do it.

Let me say that again, just for emphasis. Satan is an excuse.

Consider these examples. Many Israelis think that the Palestinians are evil, murderous aggressors. Many Palestinians think exactly the same thing about the Israelis.

We think that Al Qaeda is out to destroy us and our way of life. They think the same about us.
Who is right here? Who is Satan in these examples?

The answer is both – and neither. Satan is the part of ourselves we don’t want to see and don’t want to take responsibility for. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung said this over and over again in his writings. It’s much easier to blame something outside ourselves for our failures. It’s much harder to take responsibility.

With every choice comes consequences – and with every choice comes responsibility. And, as the 1980s rock band Rush famously sang, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

Accepting the world as it is, and doing nothing about it, is a choice.

Knowing that children are starving to death, and doing nothing to help them, is a choice to keep the world as it is.

Knowing that people are being killed for nothing more than being the wrong skin color, or the wrong religion, or the wrong nationality, and shaking your head and walking the other way, is a choice to keep the world as it is.

Watching our own president repeatedly violate the rights of people both inside and outside our borders, and not speaking out against it, is a choice to keep the world as it is.

This is not Satan. This is us.

Satan is that which we refuse to accept – whether it is our own failures, whether it is other people who practice a different faith than we do, or whether it is what we have allowed to happen to our world. We are where we are – both personally and collectively – because of choices we have made, not because of a cosmic battle between good and evil.

If you want to change it, sponsor a child through the United Way, Save the Children, or some other charitable agency. Better yet, sponsor 100 children.

If you want to change it, make friends with someone who is different than you, and let the world know about it.

If you want to change it, find a child who is a lost soul, and give her or him someone to look up to.

If you want to change it, think about what you don’t want to acknowledge about yourself, and accept it.

If you want to change it, take responsibility for it. We cannot change what we claim does not exist – or what we claim is out of our control.

If every person who reads this does even one of these things, we can start changing the world. The world is where it is because too many people are doing nothing about it.

Speak out against what you believe is wrong. If other people don’t agree with you, then let them speak out against you. But do it peacefully and respectfully – violence and anger don’t get us anywhere.

And when you have wisdom, share it with the world. But do it in a way that elevates and respects everyone. God’s wisdom does not demean anyone.

And practice your faith in a way that celebrates God – where God is the best in all of us. Please do not make others wrong because they believe differently; God speaks to each of us in a unique way, and no one is in a position to judge anyone else.

Think of what the world would be like if we all respected each other, if we celebrated differences instead of trying to make them wrong, and if we reached out to help others who were struggling. What if the rich gave up even some of their luxury so that millions of people around the world could have enough food just to survive? What if the world’s religions accepted that each of them holds some of the truth, and that bringing their strengths and wisdoms together is the only way to truly find God? What if the strongest kids on the block took care of the weakest ones instead of bullying them? What if racial differences were celebrated as representing the rainbow of humanity? What if terrorists and warmongers (including the United States) realized that all they are doing is destroying their own livelihood, much like rioters destroying their own homes?

If you were looking at the Earth from outer space, how many planets would you be looking at?

I know this sounds like a silly question, but when you answer it, you’ll realize that all of humanity shares the same home. It doesn’t matter who is cutting down the rain forests, or who is testing nuclear weapons, or who is polluting the air and the oceans. It affects us all just the same. Blaming it on someone else - whether it's Satan or another country - ensures that it will go on unchecked. Think about what we can do to correct the problem.

If rainforests are being cut down to raise cattle to slaughter, think about your own eating habits - and how they contribute to the problems.

If fumes from cars and trucks are polluting our ecosystem, think about ways you can reduce your own driving.

If terrorists are threatening to destroy everything except themselves, think about what we are doing to create (and maintain) a world where everyone feels separate from everyone else. If we understood how interdependent we all are, and how much we need each other to survive, terrorism and war would not exist.

If our president is doing damage to our nation and our world that may take 50 years to undo, think about how he got into power - and how he has managed to stay there. He is violating the will of 75% of the American people. What would the Founding Fathers of our country say about something like that? Is he doing more to unite - or to divide - our citizens, and the world? And why are so many people - including the Congress who was supposedly elected to do something about it - standing by and letting it happen? Congress called an emergency session to approve the president's eavesdropping program, but they won't do anything about the war that has needlessly taken thousands of lives. Think about that for a minute. Is THAT why we changed over the Congress in 2006?

The only way we’re going to survive as a species is to band together. And the enemy isn’t Satan – it’s our own choices and our unwillingness to take responsibility for them. We got ourselves into this mess, and now we need to get ourselves out of it. Let’s get our act together, while we still have time.