Given the right circumstances....
Kay's comments describe the movie "Crash". Tough to watch but worth the effort.
Kay Warren, during a follow-up phone interview from her home in Orange County, said she had first come to Rwanda looking for the "monster" killers responsible for the genocide. But everyone looked average to her.
"Average people became monsters and let evil reign in their lives for a while. That means that I, too, could become a monster given the right circumstances." She says it's a lesson she could only have learned in RwandaRead the rest of the article by clicking the title bar link. The theme of ordinary people is ringing true among Rick Warren and crew.
posted by Rick @ 5:37 AM
5 Comments:
"That means that I, too, could become a monster given the right circumstances." She says it's a lesson she could only have learned in Rwanda"
i am glad she learned that lesson. should i also be glad she had to go to Rwanda to figure that out? how could she not have seen this lesson right outside her own back door? in the streets and stories, tragedies and dramas unfolding next door, down the street, in the neighborhood surrounding the church she attends?
i am torn between rolling my eyes and wondering what profound insight i have missed in her statement.
i don't want to feel cynical and slightly disgusted, but how could she miss this?
Yeah, I hear you loud and clear. I guess some are soo jaded by their surroundings, they don't think they're capable of monsterous evil.
I know many, many, many folks who don't think they could ever, ever, ever do any really bad things.
We are all on series of circumstances/events away from the very worst.
Saw the movie "Crash" recently. Great movie. A movie that aches for the human condition. I can re-focus now and think, ah, maybe going to Rwanda helped this person understand people in a new way, and then, there is value in that.
Thinking it over, I *for the moment* disagree with the idea that
"We are all on series of circumstances/events away from the very worst."
It seems to me that we are only a series of events from being our very worst when we allow our vision to shift away from God and to ourselves.
I'm not saying that it this is an easy thing to do, this intentional focus on following God's will when human will is vying so heavily for our attention.
Oh heck, this is an essay. (leaves the room, is seen mumbling to self for several days)
...and, putting it all together now, I finally have reached a point where I can identify with the point I first objected to in your post.
i do agree with the idea portrayed in the movie Crash that i, even i, am usually perilously close to being monstrous through callousness, harshness, fear.
"i, even i, am usually perilously close to being monstrous through callousness, harshness, fear."
What freedom.
I've unfortunately got a real life reminder of this truth.
Our neighbors across the street got divorced last year (04) and susequently sold the house and moved their separate ways. The wife's doing ok. The guys ends up squandering all the money he got from the sale of the house and living out of his car or sleeping with crack whores. Mind you I live in a middle class suburb. These folks lived in a 175k house with new cars and lots of stuff. He was 53. When they sold the house the husband dropped off the map, no phone, no visits, no nothing...and our neighborhoods are good friends. Anyway...about a month ago we get up Sunday am to hike and hear that a Phillip Farris shot and killed one man, drove from the scene, ran out of gas, knocked down the door of the nearest house and held six elderly folks hostage for 4 hours until a SWAT team sharp shooter shot him in the arm while using a hostage for a shield on the way to stealing another car to get-away.
Normal guy. normal life. One life event triggers a series of bad decisions and dependencies and now he's in jail for the rest of his life.
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