I've been planning worship over the last few days. A lot of my time has been spent on the story of the Good Samaritan. I now have about a bazillion reasons we shouldn't use that title, but at least when I do, you know the story I'm talking about: a man traveling on a road is robbed and beaten. Two people who should have helped didn't; the unlikely one did.
It's a story of ethnic bias, or religious bias, or some other kind of bias depending on who you ask. When the story was told early on, there was an immediate recognition of the Samaritan as other and as evil. It's the guy in the black hat in a western, the person who shows up after the music in the movie switches to a minor key. It's the person who could never possibly be good.
This morning, as I was reading the news on my phone, as I do many mornings as I wake up, my tiny screen was full of images of Donald Trump. I read one international news source that is held in high regard, one US based liberal-leaning news source, and one sometimes news source geared toward Millennials that, well, also includes a fair amount of cat videos and tips on adulting. There is some balance in the sources I read and intentionally so. There are four more online magazines and news sources I check regularly in addition to the ones on my apps. Trump's face was featured prominently by all of them.
I understand a presidential election is a big deal, especially when it's in this country. Like it or not, what happens in our election season can affect the world. Empire, though, is reserved for another day, much like my personal opinions on Trump.
Here's what the story of the Good Samaritan makes me wonder: what has to happen for someone to become a cultural symbol? Think about that. I can tell you the historical differences between Jews and Samaritans. Primarily, it's a disagreement about scripture and where to worship. But what has to happen to create an agreed up assumption that this is true about a particular person or group of people?
It doesn't happen overnight. For most things, there's no single answer why certain views are held. It's an entire system, usually with decades if not centuries of build-up to get there. The Samaritan certainly didn't start out as evil; a few centuries of Christian tradition turned him into undeniably Good. He's so good, in fact, that Google suggests it and Microsoft Words autocorrects to capitalize both those words.
Plenty of people are willing to blame the liberal media for things and plenty more are willing to blame the conservative media for things, especially when it comes to our biases and what we think about things. We're not as good at recognizing how we are compliant with the system. We forget how good we are at just listening to the echoes in the chambers--maybe even the echoes we like to hear.
Of all the things that bother me about Trump filling my screen, what bothers me most is what isn't filling my screen. What things are being ignored in the interest of echoing just a few things? I'm pretty convinced the presidential election isn't the only important thing going on right now. I can't help but think that this sort of intense focus on something significantly contributes to what we view as good and bad.
As people of faith, we might just be called to step outside that echo chamber.
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