The Cycle of Rage and Oppresion

The cycle of history tells us that the ones that rage at the system and their powerlessness related to that system prove unworthy when the power shifts to them. Historically, the revolutionary becomes the oppressor.

Why?

Those who rage and protest about the manner in which the current political leaders and rulers are unworthy also presuppose their own worthiness to rule if given the same opportunity. The fact of oppression or systemic disadvantage does not make one worthy to wield authority.

Racism is a horrific sin that dehumanizes while marginalizing and reducing an individual to become merely a part of an inferior collective, removing the beauty and dignity an individual has from their Maker and God.

Currently, many who have been dehumanized are, in turn, dehumanizing the objects of their hatred.

The reason that we behave in this manner is connected to how we view ourselves as victimized, which then empowers us to take the moral high ground of self-righteous accusation against those who perpetrated the victimization.

While victimization is real, and the need for justice is real, rarely do we escape the self-righteousness trap and both see ourselves as sinful and in need of a greater solution than societal change, while simultaneously praying for mercy for those who have wronged us.

We see ourselves as "better" than the person that has harmed us, and we see ourselves as far more likely to be different when placed in the same position as the victimizer. However, our words and treatment of our enemies betray the truth about our nature.

We are no better. We are no different. Those who have been oppressed are not virtuous because of the fact of their oppression.

Romans 3 is God's definitive statement about the condition of the human race.

I urge us not to fall into the self-righteousness trap of the moral high ground as the cultural narratives on *both sides* rage on. We cannot allow ourselves to dehumanize our ideological opponents and in doing so, despise the mercy of God shown to us while we were "yet sinners".

"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

All men, all women, of every race, every language, and every nation have the same problem at the core of our being.

Therefore, all of us need the same cure to that which renders us unworthy of power and authority to serve the powerless.

We need Jesus. We need the Gospel.