The act of dehumanizing another person
has always been the grease that lubricates the gears of sin. While we may have caught a brief glimpse of
the man’s face that just cut us off on the road, we quickly reduce him to a
non-person, making it easier to sling our curses. Online social media is rife with dehumanizing
potential due to its inherently impersonal nature. We create a caricature of a disliked
politician in our mind so that the deprecating comments can flow without shame.
On a larger scale, the dehumanization of man
has historically been reinforced by public institutions, as well. The dignity stripping practice of slavery was
a promoted enterprise of the state for hundreds of years. Today, humans living in their mother’s womb are
categorized as non-persons in an attempt to remove the pain of guilt when they
are put to death. Yet some of those camped outside of abortion clinics spew hateful comments at the women who enter. Ironically, rather than being showered in love during their greatest hour of need, these women are dehumanized and in turn seek a false sense of dignity from doctors of death.
How long did it take for us to
dehumanize the Boston bombers? We
categorized them as non-persons before we ever saw their photos. Many will say, “They dehumanized themselves and
those they injured by their acts, not us.”
Their acts were dehumanizing and it was their distorted view of others
as non-persons that twisted their thinking that the attack would be justified. Dehumanizing another person justifies the sin
in the eyes of the sinner.
The same goes
for us, however. We need to be on guard that
we too do not fall into the same trap. The
more we dehumanize others, the more we dehumanize ourselves. The scary reality is that the potential for
sin is great in all of us and but for the grace of God, go I. Instead, we should repent when we find
ourselves dehumanizing others, have faith in the righteous works of Jesus and
his atoning sacrifice for such sins, and know that we are forgiven. Only then will we begin to degrease the gears
of sin.
