Taming the Tongue
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the November 15, 2014
Sabbath School Lesson
“…the tongue is a small part of the
body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by
a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of
the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on
fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” James 3:5-6, NIV
Perhaps you
can remember along with me the advice often given to children faced with
schoolyard taunting: “Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will
never hurt you.” I do not know your experience, dear reader, but I found such
advice to be less than comforting for a couple of reasons. Words do hurt. They
have the power to destroy our peace and even create psychological damage. It is
such a serious issue that even the National Football League (NFL) of the United
States has instituted a “No Taunting” rule that carries a heavy penalty of a
loss of 15 yards.[i]
This is because violent words have a way of escalating into violent acts.
This is not
only true within the NFL, but is true biblically as well. An excellent
illustration of this can be found in the case of King Amaziah of Judah.[ii]
Having defeated an Edomite army, Amaziah decided to taunt the king of Samaria,
Jehoash, with his victory and challenged him to battle. Jehoash responded with
the famous retort comparing Amaziah with a thistle challenging a cedar. His
pride wounded, the King of Judah went out to battle the kingdom of Samaria and
was soundly defeated by Jehoash. Apparently his arrogance eventually became too
much even for his own people, and they assassinated Amaziah in Lachish in favor
of his son, Azariah.[iii]
In his case, it appears that words did indeed break his bones, as Jehoash made
it clear that had Amaziah remained at home and ceased his boasting, there would
be no war.
We look at
some of the mighty dictators of modern times like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao and
see that they have been responsible for the deaths of many millions, but even
their staggering tolls may pale in comparison to all of those wounded throughout
history and into the present day by the words of others. Some might ask, “How
can that be?” Perhaps in this way: Every time we dismiss the worth of another
person as though they somehow do not measure up to our high standard, we may be
wounding them, perhaps irreversibly. For instance, when we see someone
struggling in poverty, and we withhold our help, questioning whether or not
those suffering are among the “worthy poor,” we diminish their ability to
survive by calling into question their right to seek assistance from their
better-off fellows. Sadly, we can come to believe our own rhetoric and become
victims of self-deception. Convinced in ourselves that the poor are not worthy,
we may begin to circulate orally and in social media anecdotal evidence to
confirm our bias. One of those anecdotes holds that the poor are drug addicts
who do nothing but sit around and collect public assistance and take drugs all
day, drugs that are paid for with welfare money. Deluded into believing such
stories, we push for laws requiring drug testing as a gateway to assistance.
Never mind that we already require paperwork that amounts to a small booklet in
order to determine the worthiness of an individual to obtain the help they need,
we must continue to place more and more burdens on the backs of the poor. At
the same time, we rarely providing enough aid to allow them to leave the arms
of the state and become self-sufficient.
What is the
result of this required drug testing? Does it prove the unworthiness of those
who are receiving welfare? It has so far determined that almost no one on
public assistance is using drugs. Florida, which enacted a law requiring drug
testing of adults to qualify for public assistance that was eventually struck down
by the courts, found that only 2.6 percent of applicants tested positive for
drugs, which was well below the 8.7 percent of the population as a whole.[iv]
Those not on welfare were apparently three times more likely to be on drugs
than those receiving it. In spite of this, people continue to believe the circulated
stories rather than the evidence, and several other states have pushed for
similar legislation. The stigmatization of the poor in this way and the denial
of options to escape their poverty often becomes part of a system that
criminalizes poverty and finds it easier to institutionalize the poor in
prisons where their sense of self-worth can be continually challenged and
denied.
This system
may arguably function at its most detrimental in the United States, where we
may have a higher percentage of our population in prisons than any “first world”
country, perhaps even higher than any
other country.[v] A
stark contrast can be found in the attitudes toward these incarcerated
individuals between the United States and Sweden. This perhaps highlights the differences
in attitude of some cultures to those they deem as of less value than
themselves. While some have chosen to reinforce that lack of worth, others have
chosen to enhance the worth of each individual. A retired Superintendent of
Attica Prison in the United States visited the Swedish prison system and it was
documented in a video. His statements and attitude toward inmates is damning,
and if is typical within the United States’ prison system, we can maybe see how
the rhetoric by one class of individuals toward another is damaging them and
doing little to rehabilitate and lift them out of the morass trapping them.[vi]
It is reminiscent of the line in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” When
Ebenezer Scrooge was asked by some charity fund raisers what he thought should
be done for the poor, his retort was “Are there no prisons?” In spite of the
generations that have passed since Dickens wrote that work, and in spite of its
being memorialized every holiday season in various movies, such as the one
starring George C Scott, and even in animated features for the children, we
still insist on denigrating the worthiness of the poor in response to the
temerity of anyone who wishes to seek assistance for them.
While we
could perhaps educate the poor to be more productive members of society by
sending them to high schools, vocational schools and colleges to prepare them
for more productive roles that would also enhance their self-esteem, our
failure to do so nonetheless educates them in a different school anyway, but
not in a productive manner. The high recidivism rates among inmates in the United
States may be indicative that the prisons are taking the place of educational
rehabilitation by instead providing an education in criminal behavior. For
those who have committed what might be called property crimes, the recidivism
rate can be almost 80%.[vii]
Maybe this is because those who have little and have no means to ever better
find the only way left to have some of the lifestyle they see on television and
in the stores is to take it from those who do have it.
The
interesting part of this whole attitude of worthlessness of the poor is that it
is often used as a basis to challenge the concept of wealth redistribution.
Some would say that the government has no business taking our wealth and using
it to benefit the poor who are not worthy of such help in the first place. But
in spite of such protestations, the wealth is being redistributed involuntarily
anyway, just not by the government. It is being redistributed instead by those
who have attended those schools on wealth redistribution (prisons), where they
learn how to do it more effectively. There appears little that can be done to
stop it. Some hold that guns are good way to protect our accumulated wealth.
However, in spite of the millions of guns in circulation, property crimes still
occur and at times the very guns meant for protection are found among the loot
that has been taken.
In the
television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The final episode of the
first season, entitled “The Neutral Zone,” a story within the main story
concerned the rescue of three cryogenically frozen individuals, a housewife, a
financier, and a musician who had all been frozen because they had died of
incurable diseases and the hope was that in the future they could be revived
and cured. This indeed happens with the medical technology available on the
starship Enterprise. The financier, Ralph Offenhouse, realizing how long he has
been frozen wants to check on investments he made long ago to see how they
performed in the interim. Believing himself to now be wealthy, he is devastated
when he finds out that is not the case. He asks Captain Picard how he is to
survive now without his money. The captain informs him that all needs are
provided for everyone, so there is no need for him to provide for his own sustenance.
Apparently the future of the Star Trek universe is a utopia where all needs are
met so all are free to pursue whatever creative endeavors they desire.
Perhaps the
early Christian church attempted to achieve a similar utopia.[viii]
This was the generation of those who actually walked and talked with Jesus. If
they understood their faith in this way, why do we understand it differently?
Perhaps the paradise of the Star Trek future was really already discovered
almost two thousand years ago.
