Beloved Bystanders

I’m afraid that every day it is getting harder to do the right thing.

Last week, a Florida high school student pulled a loaded gun on another student.  He intended to shoot him for arguing with a friend of his.  Thankfully, another student saw what was happening and grabbed the gun and with help from two other students who jumped in, was able to get the gun out of his hand.  These three students may very well have saved a life.  What was their reward?  Suspension.

There is something very wrong with our society.  Our freedom of speech has been slowly leaving for a while now.  That has been my biggest concern.  Now, however, we punish students not just for speaking up, but for acting when someone’s life is in danger.  This is beyond despicable.

According to the school representatives, they can suspend students when they are involved in some kind of violence.  I suppose the preference, then, would be stand by and watch. 

In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City.  A lot of people are killed in New York City every year, but the thing that made this particular murder significant was that she cried for help, and her neighbors heard her, but no one did anything.  This story is occasionally brought up in psychology textbooks.  I still remember the first time I heard this story.  I was horrified that something like this could ever happen. 

I’m not sure if this event is indicative of our entire culture, but I do know that even in an individualistic society, conformity is valued more than being a hero.  That’s generally the way things have always been, but this is different.  Normally when someone’s life is in danger, people applaud the hero.  Why did the school suspend these three kids?  Honestly, I have no idea what’s going through their minds, but I am going to use it as a springboard for a tangent that relates.

There’s a guy’s Bible study at my apartment every Monday night.  Recently we’ve been studying 1 Peter, which talks a lot about how the Christian responds to suffering.  I’ve been thinking about that some lately, especially in connection with 2 Timothy 4:12, which says “Indeed, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  God does not call us to passivity.  God calls us to stand up for the truth.  As we do, though, we may face situations like these, in which we are punished for doing what is right.  In these circumstances, I’m reminded of Peter and John’s response at the end of Acts 5, where after being beaten for preaching Jesus, they leave rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for Christ. 

I’m not saying that we’re going to be flogged for believing in the resurrection of Jesus starting tomorrow.  What I am saying, though, is that we do experience persecution for doing the right thing, even if it isn’t in exactly the same terms.  We need to be prepared to pay what it costs to do right.