Fear of the Other

I just finished watching my second movie of the week (that must be a record for me) and was startled by an observation. The two movies were X2: X-Men Unite and Hotel Rwanda. Now, at first glance, one might say that these are two very different movies, but I challenge us to look at little bit deeper.

At a risk of revealing things in these movies to those who have not seen them (I don't think I do, but this serves as a warning anyway) X2 is mainly about humans and mutants who don't think they can live harmoniously together. Many humans don't trust the mutants and many mutants return the favour. Trouble ensues as some try to kill the others. In Hotel Rwanda, the story is much the same. Substitute Hutus for humans and Tutsis for mutants (I am not saying Tutsis are mutants... that would be gross misquotage) and you have the same story.

We see movies like these and we immediately think to ourselves that we would never do something like that. We're liberal-minded people who are far more accepting of different people than the people in the movies. Are we really?

At one point in X2, someone mentions the 'mutant problem' to which Wolverine is quick to reply 'what problem?' In the humans' eyes, that there were mutants meant that there was a problem. How often, though, do we refer to people different than ourselves as 'problems:' the problem of teenage parents, the problem of homosexuality, the problem of murderers? More often than we could count, I'm sure.

But what about some of the other problems: lying, greed, pride, lust... where do those fit in? The answer from God is that all the problems are equally problematic. They all end up in our spiritual deaths. No one problem is bigger than another. Yet we rarely, if ever, treat them that way. We're so quick to draw lines in the sand saying the people on the other side commit sins that are worse than ours and therefore we have no obligation to associate with them (God help them). In reality, the line we try to imitate is so far beyond us, showing that our sins are not at all worthy of God and He has no obligation to associate with us. Yet He does.

To God, we are the 'other' that he cannot trust to do His will. Fortunately, His will transcends anything we could do to mess it up, but that's another topic for another day. He has every right to do away with us all. Yet, we are His creation, He loves us, and does everything to draw us closer to Him.

And that's grace.

If only we could treat our 'others' the same.