How angry are you at Russia for what they are doing in the Ukraine?
Actually it’s not all Russians since Russia is not a democracy, but it’s Putin and his autocratic government and military who are doing the horrible things we see in graphic images on our screens. But it is very difficult to not feel anger and even hatred especially towards Putin, whose face does not exactly emanate warmth and love nor invite such.
It’s called “demonization”, “scapegoating”, and “dehumanizing” (“DSD”) and it has always been a less than stellar feature of our human character. And it always pops up during times of war.
DSD is a convenient way for us to feel better about ourselves because those “other” people are so much worse than us. We can even use it to justify doing morally iffy things because we reason that our little “evil” is needed to stop that big “evil”.
For example after 9/11 there was a huge debate in the U.S. and beyond about whether it was acceptable to torture (eg. by waterboarding) captured terrorists to get them to divulge information that might protect innocent people from terrorist attacks. There were solid arguments on both sides of the debate.
It is not unusual for observers of history to look back and criticize how DSD was used in the World Wars to justify horribly violent tactics (eg. bombing civilian populations) even/especially the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Such “Monday-morning-quarterback” moral clarity not infrequently and certainly ironically crosses the line into its own version of DSD’ing when the accuser makes little attempt to understand the context and complexities faced by the fighters who did that and just criticizes and condemns.
As we daily watch a wretched war unfold before us, complete with civilian bombings and massive suffering, it is almost impossible to resist DSD’ing Putin and his forces. And if we are honest many of us would admit that it feels good to have such moral clarity – Putin evil, Ukraine good – and moral superiority – “what a monster that Putin is, glad I’m not at all like him”.
But war is definitely not the only time we use DSD. We do it regularly with politicians, especially those who get caught doing unethical things. Another special target is the church and church ministers. After the recent discovery via ground radar of unmarked graves in Indigenous communities there was a huge DSD, especially against the Roman Catholic Church and it leadership, with at least 56 church buildings set afire by arsonists. Usually this would be called terrorism; in those circumstances of rampant DSD the arson was labelled “understandable”.
DSD is not one of our nobler human characteristics. It is an expression of self-delusion – I am better than/not like “them”. It creates distrust, hatred and division. It fosters us-them polarization. It does not help us get better at loving the “other”. When I succumb to DSD’ing Putin with disdain and hatred for him in my heart I have allowed sentiments that don’t come from God to poison my heart, mind and soul.
Way back in the early 1980s, when I was a new, wet-behind-the-ears pastor, I was gifted with a minister’s journal article about pastoral misconduct. The author, a pastor, said that he had always thought disdainfully of those pastors who “fell” by crossing boundaries. He was sure it would never happen to him. But then it did. He crossed the line and became what he had disdained.
His counsel to other pastors was that the surest way to “fall” is to live with the illusion that it can/will never happen to you. He said every fellow “fallen” pastor he had talked to said they had like him lived in the self-denial that they were better than “those other pastors”, that they would never do that.
The antidote he prescribed was ongoing dedication to the humility Jesus teaches his followers to live in, recognizing that they are “fallen” people who are capable of doing surprisingly evil things. Then being self-aware of circumstances when we are vulnerable to great temptation and having plans in place to avoid succumbing to that.
The antidote to DSD is a humble self-awareness that we are each and all far from being perfect people. In Christian language we say we are each/all sinners in need of the grace of God and grace from one another. At the heart of our scripture is the story of Peter, the star disciple of Jesus who promised he wouldn’t but then ended up denying he even knew Jesus not once but three times. Through humble, painful self-awareness Peter was able to understand and accept his fallen humanness, receive the forgiveness, grace, love and restoration of Jesus, and thereby become a key leader of the early church.
Demonization, scapegoating and dehumanizing are very tempting things to do and often make us feel so “good”. But they do not come from God or any other good place and the “good” feelings they evoke are dangerously deceptive.
When you are so tempted, be invited to resist by remembering that you are also a much-less-than-perfect person dependent on grace.
Submitted by Dave Tiessen