Something To Think About, Abuse

I'm never quite sure who gets to declare a month to be "such and such month."  I figure if you want to you just do, and if you get enough people to wear ribbons, put bumper-stickers on their cars, and post statuses on Facebook and websites, low-and-behold, you've got yourself a month.  The idea behind this syndrome is that awareness will lead to change.  If enough people know about what is going on in dysfunctional homes, then surely change will come.  I agree to this point:  Clearly, hiding the problem of violence that marks way too many of our homes won't help. The assumption, though, that me being aware of an evil will lead me to seek to correct that wickedness, is based on a faulty view of human nature.  Some think that it is the natural reaction of people to respond with righteous love to whatever morally  wrong activities they see going on around them.  We'd like to think this was the case, but from the horrendous injustices of the slave-trade, to the pogroms of Russia, to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, to all the kids who sit idly by, or even join in the mockery, while some kid lacking his world's social coin-of-the-realm is utterly decimated of all self-respect in a high school cafeteria, we humans have amassed an impressive record of being aware, yet never becoming involved in opposing evil.  Too often we join in the lynch-mob. I've also noticed that a lot of us are far more interested in wearing a ribbon, joining a group, signing a petition, or advertising for a cause online than we are in really doing anything.  If I "give at the office" I can with good conscience--so I think--turn my eyes when I see real life examples of the problem at hand.  (BTW, I very much don't want this piece to be that kind of exercise in Pharisaism.) Actually doing something is much harder.  It is something that each of us, and each of our churches should be involved in.  It is messy, hard, and expensive.  If someone asks me to, I'll wear a ribbon, but I'll wear it with the awareness that putting on a token  doesn't mean I have really done anything.  As I wear it, I'll be reminded of somethings that I am really doing--together with my church.  We are confronting, preventing, and alleviating the abuse as God gives us opportunity. It's Something to Think About.