On Friday, May 1, Maryland State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby indicted six
Baltimore police officers for multiple crimes against Freddie Gray, 25, the
latest black male whose death occurred in connection with a confrontation with
police.
Mosby asserted: "The manner of death deemed a homicide by the State
Medical Examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred
while Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seat belt in the custody of the Baltimore
Police Department wagon."
Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the van in which Gray was
transported, was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault.
Five other officers are accused of involuntary and vehicular manslaughter,
assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. All six were processed
last Friday at Central Booking (ironically, the same location where Gray was
being taken upon his arrest), released on bail and suspended without pay. Three
of the indicted officers are black, three are white and one is female.
Despite Mosby's relative inexperience (at the age of 35, she is the youngest
chief prosecutor of a major U.S. city and has been on the job for only four
months), she seems able to empathize with police officers as well as with
victims of crime and injustice. The daughter, granddaughter and niece of five
law enforcement officers told
Baltimore Magazine in January that
"the majority of police officers are really hard-working officers who are
risking their lives day in and day out." In her announcement of the
charges against these six officers, Mosby stressed that their arrests should
not be interpreted as "an indictment of the entire police force." She
appealed to city residents "to remain patient and peaceful and to trust
the process of the justice system."
An African-American woman, Mosby knows what it feels like to lose a family
member to violence: she was only fourteen when her best friend and cousin Diron
Spence, 17, himself the son of a police officer, was shot to death by an
18-year-old black male who mistook him for a drug dealer.
Known as a champion for justice for all, Mosby stated during her campaign
for her current position: "Police brutality is completely inexcusable. I'm
going to apply justice fairly, even to those who wear a badge."
Gray, who had been arrested over a dozen times in the past decade and who
had three trials currently scheduled, was apprehended April 12 after three
officers chased him when he ran from one of them. When Gray complained that he
could not breathe and needed an inhaler, his request was denied. At that time
he was found to be carrying a legal "spring-assisted" knife (which
can be confused with an illegal knife known as a "switchblade").
Mosby concluded that the officers did not have probable cause to arrest him.
According to reports, during the drive to Central Booking, the van stopped
four times; Gray asked for a medic at least twice, to no avail. When the
officers found him unresponsive on the floor of the van, they did not attempt
to assess his condition or to provide him with medical assistance.
It was not clear from Mosby's announcement whether Goodson (the driver) is
suspected of using a technique known as a "rough ride," which causes
shackled prisoners who are not restrained by seat belts to knock about against
the walls of the vehicle.
When the van arrived at the Western District police station, Gray had
sustained severe injury to his spinal cord, was in cardiac arrest and was no
longer breathing. A medic was finally called; Gray was sent to a trauma center
for emergency surgery, but he died a week later.
Since the incident, protests in Baltimore have ranged from peaceful to
riotous. Some 1,000 police officers and 2,000 Maryland National Guard troops
were deployed to quell violence and enforce a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew, which
has since been lifted. During the civil unrest, at least 486 persons were
arrested and 113 police officers injured. Some businesses were attacked and
property damaged. Gray's family appealed for calm.
Residents responded to the chief prosecutor's surprisingly swift
announcement with a mix of celebration and caution. Other recent deaths of
African-Americans during confrontations with police (notably Eric Garner in
Staten Island, New York, and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri) did not
produce indictments against the officers involved. Some people have considered
those outcomes miscarriages of justice while others have seen them as rulings
befitting the facts of those cases. But the facts in the Freddie Gray case are
different, and many expressed hope that the officers involved will be
convicted. Others cautioned that the indictments, while a step in that
direction, are no guarantee of conviction.
Harvard legal scholar Alan Dershowitz was even more critical: "Today
had nothing to do with justice. Today was crowd control. Everything today was
motivated by a threat of riots and a desire to prevent riots."
After Gray's funeral last Monday, hundreds of pastors marched together in a
show of solidarity with the family in what the Rev. Dr. Frank Reid III, pastor
of Bethel A.M.E. Church, called "a demonstration of love and
fearlessness." Leaders of faith communities have been meeting with
representatives of gangs to seek paths of peace for the residents of their
community.
Reid stated, "There is an opening in many young lives. There is an
opportunity to touch a new generation -- not to use them for church purposes
but to empower them to fulfill their purpose in life. That's exciting. Is it
dangerous? What isn't dangerous?"
More on this story can be found at these links:
Six Baltimore Police Officers Charged in Freddy Gray's Death. Baltimore
Sun
Poll: 65 Percent of Americans Support Decision to Charge
Officers in Freddie Gray's Death. Yahoo! News
A Pastor's Faith in Baltimore. Washington Post
The Big Questions
1. What happens when justice is denied in a society? What happens when
people believe justice has been served? What happens when people are unjustly
punished but people believe justice has been served, such as in a lynching or
false arrest/imprisonment? How do we determine what constitutes justice in our
society when we have different perceptions and perspectives of the criminal
justice system?
2. How important is it for the church to pursue justice in civil society?
How can Christians do that as individuals, congregations and denominations?
What role models do you look to for inspiration in this area?
3. When have you witnessed effective ecumenical or interfaith collaboration
to benefit civic society?
4. Are looting and rioting ever justified? Explain your answer. How should
one respond when government agencies, programs and regulations fail to produce
their hoped-for improvements and benefits to the community -- or even result in
a worsening situation?
5. What is the role of leadership in a time of crisis? What questions should
we be asking at this point in our civic discussion? What is the role of the
church in times like this?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Acts 5:34-35, 38-39
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law,
respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for
a short time. Then he said to them, "Fellow Israelites, consider carefully
what you propose to do to these men. ... I tell you, keep away from these men
and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human
origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow
them -- in that case you may even be found fighting against God!" They were
convinced by him, (For context, read 5:17-40.)
In the early days following the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God's
Spirit empowered the apostles to perform many signs and wonders as a testimony
to the power of Jesus' name. People were added to the church daily, drawing the
ire of jealous religious leaders, who arrested and imprisoned the apostles. But
God sent an angel to arrange a jailbreak, and the next day they were back in
the temple teaching about Jesus.
Luke tells us that the temple police brought them in for questioning,
"but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the
people" (v. 26). When the religious leaders heard the apostles proclaim
Jesus as Lord and Savior, they wanted to kill them. That's when Gamaliel, a
wise man among the leaders, stood up and urged caution. He pointed to
historical examples of men who led rebellions that fizzled, suggesting that the
same thing would happen if the apostles' movement was of human origin. But if
their message was from God, any attempt to thwart it was doomed to fail.
Although the council still had the apostles flogged, without Gamaliel's
intervention, the result could have been much worse. During another time of
civil unrest, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, tried unsuccessfully
to change the minds of those who wanted to crucify Jesus.
Questions: What factors may limit a leader's ability to
influence others during a time of crisis? What factors enhance a leader's power
to influence others? What did Gamaliel risk by speaking up when tempers were
hot? Why do you think people listened to him? How can people use their
influence to move hearts and minds from destructive mob action to more
circumspect behavior more in line with God's will?
Acts 16:37-39
But Paul replied, "They have beaten us in public, uncondemned, men who
are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they going to
discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take us out
themselves." The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they
were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens; so they came and
apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.
(For context, read 16:22-24, 35-40.)
In Acts 16:16-40 we learn that after Paul cast a spirit of divination, or
fortune-telling, out of a slave girl, her owners dragged Paul and Silas before
the city magistrates, stirring up the crowd to attack them. The authorities
stripped the pair, beat them severely and threw them in jail. During the night,
an earthquake struck, and the jailer, supposing all his prisoners had escaped,
was about to commit suicide when Paul stopped him and introduced him to Jesus.
In the morning, the city leaders sent the police to release Paul and Silas. One
might have expected Paul to jump at the chance to get out of jail free, but he
refused to leave until they received redress for the injustices inflicted upon
them. In short, Paul held government officials responsible for their actions.
Questions: When have you fought for justice, either for
yourself or for others, as an integral part of your mission? Do you see holding
government officials accountable as a part of the church's essential mission?
Why or why not? Why do you think Paul didn't just let their actions pass? Are
there times we should let an injustice go? How do you know when to fight and
when to move on without insisting on satisfaction?
Acts 19:35-36, 38, 40-41
But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, "Citizens of
Ephesus, ... you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ... If therefore
Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts
are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one
another. ... For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since
there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion." When he had
said this, he dismissed the assembly. (For context, read 19:21-41.)
In Acts 19:23-41, we read of another instance in which Paul's preaching of
the gospel has created quite a disturbance. Demetrius, a silversmith whose
livelihood of creating images of the goddess Artemis is threatened by Paul's
preaching against idolatry, incites other artisans to wrath, creating mass
hysteria and confusion in the city. Paul wants to go into the crowd, but is
prevented by the disciples and urged by some friendly provincial officials to
stay out of sight.
Then a Jew named Alexander attempts to calm the crowd, which only inflames
the people more. It takes the town clerk, a civil servant who is one of their
own, to calm the people and avert rioting. He suggests that the accused are
innocent until proven guilty (v. 37) and points out that Demetrius has a legal
remedy if he feels he has a legitimate grievance.
Questions: Compare the actions of this town clerk with the
actions of Marilyn Mosby in the news story. Are there times when non-believing
civic authorities might be more effective at managing a crisis than believers
are? In a crisis, how do we know when to speak and when to keep our mouths shut?
If we are not called upon to speak up in a particular situation, what should we
do so that at least we don't make matters worse?
2 Chronicles 19:5-7, 11
[Jehoshaphat] appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of
Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, "Consider what you are doing,
for you judge not on behalf of human beings but on the LORD's behalf; he is
with you in giving judgment. Now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take
care what you do, for there is no perversion of justice with the LORD our God,
or partiality, or taking of bribes. ... Deal courageously, and may the LORD be
with the good!" (For context, read 19:4-11.)
Jehoshaphat, whose name means "Jehovah has judged," became the
fourth king of Judah at the age of 35. The same name shows up in Joel 3:2,
which states that God will gather all nations together for judgment in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat. Here (in 2 Chronicles) Jehoshaphat conducts training on
how to render just judgments for the people.
Questions: What does the king say lies at the heart of just
judgment? How should earthly judges mirror God's character and behavior? Why
does it take courage to be a good judge?
Isaiah 53:8-9
By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his
future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the
transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb
with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his
mouth. (For context, read 53:4-9.)
Acts 10:42
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one
ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. (For context, read
10:34-43; cf. 2 Timothy 4:1.)
One way to understand the death of Jesus is through the lens of injustice.
He "was cut off from the land of the living ... although he had done no
violence" -- in other words, he did nothing worthy of death. When the
Ethiopian eunuch asks deacon Philip to explain this passage from the prophet
Isaiah, Philip tells him it refers to Jesus (Acts 8:32-35).
Question: What does it mean to you that Jesus, who suffered
injustice at the hands of humankind, has been "ordained by God as judge of
the living and the dead"?
For Further Discussion
1. Rev. Dr. Frank Reid III, pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore,
believes there is a growing "opportunity gap" in America. "When
the opportunity gap gets as vast as it is," says Reid, "it is filled
with frustration, fear, powerlessness." Is it part of the mission of the
church to address this "opportunity gap" in some way? If so, how? Do
you believe such a gap exists? If so, what are some possible causes? Is it part
of the mission of the church to address this opportunity gap in some way? If
so, how? If not, is it part of your mission -- or that of other people -- to
address it? How do you handle disagreements over how to increase opportunity
for all?
2. Respond to this observation, also from Reid: "If the marchers here
had gone to the Inner Harbor [a tourist district], would we have seen that looting?
The police would have prevented it." Are some communities considered more
"expendable" than others? Explain your answer. What does the gospel
say to the church about people in communities some might consider
"expendable"? Where are the "expendable" people groups in
the vicinity of your church? How is your church relating to them?
3. Reid reflected: "Romans Chapter 8 says that creation is moaning,
groaning, giving birth. What we are seeing in urban neighborhoods is groaning
and pain. If we stay focused, we can give birth to something positive and
powerful." On what does the church need to focus in order to give birth to
something positive and powerful? What would that "something" look
like?
4. Discuss these pithy statements from the Wisdom literature of the Bible in
the context of the news story of the day:
• Proverbs 21:2-4 All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, but the LORD
weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the
LORD than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart -- the lamp of the wicked
-- are sin.
• Proverbs 22:8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger
will fail.
• Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the
violation of justice and right, do not be amazed at the matter; for the high
official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
• Proverbs 29:4 By justice a king gives stability to the land ...
• Proverbs 21:15 When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay
to evildoers.
• Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is
a tree of life.
Responding to the News
This might be a time to consider how to "touch a new generation -- not
to use them for church purposes but to empower them to fulfill their purpose in
life." Or this might be the time to assess how you as an individual and as
a community of faith can help people in authority administer justice fairly.
Closing Prayer
Almighty God, just as you always use your power for good and not for evil,
we pray that all those in positions of power on earth would exercise their
authority with justice, wisdom and discernment, to build up and not destroy the
people. Give us leaders who will respond to the needs of the people with
compassion and understanding, so that together we may build communities of
peace throughout our land. Amen.
Other News This Week
Abercrombie
Dials Back Sex-Tinged Marketing
In the News
Abercrombie & Fitch, which until recent years was the go-to clothing
retailer for teens and college-age people, is toning down its sexualized
marketing and changing its policy of hiring only good-looking in-store
employees. The employees, whom A&F had called "models," will now
be titled "brand representatives." And the actual models in A&F
ads -- until recently, often shirtless boys with ripped abs or girls partially
topless -- will now have shirts on.
The changes, set to be in place by July, do not appear to be because someone
high up in the company had a crisis of conscience, but because the sex-tinged
approach (some observers referred to it as "soft-core pornography")
stopped working. Young people once flocked to Abercrombie stores, where they
paid full retail prices for ripped jeans and other trendy garb, all emblazoned
with A&F's logo. These days, however, A&F's target clientele is
shopping at fast-fashion chains such as Forever 21 and H&M that feature
inexpensive clothing without prominent logos.
Sales at A&F stores have dropped in five of the past seven years, and
current profits are plummeting.
Beyond using sex-charged marketing, A&F had set a tone about personal
appearance that many young people don't match, sometimes to their despair.
Abercrombie's clerk-"models" were all trim and physically attractive
(one news article referred to them as "clones"). Until about a year
ago, the stores didn't offer any women's clothes bigger than a size 10.
Alexandra Corning, director of the Body Image and Eating Disorder Laboratory
at the University of Notre Dame, said that the image A&F had pushed
contributes to "body dissatisfaction" and self-esteem issues for some
young people, which can lead to eating disorders.
Commenting on the collapse of A&F's profits, Albert Mohler, president of
the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said, "Those who live by a code
of physical attractiveness will die by a code of physical attractiveness; those
who try to build a marketing empire and a public relations momentum when it
comes to highly sexualized images will eventually die by those highly
sexualized images; trying to separate the good [and] the beautiful and the true
as pornography always does, ... eventually ... falls apart."
Corning, however, is looking ahead and hopes that the changes Abercrombie is
making will help its sales so that other retailers will take a similar course.
"I would praise their advertising decision regardless of their
motives," she said. "Less bombardment by these kinds of images in the
malls and online is better, healthwise, for everyone."
For this TWW lesson, we are not talking about pornography per se, though
that certainly contributes to the overall sexualized tone of our times. Rather
we are talking about that tone, which pervades the culture and comes at
everyone in the society, even people who scrupulously avoid pornography. These
two definitions (from
Wikipedia) may be helpful in our discussion:
Sexualization is to make something sexual in character or quality,
or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women.
Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification.
Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person as an
instrument of sexual pleasure. Objectification more broadly means treating a
person as a commodity or an object, without regard to their personality or
dignity. Objectification is most commonly examined at the level of a society,
but can also refer to the behavior of individuals.
Thus, we are not talking about mere sexual attractiveness -- something God
created for good -- but seeking or receiving sexual pleasure without regard to
the context of God's gift of sex.
More on this story can be found at these links:
Abercrombie & Fitch Takes a New Tack: Toning It Down. Pilot
Online
To Lure Back Young Shoppers, Abercrombie Puts On a Shirt. New
York Times
The Aging of Abercrombie & Fitch. Bloomberg
Transcript: The
Briefing 04-30-15 (see item #2, regarding Abercrombie). Albert Mohler
The Big Questions
1. Read the two definitions at the end of the "In the News"
section above. What are some ways sexualization and sexual objectification seem
most prevalent in our society today? Do you judge those ways to be helpful,
harmful or somewhere between those extremes? Why?
2. Since, short of withdrawing from our culture, we cannot avoid the
sexualized atmosphere of our times, how should Christians operate within that
atmosphere?
3. What should we be teaching our children and grandchildren about the
sexualized messages and images around us?
4. What is the Bible's view of sex? In what ways is that different from the
view(s) implied in the general sexualization of our society?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife,
and they become one flesh. (For context, read 2:18-25.)
Ephesians 5:28
In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own
bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (For context, read 5:25-33.)
These two verses are a good place to begin thinking about the biblical view
of sex. Taken together, they imply that when sex is engaged in within marriage
and is respectful of one's partner, it is a good thing, a good gift from God, a
way of knowing and enjoying one another on a deeper level. But the verses
implicitly recognize that sex is something less than that good thing when it is
outside of a committed relationship.
These verses are applicable to the sexualization of our culture, for that
cultural tone entices us to separate sex from committed relationships.
Questions: In what ways does living by the biblical view of
sex contribute to our having healthy sex lives? Can you find any scripture that
puts a heavy premium on a certain physical appearance as a prerequisite for a
healthy sex life?
Matthew 5:27-29
You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery."
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members
than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (For context, read
5:27-30.)
These words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount are directly applicable to
the sexual tone of our culture, where lust is employed as a marketing tool, an
entertainment outlet, an instrument of self-judgment about one's appearance, a
sartorial guide and more.
Jesus warns here of committing adultery in one's heart. We recognize that
unbidden thoughts and flickers of temptation can occur to any of us, but Jesus
is speaking about something more than unbidden thoughts. The Greek word he used
for lust doesn't mean a stray thought, but a covetous desire, the seeking of
power over another person. He was warning about letting such thoughts lead us
away from our commitments to be faithful.
As evidence of the serious harm that kind of lust can cause, Jesus gives the
example of ripping out one's eye if it is the channel for sin. We don't think
he meant that quite literally (though we can conceive of ripping out one's
Internet connection if that's a channel for sin). But the pluck-out-the-eye
example ought to help us think about the things we allow our minds to dwell on.
Questions: Since we can't rip society out of our lives, how
might these words of Jesus prove helpful to us rather than just judgmental of us?
What are some ways we can remove ourselves from the temptations we encounter in
our world?
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from
fornication; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness
and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister ... (For context, read
4:1-7.)
Regarding a biblical position on sex, passages such as this one from Paul
are sometimes cited, with some people defining fornication as "sex between
unmarried people," or at least including that. However, while the term
clearly refers to a sin of the body, as the above passage makes plain, the
Bible itself nowhere defines the term beyond that.
At minimum, however, the term refers to "inappropriate sexual
behavior," and we would argue that it can, by extension, include using sex
to sell, entice, pressure, market, etc.
In any case, Paul's words here are plain that we should not allow
"lustful passion" to drive our behavior and we should not behave in
ways that "exploit a brother or sister."
Questions: Are people who are targeted by sexualized
marketing being exploited? Are they exploited only if the marketing leads them
to purchase the product being advertised? Are you being exploited if you rent a
movie primarily because it's marked "the unrated version"?
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is
not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world -- the desire of
the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches -- comes not from the
Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but
those who do the will of God live forever. (For context, read 2:7-17.)
The word "world" appears six times in these three verses, so it's
useful to begin by considering what the author of 1 John intended by the term.
He apparently means, as one commentary has it, "[hu]mankind, fallen away
from God, and of hostile disposition towards Him, together with all that it
lives for and has made its own." Another commentary defines
"world" as "a deluded realm that is enslaved to wickedness ...
as well as radically opposed to Christ." That's the "world" that
John, in verse 15, warns his readers not to love (or, as used here, "not
to hanker after or to pursue" is the sense of the Greek). And by those
definitions, "world" could refer to our sexualized society.
In verse 16, John gives a reason for not loving the world: because what's
represented by that world is in opposition to God.
The Message version
of the Bible paraphrases verse 16 this way: "Practically everything that
goes on in the world -- wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself,
wanting to appear important -- has nothing to do with the Father. It just
isolates you from him."
The more literal translation of verse 16, from the Common English Bible, is
also worth hearing, warning against "the craving for whatever the body
feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one's
possessions."
Despite the strength of his words, John was not recommending that Christians
pull out of everyday life. Rather, he meant that disciples should not derive
their goals, motivations or agenda from the realm that does not have God and
Christ in its center. John was not calling for a physical distance from the
surrounding culture so much as for an attitudinal and values-related distance
from it -- with one's allegiance given to God.
Question: How can we affirm that the world in general is a
good gift from God without condoning that which distorts God's creation?
For Further Discussion
1. Discuss this: There's a saying attributed to St. Augustine on the matter
of unbidden thoughts. He said that you can't prevent a bird from flying over
your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.
2. Respond to Albert Mohler's comment, included in the "In the
News" section above: "Those who live by a code of physical
attractiveness will die by a code of physical attractiveness; those who try to
build a marketing empire and a public relations momentum when it comes to
highly sexualized images will eventually die by those highly sexualized images;
trying to separate the good [and] the beautiful and the true as pornography
always does, ... eventually ... falls apart."
3. Comment on Alexandra Corning's comment: "I would praise [A&F's]
advertising decision regardless of their motives. Less bombardment by these
kinds of images in the malls and online is better, healthwise, for everyone."
4. Respond to this, which is a contrast to A&F's former policy of
selling no women's sizes larger than 10. TWW team member Frank Ramirez says,
"I have a good friend in a small town who recently retired from retail.
She ran a woman's clothing store and her motto was 'What Women Wear.' The
clothes were wonderful and they were selected to fit the shapes women come in.
I was always amazed by her fashion sense and her ability to appreciate
everyone's shape. One time I had a friend visiting from another state and we
stopped in at the store. My friend lamented that she was never able to find
clothes that really fit her. My retailer friend took half a step back, looked
her over and said, 'I've got something here for you.' My out-of-state friend
left with several sets of clothing that delighted her. Most trips to clothing
stores left her frustrated that she was somehow the wrong shape and size, but
leaving this store, she felt great about her appearance."
5. Take time to examine the Sunday school materials used by your
congregation. How are Bible characters depicted in the artwork? Is everyone the
same size, perhaps what some would consider an "ideal" shape? How
about the kids depicted in the artwork? What do they look like? Would a child
in your church see people that look like them?
Responding to the News
Consider how to apply Romans 12:1-2 in your own life: "I appeal to you
therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good
and acceptable and perfect."
Closing Prayer
Help us, O Lord, to live fully in the world you have created for us, without
being swayed by that which is ungodly in our culture. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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2015 Communication Resources
