How do you explain the modern trend that shows itself in road rage and bullying?
We are all aware of what seems to be a rise in road rage incidence, and of bullying in schools, work and even church. What is it that has brought this about? The fundamental answer is easy: sin. But can we explore this further?
A fairly new sociological discipline (in fact so new that it has no name), has developed that parallels fast moving trends with the rise of epidemics. It asks the question "what gives rise to epidemics?"
Part of the answer is that epidemics arise when a group has a predisposition to attack and when the environmental conditions are suitable. Environmental conditions include those that nurture the virus' growth, convenience of transmission and ease of implanting the virus in the host organism.
Churches and bullying
Bullying is "the repeated aggression; verbal, psychological or physical, conducted by an individual or group against others".
Who has the predisposition to bullying?
Bullying involves using a position of power to promote a person's self perception or cover their inadequacies by downgrading or hurting another person.
No Christian wants to think they are predisposed to being a bully. In fact the truth of the gospel drives us in the opposite direction. Despite our failings we are unconditionally accepted by God, through the sacrifice of His Son so that we are able to face our failures, knowing that we are cradled in His loving arms. We don't need to protect ourselves from exposure, because He has dealt with our sin.
But we know only too well that we all come to faith with our backgrounds, inadequacies and protective mechanisms.
In our churches the environmental conditions often promote bullying. The church of God is rightly generous in forgiveness. But this can give the virus of bullying room to grow. We know our failures and how far short that is from what we are called to be, and so we develop mechanisms to make us feel better about ourselves; and often these mechanisms result in bullying. We operate in an hierarchical structure, where position and knowledge can be used to suppress another.
Finally, not just in our churches but in wider society also, we are goal-oriented, so that we are driven to achieve our outcomes at all costs- especially the cost of good relationships.
The solution
Epidemics can be controlled and overcome by isolation, immunisation and antibiotics.
Our immunisation is the gospel. We must remind each other that we can be honest. We can face up to our failures because of the unconditional mercy of our God. We can expect not perfection in this life, but real change as we face our issues because God, by His Spirit is at work in all believers changing us ever more into the likeness of His Son.
Isolation is not a solution to bullying, as it is already part of our makeup. But recognising it is a solution. We need to keep examining ourselves and our motives to see if we act in a way to elevate ourselves at the cost of another, and if we do to repent from it. We need to courage to suggest to others that they may be engaging in bullying (but beware because sometimes we label as bullying anything that stops me doing something. That is not bullying).
We have the antidote to our society's epidemic. It is the power of the gospel, and the fellowship of believers. We don't need to ignore the problem.
