“We both have sons, but I do more for my son than I do for your son. Isn’t that what we’re talking about. We have to take care of America first?”
She was right.
I don’t offer to babysit for her son, purchase school supplies or dinner out so he and his wife can catch their breath financially and emotionally. I have joyfully done these things for my son. We agreed we had a higher personal responsibility to the children we birthed than we did to other children.
“But what if in meeting my son’s “needs” I did so at the expense of your son’s needs? Or worse, what if in order to meet my son’s “wants” I did so at the expense of your son’s “needs”?”
For me that has become a moral question.
I believe all life is sacred and all sons and mothers matter. I believe we as a civilization and as individuals are provided with unique opportunities to be a witness to the “sacredness” of life.
When we miss these opportunities to do what we think God would have us do in any given situation, it is because we suffer from what I call “devout indifference.”
We give lip service in our prayers to the hungry and forget to share our food. We shed tear for the victims of a disaster or a war and fail to offer safe harbor. We confess our poor stewardship of the world’s resources—yet we keep on doing the same things to make sure we and our sons have not only what we “need”, but what we “want” at the expense of other mothers and sons.
Indifference is bad, but devout indifference is worse because it is cloaked in the guise of righteousness.
If all of life is sacred and if God loves all sons then we must question America First as to what cost would love be paid by another mother’s son?
I know this is not a major concern in the halls of Congress, the White House or most board rooms, but perhaps it should be.
Joy Sylvester Johnson
