From the Editor

BreakPoint WorldView » May 2009

“Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.” (Agent Smith in The Matrix)

For a culture that as a whole has been endlessly optimistic about the limitless potential and goodness of man, the recent shift toward what Roberto Rivera names “modern misanthropy” is rather ironic. Sometimes these misanthropic tendencies come in the form of an active campaign to limit population growth as Rivera discusses in his most recent article in this month’s issue of BreakPoint WorldView Magazine. Telling couples with more than two children that they are placing an “irresponsible” burden on the environment is as overt as a slap in the face with a two-by-four. But at least with misanthropy this blatant, there’s no doubt we’ve been hit.

But perhaps it’s the subtle misanthropy that is more insidious. Take, for example, the mindset that children are a nuisance, a burden, an encumbrance to modern life. In The Possible Miracle, an excerpt from Start Your Family by Candice and Steven Watters made available in this issue, they note the symptoms of our ailing culture. They quote researcher Barbara Dafoe Whitehead saying, “Life with children is receding as a defining experience of adult life.” Popular culture “portrays the years of life devoted to child rearing as less satisfying as compared to the years before and after child rearing.” We can’t imagine an age when people sacrificed their children to idols, and yet we’re quite willing to sacrifice them today at the altars of convenience and comfort.

Another subtler form of misanthropy can be found in our “lock-em up and throw away the key” mentality when it comes to the prison population. If humans are a cancer, then it follows logically that prisoners are the most virulent strain. Karen Williams, a researcher and writer with our own Justice Fellowship and graduate of Cedarville University, focuses on this mentality particularly as it relates to juvenile sentencing in her piece “Restoring Hope for Juvenile Offenders.” Meanwhile, PFM president Mark Earley takes a wider angle on our disdain for our fellow man in “Roll Away the Stone.”

Today’s subtle hatred of humanity is a far cry from what we find in the Word of God. Although we are sinful creatures, we still possess extraordinary value. We find that value both in how we were made—in the very image of God, and the lengths to which God went to redeem us. God created us “a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned [us] with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). Of anyone, Jesus, a perfect man, could have looked down on and disdained the deeply flawed and broken race of mankind, but instead he weeps over Jerusalem, longing to gather His children into His arms. He cares for those on the margins of society, the leper, the lame, the blind, the prostitute, the prisoner. And He calls for us to show our love to Him by showing our love to mankind.

Catherine Larson is a senior writer and editor for BreakPoint. She is the editor of WorldView online magazine and The Point radio. As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda is her first book. She regularly shares her thoughts on topics related to forgiveness and reconciliation at AsWeForgiveBook.com.