By Barb Hauge
"If ye have done it unto these, the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me" were words spoken by Jesus. Of course Jesus was telling us to treat all people well but I question usage of "the least of my brethren." Who, among us is "The Least?" Are they the poor? The minorities? The disabled? The abandoned? The abused? The neglected? Or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free?"
After observing people, life has taught me THERE ARE NO LESSER BEINGS! All of us are "less" or "more" in a multitude of way. We all must help one another as needed because everyone needs help at times. Certainly Jesus needed help as He suffered on the cross. A bolt of lightening should have struck His tormentors and released Him! I find it especially hard to see "more" in infamous tyrants from Genghis Khan to Adolph Hitler. I believe that tyrants emerge from children who were treated as "lesser" beings.
Minority people, from blacks to women, are now rebelling and saying, "I am a person of worth and you will not disrespect me!" The white world was pretty shocked when Cassius Clay (who became Mohammed Ali) said, "I am so beautiful!" He was speaking from the depths of his young manly pride as a victorious champion boxer and as an underdog who had finally made it to the top. He became a symbol that did much to encourage Black Pride in America. Women too are refusing to be used, abused and treated as property. Even some in Moslem countries are throwing off the all-concealing cheddrah and demanding their right to recognition out in the World.
We all know women and children who endure abuse. My sister tried so hard to please her husband while he did all he could to humiliate her. Sis was taken by her husband to various shrinks. These Psychologist and Sociologists tried everything on her from high voltage electric shock to experimental drugs being pushed by the Drug Companies. Poor Sis was their Number One Guinea Pig. But they never caught on to the fact that her husband was the problem. HE mentally abused her beyond belief; then took her to Psycho Docs to find out what was wrong with HER! She was a strong lady to have survived as long as she did. How tragic when a woman ends up with a husband who tries to build his own ego by destroying hers! How doubly tragic that Sis was subjected to a series of Doctors who were too ignorant and uncaring to give her real, liberating help!
After reading "The Battered Woman" by Leonore Wilson, a physically battered girl said, "I wonder if it is really love that I feel or if it's because I've fallen into this pattern abused women fall into; that I feel obligated to him. I don't know what it is; sometimes I don't know what I feel or think. I know that after I start getting out and doing things for myself I will have a different outlook on life. The book is so sad and yet at the same time you think, why doesn't the woman just take off. But most of the time it's because she truly believes that there is no escape."
Males raised in a sexist society are taught to be macho; to exert authority and to maintain control over those around them. Males raised by tyrants become tyrannical and very abusive. They look on the women and children they terrorize as "the least of their brethren."
