Among the many things that my liberal arts and biblical education have taught me, the behavior of gorillas is not among them. The closest my knowledge comes is the movie Tarzan and the classic book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. This does not help me.
My education has also not prepared me for dealing with a young child. Though I have more experience in this territory, due to my younger siblings, I am not a dad. I don't really know what it is like to have the pressure of caring for multiple children at once.
The recent death of Harambe the gorilla, due to a child falling into his enclosure, is a tragedy. I cannot decide who is to blame, or if there even is blame. Fortunately, everyone else has an answer: the gorilla was dangerous; the mother left her son unattended; the zoo isn't safe enough; Harambe was trying to protect the boy; on and on and on. There is no shortage of opinions being blared from the horns of Facebook and Twitter. Most people have decided, for certain, that they are right. Anyone who thinks differently is clearly wrong.
Too often, we make quick judgments about terrible events. We read a headline that spins the story a certain way, and we think that this must explain everything. We use our non-existent expertise while watching a brief video and determine what was right or wrong. Someone should take the fall for this tragic event.
By determining our stance on something, based on our limited knowledge of the event and the subject, we completely undermine conversation between opposing views. We stop listening and start talking. All this creates is noise, as if we are standing in a conference room yelling at one another. We make assumptions. We stop caring about the others in the room as people. We care only about the wrongness of their views.
We forget the tragedy.
Harambe's death is an example of how quickly people can divide on an issue. Another more prevalent example is police violence. We read a headline about an officer shooting someone. Immediately, the assumptions begin to roll in. It was a hate crime. It was just. It was an accident. Whatever our position, we begin to proclaim it loudly, as if we know all there is to know about the incident. We stop caring what the other side has to offer.
Guilt lands on Christians here as well, particularly when understanding issues of homosexuality and, as happened recently, transgender people. We hear of a situation, and we quickly form beliefs about what happened. Yet I, as a straight male comfortable in my identity, cannot even begin to understand another person's struggles apart from listening. None of us can. God calls us to love our neighbor, but we seem to prefer to judge them before listening to them. We fail to recognize how acting as if we know everything hurts others. In doing so, we cut off any chance of conversation between "us" and "them."
I believe that opinions and ideas matter. Yet I also believe that my ideas and opinions can grow and develop by entering into conversation with someone who thinks differently. We all grow through conversation.
Authors design headlines to be sensational. The media crafts them to attract polarized opinions, to create hard divides. Instead, as in the case of Harambe, may we grieve, even if we do not fully understand. And may we learn by putting away our trumpets and listening to the voices around us.
