I look back upon the many privileged situations that I, as a youth worker have been in over the years. Having innocent and vulnerable children in my care as both a volunteer and trained professional e.g. leading a Girls club (I am male!) and taking a group away for the weekend.
At a recent camp for 11 to 15 year olds I found myself inside a tent reading a bedtime story to a mixed group at 1 o’clock in the morning. As they eventually wound down and allowed their fears to disappear, hard masks melt away and the child in them all gently falls asleep, a very special moment. OK, I made sure that there was someone else within earshot etc. but like many other times I could quite easily have abused my position. I was aware of the issues and willing to stretch a little the normal boundaries for the sake of the young people (and I was desperate to get some sleep!)
OK, Mr Jackson may be naive and innocent, he may be stupid and ignorant but we cannot get away from the fact that he challenges the world’s ways. As long as children are increasingly treated as potential wealth creators, fodder for a materialistic consumer culture, we may question anyone who challenges us. How true it is that young people need to know that someone they can trust loves them. Someone is willing to be genuinely interested in them for their own sake. Someone wants to share their inner child with them in all its purity and vulnerability especially when damaged broken and in pain.
To a world that is screwed up and believes him to be likewise, holding a baby over the balcony to the cameras is absolutely wacky; to most it seems dangerous and immature. But for an innocent naïve, genuine and excited man in childhood mode and need it could have been simply a spontaneous gesture to his fans, however fanatical and misguided they may be.
The point is that it may be us that have the problems. Many factors affect the way we see, act and construct our collective conscience. We fear others who are different and use them as a scapegoat for our weaknesses and ignorance. I find it frightening the way that our community is so easily manipulated by the media, how little effort many of us put into our thinking and analysing of life’s events, and perhaps most of all, how much mess we ourselves have created in our world and how we find it so difficult to believe that there can be another way, or that we can change things.
We all (especially those with greater resources) have responsibilities to a fallen world, to safeguard those most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and there will always be so much more to do, but let’s look beneath the obvious, beyond the majority response and challenge the powers and principles behind the symptoms as well.
Perhaps that’s where God comes in; a perspective outside of our own little world - an alternative response? Someone has been there and done it, the best way, before and offers us guidance. Easter approaches and we remember the resurrection, the turning of death on its head, the hope of joy after pain, love throughout the hatred, a way for us all to follow, another perspective.
Michael Jackson may be crucified for his innocence or his guilt; we may never know the truth but we can ask the questions, we can challenge ignorance, inequality and the abuse of power and we can show love at all times, but we may be open to misinterpretation and worse.
