People Are People

People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get
Along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get
Along so awfully

So we're different colours
And we're different creeds
And different people
have different needs
It's obvious you hate me
Though I've done nothing wrong
I've never ever met you
so what could I have done

I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand

"People are people..."
I got that back in my hippie days.
I got that as a baby Christian, devoid of religion and politics.
I got that when I got sucked into liberal theology.
I got that when I got sucked into right wing, fundamentalist Christianity.
I get it now as someone who just basks in God's grace and thinks both sides have their good and bad points.

Not much boggles my mind, but I have a hard time seeing how anyone would not see this. (My track record isn't perfect, either, but hate isn't an option, so even when it sneaks in, it doesn't stay past having a little light on it.)

In Mt 25/31-46, we find Jesus talking about visiting people in prison, feeding the hungry, and generally helping the hurting as a pretty big deal. (Note: I don't see this as a passage about "What you must do to get to heaven (works), but about our actions showing who we really are. This implies that if we truly love Jesus, these things come naturally.)

In Lk 10/29-37 he applies this to someone his listeners saw as extremely different (a Samaritan).

In dealing with tax collectors, whores, adulteresses, drunks, lepers, Romans, and pretty much every sort of "different" there was in his day, he took a stand for this. "People are people. I created them. I love them. I'm going to die and come back for them as well as you."

Today he'd do the same for all of them again, as well as the homeless, black people, gays and lesbians, illegal immigrants, Muslims, and everyone else. Would he point out anything wrong in their lives and offer to heal them? Sure... just as he does with you and me.

People are people...
Help me understand

Now you're punching
And you're kicking
And you're shouting at me
I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced
But I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel
From your head to your fists

I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man

Help me understand

Depeche Mode lyrics (C) 1984 Sire Records Company