One of the biggest hurdles for new students to accept is the concept that there really are no 'victims'in the world in as much as we are masters of our own fate individually deciding everything that weexperience. To most people it seems cruel and uncaring to feel this way and un-Christian not to be sad and weep for all the suffering in the world. Why are we not overjoyed to learn that everyone is a Son of God totally loved and safe from true harm? Why do we feel uncomfortable about beingresponsible for everything we see and the concept that everything that seems to happen to us is something we have asked for and received as we have asked?
Although very few would
admit it we often go out of our way to see victims all around
us, on TV or in the newspapers so we can be sad with them. A part
of us loves to play 'Aint it awful' with our family and friends.
News of shortages, strikes, murder and disasters on a grand scale
are more exciting than forgiveness and the sure knowledge that
everything works for good. If we can establish there are really
victims in the outside world, and that things can happen to someone
without their consent, we can retain our right to be one. How
can the separation ever be undone
when we see victims in the world?
I can't say that even after
studying A Course In Miracles® for such a long time I have
given up the desire to judge completely but the definition of
who is the victim and who is the victimiser, has become blurred.
Often I find my mind fluctuating from one to the other. All of
a sudden Russia, the
'evil empire' becomes our friend and suddenly, the Gulf Crisis
erupts and we have a new nation to fear. Do I side with Saddam
Hussein or George Bush? Who is right? How can I judge without
bias when I never know the whole facts about anything? I am only
looking at the world through my own perception and see it the
way I want it to be. Have I walked a mile in everyone's' moccasins?
In the end I have no choice but to leave it to Holy Spirit who
does know.
"Let's stamp out the victims"
If we see someone as a victim
we have to be judging someone as a victimiser. Pam and I attended
a Unity Church service in the US. some years ago, when the minister,
who was also a Miracle student, jolted his congregation with a
remark Let's stamp out the victims Not that he meant it literally,
but
was merely reminding the listeners of the victim's initial decision
to be one. How strong is the desire to be a victim? If we want
to set it up in our mind, we will have no trouble finding any
number of victimisers to play their part. They could even be former
victims themselves, as they make the best victimisers.
Both the victim and the victimiser are calling for love.
Well meaning people might
rush in to solve the problem and even seem to have success on
a level ofform only to find it manifesting somewhere else. Jesus
states in the Course that he is unable to change our minds as
our minds are as powerful as his. Are we really being loving when
we sympathise with victim or are we subtly attacking some victimiser?
Is it loving to make the error real by joining with someone's
belief in sadness and misery while condemning the victimiser .
The best
way we can help as teachers of God is to recognise that in their
insane thinking, both the victim and the victimiser are calling
for love and we need to answer that call, without reinforcing
their false belief in themselves.
We may need to take some immediate remedial action on a level of form which may prevent a brother from hurting another while at the same time not harbouring any attack thoughts about who is right and who is wrong. Nor must we expect some immediately peaceful result as their powerful minds could very well have a considerable investment in the roles they play.I have not found taking responsibility for everything that seems to happen to me easy. Many of us have spent our lifetimes blaming others for the way we are and naturally we feel threatened to be told the only enemy is within. The Course says that moment of realisation can be terrible and that certainly was my experience and that of many Course students I have talked to. However, after that period subsides, a weight seems to be lifted off and it becomes a relief to know that "I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt." If I see real problems 'out there' and believe that I can change a world which was not designed to work I can never succeed. On the other hand, if I can be peaceful no matter what seems to be happening, I will have made a real contribution to the peace of my brothers everywhere.
To have victims we must have victimisers then sin must be real and we have no chance of redemption. The central theme of A Course In Miracles® is that this world is a dream or illusion and everything I see with my physical eyes or hear with my ears is only a projection of the way I would have things be. We can be sure that when we see victims around us, to that same extent, we wantto feel we are victims too.
We forget our part in setting it all up we put on our 'face of innocence' and believe we are 'helpless'bystanders in a unjust and cruel world, feeling totally justified in blaming God for the sorry state we find ourselves in.
A Course In Miracles® has given us a practical way of learning forgiveness and who better to practice on than the ones we see as 'victims' and 'victimisers
Bill McDonald 1991