Written by Hythem Betts (Transition Coach and Cross-cultural Consultant) at dia-LOGOS
Before you can kill someone you first have to convince yourself in your heart and mind that they are less valuable than you. The easiest way to convince yourself that someone who isn't a threat to you is less valuable than yourself is to mock them and call them names. Because with every mean thing you say to and about them you take away some of their value in your mind. Every person knows deep in their inner being that all lives are valuable because God made them, and there is a part of us that knows that killing is wrong. See, if you kill someone who is just as valuable or more valuable than yourself, you have to deal with the guilt and shame of what you did and the fear that someone will do the same to you. But if you can convince yourself that they are less valuable, all of that "goes away."
My wife, who was listening to this exchange, said, "I never thought of it this way. That's got me thinking of when Jesus said, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” I never understood it before but this makes sense because this is the first step of killing someone."
So, why did I choose the word kill instead of murder and why devalue instead of the buzzword dehumanize? Let's deal with the second one first as understanding that point makes the rest of it much easier to understand. To "de-human-ize" means to make the person non-human, which is bad but not entirely necessary in all cases. Unless you are a psychopath (and maybe even then) it is hard to destroy something you perceive as valuable. As humans, who struggle to value other life forms as much as ourselves, seeing something as non-human is seeing it as less valuable but we wouldn't say that swearing at someone was necessarily dehumanizing them. This is where the distinction becomes very important: we can still see someone in our minds as human but "less than me", stated so succinctly by Orwell in Animal Farm, "All Animals are Equal. But Some Animals are More Equal Than Others."
This whole "essay" started with a question about Jesus, so let's end there. There are so many things we could say about him "Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross." He refused, time and again, to see anyone as less valuable than himself, which is why he stopped Peter from fighting back to defend him from certain death.