Last week at school was Anti-Bullying week. As someone who has experienced bullying in the past, I can speak from experience as to how painful it can be for the victim. I was lucky – I had a school and a family who supported me to get me the help I needed but nonetheless it was a horrible experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone else.
This year’s theme – each anti-bullying week has a different theme each year – was about speaking out against bullying – being an ‘Upstander’ and not a ‘Bystander’.
In the Bible, we find similar wording. In Proverbs 31:9, we are told ‘Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.’ The idea of an ‘Upstander’ is someone who speaks out when they see something wrong.
This, in the case of Sixth Form, can be anything from confronting people directly, reporting incidents to a teacher or just letting the victim know they’re not alone.
And for us as Christians, our mandate is not dissimilar. We are the Light and the Salt and that means challenging things that are wrong when we see them. Obviously, this does not mean putting ourselves in harm's way, like those we have commemorated this month, but in a personal way, there is a myriad of ways we can call out and challenge the injustices we see in our daily life.
In a world that can be so divided, where it can sometimes seem that those who commit the most injustices gain the most, where prejudice, division and hatred seem so common, by being Upstanders, by refusing to accept the status quo, by standing for what is right, not what is easy, maybe we can spread the word of God just a little more and start the long process of healing this battered and bruised world.
Harry Booton
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