a whole new world...view

i (jeff) was eating lunch outside the other day with some of my fifth graders. the smartest girl in the class asked me, "what did you want to be when you were a kid?" i responded that if professional baseball and basketball fell through, i wanted to be a marine biologist. she pondered. then she told me she wanted to be a doctor for a long time, but now she wants to join the army so she can kill the israeli settlers in palestine.
me (to self): what!? are you serious!? you would rather kill people than heal people?
i asked her how this vocation would make the world a better place. she said something about how if there were no settlers then the world would be a better place. i agreed. sort of. i reminded her of our conversation in health science class about how violence just breeds more violence and that her violent solution would really be creating more of a problem. i informed her that she wouldn't be able to change the world for the better by creating more violence. i hope she heard me.
yesterday, jessey was in her 2nd grade class when a student saw her ticket for seeing the pope (who we pontificated with on sunday). he seemed to get excited about the ticket, until he exclaimed, "i hate all non-muslims!" jessey, being the quick-witted person that she is, responded, "really. so you hate me then?" he was stunned. his theological framework had been broken, but it could quickly be repaired. he said, "i don't hate the one's i know. i hate all the non-muslims i don't know who want to trick me!" later in class, this student drew a picture and showed it to jessey. he said it was the pope and the scribbles were him killing the pope. shocked, jessey said his drawing was like her making a drawing of her killing the prophet. again he moped.
our task is daily, and it is difficult. but it is worth it. little drops of truth are the only way we can help to put out these fires, but the light will eventually overcome the darkness. first application.
second application: how are we/you guilty of making the same types of outrageous statements about a group of people we/you know little to nothing about? these kids are not coming up with these ideas because they are evil or violent, but because their parents and their spirtual leaders are giving them these ideas. how do we do the same to our children? when a black president is elected? when a muslim woman is appointed to a staff position in the white house? do we say something about the end of the world, or about how these are lesser people? we need to be careful that our speech is always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that we can be found blameless. something to think about.