I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.

I can’t accept that there are people around the world suffering. But, what I find unacceptable others might not think twice about. In fact, they might even think about it, shrug and say “that’s just the way it is.” Whatever they do or do not do to help out their brothers and sisters around the world, it is not my place to judge them.

I was discussing this with a friend a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t express this right, but now I think I’ve got it. The conversation started from talking about whether or not gender inequality is wrong, and she was arguing that I cannot say what is “right” or “wrong” for anyone else, only myself. Just that right and wrong is always relative to the person. I disagreed, giving an example of a man who rapes his three-year old daughter, then brings her to the hospital because she won’t stop bleeding, and he doesn’t see anything wrong with his actions. He considers his daughter his property after all. I would not hesitate to say that what that man is doing is wrong. She asked who gets to decide then. I said God. And if not God, who (for those who don’t believe in God)? I said, “Society. But, society can be wrong. Even if a community or society thinks something is right, if it’s not, then they’re wrong. That’s one of the reasons I believe there is a God. I feel very strongly that there are right and wrong things in this world.

I’m not really sure how we finished it, but, this was where I was getting confused. She asked who gave me the right to judge other people, and I’m not sure I had anything to say back. But now I do, I judge other people’s actions, not the people, and therefore I do not hesitate to say when someone is clearly in the wrong because it is their action I am judging. God is the only one who can judge us.