{"id":2912,"date":"2011-10-18T07:58:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T12:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=2912"},"modified":"2011-10-11T14:21:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T19:21:35","slug":"october-23-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/october-23-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"October 23, 2011–Proactive Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Dennis Sepper, Pacific Lutheran University<\/p>\n

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Warm-up Question<\/h3>\n

Did you help someone out today?\u00a0 How?\u00a0 How did it make you feel?<\/p>\n

Proactive Love<\/h3>\n

Dateline El Cajon, California\u2026<\/strong>By Brian Flores, FOX 5 San Diego Reporter
\nMore than 600 El Cajon students created signs and formed a human chain around\u00a0 an elementary school Thursday, pledging to make it a “bully-free\u00a0 school.”\u00a0 “This is a no\u00a0 bullying zone, and we’re not going to put up with it,” said Bostonia\u00a0 Elementary School principal Cindy White.\u00a0 White’s school held several\u00a0events on campus during the week to\u00a0 remind and teach students about bullying and how to prevent it.\u00a0 “We haven’t had as much of a problem as\u00a0 we have now,” said White. “We do have bullying incidences that happen\u00a0 down to our kindergarten level.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s not just in\u00a0 El Cajon where students are taking a stand. Bullying remains a nationwide\u00a0 problem.\u00a0 According national statistics,
\nmore than 13 million students have experienced some form of bullying.\u00a0 In San Diego, about 10 percent of students\u00a0 drop out of school because of repeated bullying, according to the San Diego\u00a0 Office of Education.\u00a0 “Sometimes it’ll be racially motivated. It may be motivated by how a student looks, how a student acts,” said White.\u00a0 “When you have one child that’s more\u00a0 dominant that tends to over and over confront another student, than that is\u00a0 bullying.”\u00a0 White said this is a\u00a0 statement that students, staff, parents, and the community need to make bully-free schools.\u00a0 “We are\u00a0 committed to ensuring a bully-free school and every one of us has a part in making that happen,” said White.\u00a0 [end\u00a0 of article]<\/p>\n

Bullying is a serious problem in our schools from\u00a0 the elementary level right through college. According to the National Education Association 160,000 students stay\u00a0 home from school everyday due to bullying.\u00a0 Think about that for a moment\u2026every day160,000 students are so afraid<\/strong> that they do not have the\u00a0 courage to go to school.\u00a0 Can we agree\u00a0 that this statistic is not only nuts, but unacceptable?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 month of October is National\u00a0 Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.\u00a0 As\u00a0 Christians who are called to love all, even our enemies, and to speak up on\u00a0 behalf of those who cannot speak up for themselves, can\u2019t we do something about\u00a0 this?\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about \u201cgoing rogue\u201d\u00a0 which is the world\u2019s response, but working together as the \u201cBody of Christ\u201d to\u00a0 bring some hope to those who live in fear.<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n