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Robocop and Frankenstein.


Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. (I Peter 2:16-20)
            For some people, this might be my confession of a guilty pleasure. I liked watching the Robocop series. No, I didn't like the crude language or humor. What I liked was the exploration of what it means to be a person. I like the Frankenstein story concept. I even enjoyed the short-lived series Intelligence. They all explore the same idea. That idea came to mind today as I was walking and trying to think about today's passage.
           For some people, being a person seems to mean, "Being a MAN" or "Being a WOMAN." Those both seem to involve some form of appeal for someone to pay attention to them, to respect them. They are a MAN/WOMAN because they give God, the government, those in authority, tradition, their employers, their teachers, etc., the finger. They have power because they can deny power to others. They are people because they are able (they think) to "not take nothing from nobody." They are free, they think, because they have cast off every chain and obligation.
        This passage suggests a different path to becoming a person. It involves living as free men within bonds. Being a person involves doing what is right even if "no good deed goes unpunished,"  and serving and respecting others rather than commanding the same from them.. It involves giving rather than taking, suffering rather than spitting in someone's face. and (not unlike such public servants as police officers) doing what is right even if it might get you killed.

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