It’s risky to go after the ‘Whole’.

Recently, I was reading about how an ‘Individual A’ grossly attacked and bad-mouthed a group of people simply because ‘Individual A’ did not agree with the views of an ‘Individual B’, who is a member of this group.

Individual A uttered disparaging words and stopped at nothing to trample on the values and identity of these group of people as a way of getting back to Individual B. To Individual A, everyone and everything around Individual B should be devalued and pulled into a fight of words.

Individual A was on the loose - caution had been thrown into the air.

In and around us, there are a lot ‘Individual As’ who are running around like deadly cannons ready to unload harmful words at a group of people they hardly know or understand. To these ‘Individual As’, their fallouts with or lack of understanding of the ‘Individual Bs’, should carry painful consequences for all that is connected to the ‘Individual Bs’.

Goliath was an example of an ‘Individual A’, who ran Israel down with demeaning words, more so when one ‘Individual B’ – David, showed up in a battle with him and did not meet his expectation of a challenger. David angered Goliath and entire Israel would have to pay for it.

Unfortunately for Goliath, he did not realize that Israel was a ‘part’ of a ‘whole’. The ‘whole’ responded - the God of Israel did not stay quiet and Goliath never had another opportunity to utter any further words.

Attacking the ‘whole’ because of one’s displeasure with a ‘part’ is foolish and unsafe. Denigrating an entire nation, a tribe, a community or a family because of one’s disagreement with a person or a few people is appalling. For example, going after Christianity because of the ‘sin’ of a single Christian is needless and a waste of time. Attacking a nation because of one ‘bad egg’ is immature and a disappointment.

We should learn to take up our issues with the ‘part’ and leave the ‘whole’ out of our disparaging and childish renditions.

It is dangerous if we invite the ‘whole’ to a fight that should only have the ‘part’. We may underestimate the power of the ‘whole’ and thereby bring unnecessary repercussions on ourselves. The strength of the ‘whole’ may overwhelm and suppress us if the ‘whole’ decides to come after us.