Dignity

A popular pizza chain known for its snarky ad campaigns has been forced to apologize after a sustained public outcry over its latest special. In early October, D.C.-based &Pizza (pronounced “And Pizza”) announced the addition of “Marion Berry Knots” to its dessert menu, referencing the late former mayor of the District of Columbia Marion Barry. The ads for the new product made extensive references to Barry’s drug use and public drug arrests (“so good, it’s almost a felony”).

Marion Barry was arrested in a drug sting in 1990 and was eventually convicted of a misdemeanor drug charge. After six months in prison, Barry was elected to the city council in 1992, and re-elected mayor in 1994. Despite his death in 2014, the memory of Barry, the district’s first African American mayor, still looms large over residents of Washington, a city with a sizable African American population.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), called the ad campaign “inflammatory, and culturally-insensitive,” calling for its removal. The organization also challenged &Pizza to donate to organizations doing substance abuse prevention as a way to rectify the wrong.

“Candidly, we made a mistake," said &pizza CEO Mike Burns in a statement. “And for that, we sincerely apologize.”

Legal representatives for Barry’s widow Cora Masters Barry and the Barry estate called the apology insufficient, issuing a cease-and-desist notice request that &Pizza refrain from profiting from Barry’s name, image, or likeness.

D.C. restaurant owner Peyton Sherwood said:

Barry’s life was about opportunity, dignity, and equality for everyone in Washington, D.C. To reduce that legacy to a crass ad about his darkest moments is not only offensive it’s cruel. It disregards the immense good Barry did for this city and the battles he fought on behalf of all its people.

Possible Preaching Angle:

A person is more than their failures. Every person is a mixture of good and bad, failures, and successes. We should always look to remove anything in our own eye before we try to remove the speck in other’s eyes (Matt. 7:1-5), even if done in jest.

The next time you're signing your name at the DMV or another U.S. Government office, you probably won't notice the black pen in your hand. It, after all, is exactly like the dozens of other black pens you've used in post offices, courthouses, and other buildings throughout your adult life. You certainly won't think there's much of a story behind the unobtrusive implement that, likely as not, is chained to the well-worn desk you've been waiting to stand at.

But like everything, those pens have a story. For over 55 years, those Skilcraft pens have been assembled by blind factory workers in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Each year they make nearly four million pens. The pens must meet rigorous government specifications: to write continuously for a mile, and within temperature swings from 40 below zero to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The standard length of the pen has helped lost Navy pilots navigate by map. Stories say that the pen can be used as a two-inch bomb fuse, or for emergency tracheotomies. It can write upside down. It costs less than 60 cents (when purchased in quantity).

The pen has a rich, fascinating history, woven together with war, peace, postage, bureaucrats, spies, work, and play. And you'd never know it to look at it.

Much like many of us. In every room, every single person has a story, a rich, fascinating history that few of us ever think to ask about. If we did, we'd be floored, astounded. We'd see each other differently, and with more respect. Just like you'll see that pen differently the next time you pick it up.

Mike Huddleston was traveling for a training. He had flown from Maryland to San Francisco and needed to get to a rental car agency. But because of a degenerative neuromuscular condition that weakens his muscles, he wouldn't be able to climb the stairs of the shuttle bus. Instead, the car agency sent someone to pick him up.

But as he was walking outside to meet them, he fell. And due to his condition, he couldn't get up. "I remember sitting there in the middle of the sidewalk in front of San Francisco Airport, thinking, 'What in the world am I going to do?'"

"[Then] out of nowhere I heard, 'What can I do to help?'" Huddleston turned his head to see a man in his late thirties standing behind him. "I said, 'Are you kidding?' He said, 'No. What can I do to help you, man?'"

Huddleston described what the man could do to help him get off the ground. Once he got him up, the man fetched Huddleston's baggage, which had rolled a few feet away when he fell. "He asked me if I was good and I said, 'I am because of you. So, thank you very much.' He just said, 'No problem,' and turned and walked away."

This encounter struck Huddleston. Not just because of the man's kindness, but also because of the way he offered that kindness. His unsung hero didn't step in and start helping when he saw Huddleston on the ground. He took a moment to ask Huddleston how he could help.

Different people who need assistance may need it in different ways. So, asking them how you can help them is amazingly helpful. It allows the individual who's in need of assistance to maintain a sense of self, to maybe feel a little less helpless, and maybe even a little less vulnerable.

It's been more than 20 years since Huddleston was helped up, but he continues to think about it to this day. "His willingness to help me — and the compassion he showed in a very challenging situation — for me is something I will never forget."

Editor’s Note: This story is part of the “My Unsung Hero” series on NPR, from the Hidden Brain team, about people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story sheds new light on the question that Jesus often asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matt. 20:32; Mark 10:51; Luke 18:41). On reading the accounts, it might seem obvious what the person needed, but now we have better insight into why Jesus would ask this question. It is not only to allow the person to express faith, but to give them a “sense of self.”

Best-selling Muslim author and renowned critic of Islam, Irshad Manji shook the religious world with her ground-breaking and highly acclaimed book The Trouble with Islam Today. Translated into more than 30 languages, Manji writes about the lack of inquiry and freedom of thought and speech that pervades across the entire Islamic world.

In 1972, her devout Muslim family immigrated from East Africa to a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, when she was four-years-old. She writes that she came to believe in the basic dignity of every individual not from Islam, but "It was the democratic environment to which my family and I migrated." A couple of years later, her always frugal parents enrolled her in free baby-sitting services at a Baptist church when her mom left the house to sell Avon products door-to-door.

There the lady who supervised Bible study showed me and my older sister the same patience she displayed with her own son. She made me believe my questions were worth asking. The questions I posed as a seven-year-old were simple ones: Where did Jesus come from? When did he live? Who did he marry? These queries didn't put anyone on the spot, but my point is that the act of asking always met with an inviting smile.

She cites another example at her junior high school and her evangelical Christian vice-principal.

[The majority of students] lobbied for school shorts that revealed more leg than our vice-principal thought reasonable. After a heated debate with us, he okayed the shorts, bristling but still respecting popular will. How many Muslim evangelicals do you know who tolerate the expression of viewpoints that distress their souls?

Of course, my vice-principal had to bite his tongue in the public school system, but such a system can only emerge from a consensus that people of different faiths, backgrounds, and stations ought to tussle together. How many Muslim countries tolerate such tussle? I look back now and thank God I wound up in a world where the Quran didn't have to be my first and only book.

Some people think that the claim that human equality comes from Jesus is just biased. But when the British historian Tom Holland set out to write his book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, he was not a Christian. He'd always been far more attracted by the Greek and Roman gods than by the crucified hero of Christianity. But through years of research, he concluded that he, agnostic as he was, held many specifically Christian beliefs. For example, his belief in universal human equality and the need to care for the poor and oppressed.

Holland writes:

That every human being possessed an equal dignity was not remotely a self-evident truth. A Roman would have laughed at it. To campaign against discrimination on the grounds of gender or sexuality, however, was to depend on large numbers of people sharing in a common assumption: that everyone possessed an inherent worth. The origins of this principle—as the philosopher Frederick Nietzsche had contemptuously pointed out—lay not in the French Revolution, nor in the Declaration of Independence, nor in the Enlightenment, but in the Bible.

In the film My Beautiful Stutter, viewers are introduced to Kate Detrick. Kate is a young lady who has learned to live, honestly if not defiantly, with a stutter. She refuses to refer to her way of speaking as an impediment. Instead, she has learned to accept who she is.

In the film, Kate is giving a tour of her room. She has notes written to herself posted around her room reminding her of her uniqueness and value. But she spends most of her tour on a poem written by Erin Schick:

The barn owl communicates with mates and offspring using a complex system of hissing, screeching, squawking, and facial muscle manipulation

Survival is dependent on creating a voice so unique it can be recognized by loved ones in an instant

I argue the cause of my stutter is not neurologic

It’s got to be something deeper

Something desperate to be remembered

This is not a speech impediment

My voice is an instrument,

My stutter its greatest symphony

My speech, composed by God

Atheist philosopher Luc Ferry, author of the best-selling book A Brief History of Thought, credits Christianity with creating the novel idea that all people have dignity. And for him it’s rooted in Christ's resurrection. Ferry writes, “The entire originality of the Christian message resides in good news of literal immortality--resurrection, in other words and not merely of souls but of individual human bodies.”

In 2000, two parents founded a pizzeria in Rome with the goal of employing people with Down syndrome. Inspired by their son, who had the condition, they named it La Locanda dei Girasoli (translated as “The Sunflower Inn”).

Today, the restaurant employs eight differently-abled people (five with Down syndrome) and boasts a 4.5-star review on TripAdvisor, making it a destination of sorts. According to their website, the restaurant’s goal is to “promote the employment of people with Down syndrome, ennobling and giving dignity to the individual through a path to training and work placement.” Learn more about their story below:

With the abortion rate of those with Down syndrome now edging 90 percent, modern society has increasingly adopted a distorted view of those who are differently-abled. To counter the popular prejudices and misconceptions, the restaurant also seeks to further “mutuality, solidarity, and respect” for those with Down syndrome.

“The initial reaction of customers is often curiosity and even hesitation,” explains Ugo Menghini, one of the restaurant’s managers. “At first they’re surprised. Then they’re interested. Not only do they see that our workers are great at getting the job done. They see a human side to the restaurant that makes people happy. They have a friendly exchange with us so there’s always a pleasant dynamic.”

It’s a beautiful display of the transformative power of business and the abundance bound up in all people, regardless of their background or physical condition. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and managers would do well to heed these stories and respond in turn. What we commonly label as a “disability” may very well be the exact opposite.

When given the chance and investment, the differently-abled are bound to surprise us and contribute to our economic future in new and profound ways.

The next time you're signing your name at the DMV or another U.S. Government office, you probably won't notice the black pen in your hand. It, after all, is exactly like the dozens of other black pens you've used in post offices, courthouses, and other buildings throughout your adult life. You certainly won't think there's much of a story behind the modest implement that, likely as not, is chained to the well-worn desk you've been waiting to stand at.

But like everything, those pens have a story. For over 40 years, those Skilcraft pens have been assembled by (blind) factory workers in Wisconsin and North Carolina. They must meet rigorous government specifications: to write continuously for a mile, and within temperature swings from 40 below zero to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The original design—brass ink tube, plastic barrel not shorter than 4 5/8 inches, ball of 94 percent tungsten carbide and 6 percent cobalt—has changed little over the decades. It costs less than 60 cents. The standard length of the pen has helped lost Navy pilots navigate by map. Stories say that the pen can be used as a two-inch bomb fuse, or for emergency tracheotomies. It can write upside down.

The pen has a rich, fascinating history, woven together with war, peace, postage, bureaucrats, spies, work, and play. And you'd never know it to look at it.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Jesus Christ; Cross—As Christ hung on the cross he was not impressive, but he was still the eternal Son of God. (2) Dignity; Human worth—Some of us, or some people that you know, may not seem impressive, and yet they bear the image of God.

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson notes that it's easy for us to look at the grandeur and beauty of the mountains or to bask in the warmth of the spring sun and recognize the beauty of creation. Yet, sometimes we ignore the people right in front of us. Peterson writes,

Several years ago one of my students who lived a distance away and rode a crowded bus to the college each day said to his wife as he went out the door one morning, "I'm just going to go out and immerse myself in God's creation today." The next day his parting words were the same. On the third day, she called him back, "Don't you think you ought to go to class today? A couple of days walking in the woods or on the beach is okay, but don't you think enough is enough?"

He said, "Oh, I've been going to class every day."

"Then what," she said, "is all this business about immersing yourself in creation?"

"Well, I spend forty minutes on the bus each morning and afternoon. Can you think of a setting more thick with creation than that—all these people created, created in the image of God, created male and female?"

"I never thought of that," she said.

Peterson concludes, "[We need to embrace] the people around us with the same delight as we do the hawks soaring above us and the violets blooming at our feet. Men and women, children and the elderly, the beautiful and the plain, the blind and the deaf, amputees and paralytics, the mentally impaired and the emotionally distraught—each a significant and sacred detail of nature, of God's creation."

What would you do if your wedding band ended up in a garbage truck? Do you make arrangements to get it replaced or search through literally tons of trash? Collen Dyckman said she accidentally threw out her wedding ring after cooking dinner Sunday night. She only realized it was missing the next morning. But, by that time, the garbage truck had already come by and taken the trash. She ran out of the house and chased down the garbage truck and its driver.

The driver then called Edward Wiggins, sanitation site crew leader at the Town of Babylon's Department of Environmental Control. Wiggins said he had the driver immediately stopped his route and started digging for about three hours through six tons of garbage. Dyckman said, "In that moment I thought…I'm not going to find it. I didn't see it. It's not in there."

But finally after four hours they spotted the lost ring. Dyckman said she was brought to tears. To show her appreciation, she later baked brownies and bought pizza pies and cookies that she took to Wiggins and his team during lunch. "We're really glad we were able to help her and get her ring back," Wiggins said today. "To be honest, in the 41 years I've been here, we've only been able to successfully recover lost items three times."

Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Christ, incarnation; Christ, love of; Lost souls are precious in the sight of Christ and he came to this fallen and corrupt world to seek and to save the lost. 2) Preaching; Evangelism; Gospel; Witnessing; Believers are to show mercy to unbelievers, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

How much is a human life worth? In attempting to answer that question The British science magazine New Scientist noted the following thoughts:

• In wrongful death lawsuits, juries and judges decide what amount should be paid in each case. For the overwhelming majority of cases, there is no actual value placed on the deceased person's life. As one legal expert notes, "There's damages for pain and suffering before you die, there's damages for loss of income to your family after you die. But for the life itself that was lost, it's worth nothing."
• The families of US soldiers who die on active duty receive between $250,000 and $800,000.
• The US government paid $10,000 to the family of a brother and sister mistakenly shot and killed at a checkpoint in Iraq.
• The total value of the basic elements in the human body (carbon, calcium, iron etc.) for a 175-pound man: $118,000.
• The largest life insurance policy ever purchased was taken out by an individual in Hong Kong, worth $250 million dollars) Editor’s Note: The policy was issued in March of 2024

Ernie Johnson Jr. is at the top of his game as a sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports—the lead TV voice for Major League Baseball (TBS), the host of Inside the NBA (TNT), and a contributor to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament (Turner and CBS). He is also a faithful Christian and a father who has adopted children, one of whom has special needs, a boy named Michael.

When Cheryl, Ernie's wife, was introduced to then three-year-old Michael, he had a club foot and was unable to speak. When she called home to share her experience, and said she would wonder what had happened to the boy for the rest of her life, Ernie told his wife to "bring him home."

Later, Michael was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and now at 26 he is attached to a ventilator and uses a wheelchair. Yet though his care has been both extensive and expensive, Ernie and Cheryl Johnson have not shrunk from the challenges or resisted new ones. Ernie says:

Some people can be driven by going on mission trips, digging wells for kids who don't have water. Everybody's wired differently. This is one of the ways we're wired. We have this heart for adoption. It's rooted in our faith, our Christian faith. We're instructed to care for orphans and widows. We don't want credit. We don't want pats on the back. We're getting a heck of a lot more out of it than they are.

In his book Flesh and Machines, MIT professor Rodney Brooks writes that a human being is nothing but a machine—or what he calls a "big bag of skin full of biomolecules" interacting by the laws of physics and chemistry. In ordinary life, of course, it is difficult to actually see people that way. But, he says, "When I look at my children, I can, when I force myself … see that they are machines."

Is that how he treats them, though? Brooks admits, "That is not how I treat them … I interact with them on an entirely different level. They have my unconditional love, the furthest one might be able to get from rational analysis."

Sadly, Brooks' love for his children has no basis within his worldview. It sticks out of his box. How does he reconcile such a heart-wrenching cognitive dissonance? He doesn't. Brooks ends by saying, "I maintain two sets of inconsistent beliefs." He has no defense. This is the tragedy of the postmodern age. The things that matter most in life, that are necessary for a humane society—ideals like moral freedom, human dignity, even loving our own children—have been reduced to nothing but useful fictions.

Possible Preaching Angles: This illustration not only shows the folly of atheism, it also reveals the need for a worldview that compels us to show true compassion to others, treating them with dignity as creatures made in God's image, not just machines.

When Shakina Rajendram’s micro preemie twins were born on March 4, 2022, they were so tiny they fit in the palm of her hand. Her daughter weighed about 11 ounces, less than a soda can, and her son weighed about 14 ounces. Rajendram had been pregnant for about five months when she went into labor, and she and her husband, Kevin Nadarajah, were told to prepare for the worst, that the twins might not survive.

“Doctors said if they did survive the delivery, we should be prepared for them to have significant disabilities,” said Rajendram, of Ajax, Canada, near Toronto. “We were told they might never walk or talk or breathe independently.”

One year later, Rajendram, 36, said two happy babies are proof that their instincts were right.

The present splendid functioning of the twins affirms the fact that, tiny as they were, these two little babies are human beings. They were demonstrably viable at an exceedingly low birth weight. Can an unborn child be too small to be considered human? Would humans lose their humanity if they got smaller? An example from a children's book makes a great point.

In Dr. Seuss's children's book Horton Hears a Who! (1954), Horton the Elephant hears a small speck of dust talking to him. The speck of dust is actually a minuscule planet populated by microscopic creatures known as "Whos." Horton, thanks to his large elephant ears, is able to hear the "Mayor of the Whos" quite well and agrees to protect the Whos from harm. "After all," Horton proclaims throughout the book, "a person's a person, no matter how small." The point here is more philosophical than biological. Size is relative, and it is prejudicial to assume that being too small is a disqualification for being a person.

In March 2014, The New York Times article reported on what, at the time, was probably the most expensive musical instrument in the world—a Stradivari viola, whose asking price started at $45 million. "It is a staggering sum for a fiddle," the article stated. "Its $45 million base price is more than enough to have saved both New York City Opera, which has folded, and the San Diego Opera, which is also closing because of money woes. Violas are sometimes thought of as the unloved stepsisters of violins—rarely in the spotlight, played by fewer famous virtuosos, with less music composed specially for them."

So what makes this instrument, dubbed the "Macdonald viola," so valuable? Auction experts say its value is based on a variety of factors, but they point first and foremost to its maker— Antonio Stradivari. He made this viola during his very best period, which was between 1700 and 1720. While there are roughly 600 violins made by Antonio Stradivari, only around 10 of his violas are known to have survived intact. Secondly, it was also played by Peter Schidlof of the Amadeus Quartet, one of the famous violists of the 20th century played it for over 25 years.

The article added, "If the viola fetches anything near its asking price, it will dwarf previous sales records for musical instruments. The 'Lady Blunt' Stradivari violin set an auction record when it was sold in 2011 for $15.9 million. While some instruments may have been sold privately for more, none are believed to have gone for anything near the $45 million."

Preaching Angles: (1) Dignity; Human Worth—What ultimately gives human beings their dignity and worth? It's the fact that we have been created by an incredible maker—God the Father—and that we've been in the hands of an incredible artist—Jesus, God the Son.

Walter McMillian was convicted of killing 18-year-old Ronda Morrison at a dry cleaner in Monroeville, Alabama in 1986. Three witnesses testified against McMillian, while six witnesses, who were black, testified that he was at a church fish fry at the time of the crime. McMillian was found guilty and held on death row for six years—all the while claiming his innocence.

An attorney named Bryan Stevenson decided to take on the case to defend McMillian. Stevenson told a reporter:

It was a pretty clear situation where everyone just wanted to forget about this man, let him get executed so everybody could move on. [There was] a lot of passion, a lot of anger in the community about [Morrison's] death, and I think there was great resistance to someone coming in and fighting for the condemned person who had been accused and convicted.

But with Stevenson's representation, McMillian was exonerated in 1993. McMillian was eventually freed, but not without scars of being on death row. One of those scars was early-onset dementia. Stevenson comments, "Many of the doctors believed [the dementia] was trauma-induced; [it] was a function of his experience of being nearly killed—and he witnessed eight executions when he was on death row." So even after McMillian was free from death row, free from prison, and an exonerated man, in his mind he was still a prisoner. When Stevenson would visit him in the hospital, McMillian was still telling his lawyer, "You've got to get me off death row."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Justification by Faith; (2) Prison Ministry; Racism; Prisons; Prisoners; Race Relations—This illustration also shows the lingering effects of racial injustice. In the NPR story Stevenson concluded, "One of the things that pains me is we have so tragically underestimated the trauma, the hardship we create in this country when we treat people unfairly, when we incarcerate them unfairly, when we condemn them unfairly."

Ever since the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, people have been jumping off it to their deaths, about 1,200 to date. After eight decades of debate, the board of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District approved funds last month to a "suicide barrier"—a steel-cable safety net that will run the east and west lengths of the bridge—at a cost of $76 million.

The non-profit Bridge Rail Foundation has one simple goal—to install a safety net on the Golden Gate Bridge and stop the suicides. Paul Muller, a spokesman for the organization, expressed what motivates them to save lives: "It's important to understand the value of the lives lost. Those who jump are often doctors, lawyers, teachers, people who can contribute a great deal to society. Saving them means adding to our community."

Update: As of January 1, 2024, the Golden Gate Bridge now has a continuous physical suicide barrier installed the full length of the 1.7-mile span. The suicide deterrent system, also known as the net, has been installed on the east and west sides of approximately 95% of the Bridge. In some areas of the Bridge, due to ongoing construction or design factors, vertical fencing is in place instead of or in addition to the net.

Possible Preaching Angles: Abortion; National Sanctity of Life Sunday—Paul Muller's quote also applies perfectly to the lives of the unborn, especially these two lines: "It's important to understand the value of the lives lost … Saving them means adding to our community."

A pro-life legacy is a powerful thing to inherit. For Father Thomas Vander Woude, pastor at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, VA, that legacy is ingrained deeply in his life and his ministry for very personal reasons. Vander Woude's father, Thomas Sr., proved that every life is precious, regardless of how the world perceives it.

Thomas Sr. and his wife, Mary Ellen, devout Catholics, had seven children. By the time they were expecting their seventh, the couple was in their 40's. The chance of birth defects was high. Josie was born with Down syndrome. Chris Vander Woude, one of the sons, says, "It didn't matter [that Josie had down syndrome]. He was my father's son, and that was all the reason my father needed to love him."

Thomas Sr. demonstrated that love in 2008. One morning, Thomas Sr. and Josie were in the yard when Josie fell into a broken septic tank, which, at 8-feet deep, was extremely dangerous. Thomas Sr. tried to grab his son, but it was fruitless. Immediately, he lowered himself into the tank, and because he couldn't keep Josie's head above the water line, decided to hold his breath, dive under, and hoist Josie onto his shoulders to keep him breathing. By the time the rescuers arrived, Thomas Sr. had died saving the life of his son.

This story of a father giving his life for a son that the majority of parents would have aborted impacts Reverend Thomas Vander Woude in powerful ways. Today, he carries on his father's legacy by building his ministry on pro-life truths. At one point, he catalyzed an outpouring of love for a young couple expecting a baby with Down syndrome. Several of these families offered to adopt the baby, which miraculously, the couple agreed to. And Thomas Sr.'s inheritance of God's love lives on in this child.

In a New York Times article, actress Frances McDormand spoke out against what she called Hollywood's and America's "perverse fixation on youth." McDormand said:

There's no desire to be an adult. Adulthood is not a goal. It's not seen as a gift. Something happened culturally: No one is supposed to age past 45—[in terms of dress, cosmetics, or attitudes]. Everybody dresses like a teenager. Everybody dyes their hair. Everybody is concerned about a smooth face.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Old Age; Aging; Respect for the Elderly. (2) Spiritual immaturity—as in, Christians who refuse to grow up spiritually and want to remain as perpetual spiritual adolescents.