Acceptance

Photo Courtesy of Google Search

For God so loved the world that

He gave His only Son…

John 3:16

As a teacher and a parent, I have watched endless students, including my own children, struggle to be accepted at school – to feel a part of the “in” crowd instead of a geek on the sidelines.  I have often observed that participation in musical organizations gives kids the acceptance and comradeship they crave.  In the band at Florida A & M University, however, acceptance comes at a very high price.

One young member of the band who didn’t want to attend a meeting in October was punished with hazing rituals so severe, she was left with a broken thigh and multiple blood clots in her legs.  Three weeks later, a drum major died during a band trip to Orlando – his death also involving hazing.  The university’s Music Department has a long history of toleration of such treatment:  a young man was hospitalized in 1998 after having been paddled over 300 times, and three years later, another young man was left with kidney damage from a paddling.  Such activities sound more like gang initiation than band membership; gangs routinely rule by being their own judge, jury and executioner.

When the young woman involved in the latest incidents was asked why band members participated in hazing, her answer was as chilling as it was sad: “So we can be accepted.”  The desire for love and approval is buried deep in the heart of who we are as human beings.  Unconditional love is a precious commodity that is rarely found outside of the family, and often it is not even found there. To say that unconditional love can be found from an unseen source may seem ridiculous, but it is an eternal truth.  God sent His Son to this earth to personally proclaim the good news: We are accepted how we are, where we are, and as we are.