Heroes, Villains, and the Judgment of Charity

The Heroes and Villains part of this post comes from the great Beach Boys song of that title -- a song which I commend to you all.

The "Judgment of Charity" part comes from something I learned from Fr. Steven J. Kelly, although I've also read about it from R. C. Sproul. Basically, the Judgment of Charity is to always to assume the best possible motives for other people. This is the story of how, 15 years late, the Judgment of Charity turned a Villain into a Hero in my mind.

It was about 15 years ago, I think, because our daughter Violet was about 9, I think. Our family was making our annual summer trek to either Oklahoma or Texas, and we had stopped at a gas station (and convenience store) in Arkansas. We all piled out of the car to use the restroom. On Violet's way back to the car, and older black man approached her and spoke to her: "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

I saw at once what he was thinking -- that a young black girl with a white couple may have been a kidnapping or human trafficking victim. He wanted to make sure that she was getting into our car voluntarily and was not a captive.

My reaction at the time was to take offense at this. If I recall, Violet gave him a "are you crazy?" look and walked a bit faster towards the car. I was offended because it seemed wrong, almost racist to me at the time that this man did not consider it within the realm of normality to have a black child raised by white parents. I viewed him (only mildly) as a bit of a Villain.

But I think differently now. He took some risk to approach her. I was standing right there, pumping the gas, watching. He put himself out there, just in case there was a chance that she was being coerced. He got involved when he didn't have to, and when it could have cost him something. Hero.