Article January 1, 2003 Issue

What About Labels?

with contributions from Elodie, Varshana, Chris

Elodie: One of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). I think that being a false witness means to think or say something untrue about someone, or to view them as anything but the image and likeness of God. It's like giving someone a bad label.

Varshana: I recently moved from another state to live with friends because things weren't working out between me and my parents. At first, there were a lot of misconceptions about me. Some of the parents in town were worried about their kids associating with me. Even the family I moved in with wondered a little about me, since my parents had labeled me a bad kid. But I've been here more than a year now, and I've proved that label isn't true. My new family has trusted me ... not to mention they've introduced me to Christian Science.

Chris: I lived in foster care before being adopted at age ten. Later, when I wasn't doing well in middle school, the teachers talked to my parents about me going to a vocational school instead of high school. They didn't think I could make it at a regular school. I checked it out, but I felt like I wanted to finish up in one place for once in my life. My parents supported this decision. They didn't label me. There were times in high school when I was just going to give up because the work was tough. But I decided not to take the easy way out like I'd always done in the past. Last June I graduated.

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