How much is a life worth?

[PittBullMom]

I asked myself this question when an old friend of mine passed away. He was struck by a hit and run, then struck by a second vehicle and died in the street on christmas night.

The reason I asked is because I posted the news story on FB, asking for prayers for the daughters; three years ago their mother's body was found in the woods close to where their father passed. I got no responses. However, a selfie of mine only a week before got lots of likes and compliments.

Then I realized...the article made it clear he was African American, in a poor neighborhood. Renowned for lots of crime etc. But I knew this guy. He had just recently cleaned himself up from alcohol abuse and began to spend time with his children and grandchild. That day he spent all day with family. He was not mean. He drank because he was truly sensitive and had deep feelings.

I know in my heart, if that was anybody else, on any other street, in any other neighborhood...the response would be different. His daughters deserved prayers. They have feelings and pain too. I just don't understand people and how they think. I'm not perfect, but man, some things really get to me.

His life was worth just as much as my own, and anyone else's. The Lenten season makes me think of this. Jesus didn't die for a VIP list. There was no prerequisite. No social status to be worthy.

Just my thoughts.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I can certainly understand your disappointment. Thank only hope it was some other reason your prayer request didn't get much attention, but that does seem rather - disappointing. And the fact that it could have happened in the first place - it sounds like he was ignored after being struck? There are no words ...

Prayers for your friend and his family.

Of course every life is precious to God. I think often the ones who are more humble, they ones who struggle more, maybe they have a special place in His compassion.

Lord have mercy.

 

[ArmyMatt]

yep, Christ died and rose for Judas as well.

Lord have mercy!

 

[Andrei D]

On FB, you have no direct control over the audience of your posts whatsoever. The "AI gods" use very complex machine learning technology to decide just how many people and how often see your post. No one really knows how they decide (some say that to some extent even the developers are not sure), but the AI gods are able to "understand" if a post is sad or happy, "controversial" or politcally correct, etc. Therefore, comparing two of your posts is difficult because you cannot know what audience actually sees your regular posts and what, in your second post, may have triggered the AI gods into showing it to fewer people or changing the context or visibility of that post (the news source, specific keywords, specific elements in the photo, etc). The second post may have literally not been seen by anyone at all, or only by close friends who actively chose your posts "first" in their Follow settings.

One way to (partially) control your experiment is to actually pay money and "boost" the two posts for the same audience profile. Then, to some extent, you have a comparable "number of impressions" and you can compare the engagement (likes, reposts, etc) between the two.

I'm sorry to be so technical, but in truth your "experiment" is so uncontrolled that you cannot draw any conclusion whatsoever, and you shouldn't.

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

You know a lot of times I see posts on FB asking for prayers or something and I only click like to let the person know I saw the post, but don't actually comment.

 

[Lukaris]

Lord, have mercy. Memory eternal.