My pastor has an aunt who sat near the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., surrounded by 200,000 people who had driven, been bussed, or rode trains to the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They had opened by singing the National Anthem, led by Marion Anderson, and twelve speeches later, she and her husband discussed leaving, as they were so tired, their feet hurt, and they were done with words.
They were on their feet when the thirteenth speaker began, and they put their feet into the water and sat down for one of the most famous speeches of all time -- "I have a dream", which we've all heard for 50 years now. It concluded with, "This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with -- with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."
She mentions the symbolism of Lincoln, in my mind, the greatest President to ever live, Gandhi, and the Bible. People in my generation and prior to that remember those days of so-called Christian churches down south disallowing the presence of black people in their houses of worship, and so-called Christians of that day hanging black people from trees -- yes, even in the 60's -- with no repercussions.
My children don't know the feelings of those days, of those people who had feelings of superiority towards blacks simply because of the color of their skin. I was raised in a church that did not allow blacks to have the priesthood, yet, today that very church is gaining black converts to the church in record numbers. Supposedly these people did something in the pre-existence that caused them to be born with a black skin, hence, the curse of Cain.
I rejoice that we have come so far, but Christ calls us to a higher calling, because there is still much hatred out there. Just listening to a familiar Christian radio station reminds me of prejudice that is rampant in our country towards many. It is my wish and my prayer that we can over come these feelings of superiority, even to other nations, and learn to pray for each other, reach out across the aisle and show the hand of God, and work together.
Do you still see racism and discrimination in our world today? What impact can Christians make on this problem? What are we called to do?
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Comments (2)
It would help if Christians stopped discriminating against people just because the ancients in their holy book did so. Homosexual, women and sceptics have the moral right to a full part in society but many Christians and others hinder them in doing so. That's only a step away from discriminating against Africans because they're the sons of Ham.
Set an example by personal and group behaviour. The example at the moment encourages the refrain "if Christians don;t like queers, then what's wrong with me not liking Niggers or Yids?"
Actually I'm not sure how much those in the ancient times discriminated against homosexuals. The wording for our discrimination is exactly the same as that used to keep women in their place. Women were not allowed to be in the "on top" position during the sexual act, and if it were discovered, they were stoned. The sexual discriminations against women were frightening, and so I am suspect as to how much difference there actually was where the homosexual was concerned. Notice Jesus did not go into detail about homosexuals, but about adultery.