Galations 3: 26 - 29 NKJV
In the past few months I have had many a conversation with a coworker of mine on race relations. Now, I always enter into a discussion such as this at a disadvantage being as I am white of european decent. Not surprisingly, my coworker is african american. Or, as I like to phrase it...American. What is surprising is that I've learned alot from this man who can at times be pretty damn forceful in his opinions on this matter. Then again, so can I. Our conversations have only recently moved beyond topics such as white privelidge, slave mentality and uncle Toms to something more constructive. Our conversations are now more centered not on past indifferences, but on why people behave the way that they do. It is through understanding our own human behavior that I believe alot of these differences between us could be reconciled. Despite the big money business of race baiting being built up by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, we all too often still find ourselves still stuck on our old behaviors. I look at the term "Race relations" and want to rename it human relations. For that is where we all come from isn't it? Human relations and human behavior? Why on earth do we seperate our brothers into a seperate grouping? If you ask me, this only inflames ages old human conflict. In my lifetime I have been witness to many a conflict across the globe born out of simple human conflict. The streets and fields of Bosnia, Northern Ireland and the African continent all bear witness to the atrocities of mans inhumanity to man. And for what? Because someones neighbor was different? Because someone didn't believe in the same religion as you do? As the apostle Paul tells us in Galations 3, there is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free. For we have ALL been created in the very image of our heavenly Father {Genesis 1:27}. Furthermore, with God there is no partiality {Romans 2:11}.
9He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2: 9 - 11 NKJV
I have to admit that when it comes to the topic of race relations I am clueless on more than a few points of this issue. However, on the topic of human relations I can make up some ground and bring some pretty good thoughts to the table. Trust me, when I see television coverage of the race riots in Watts and other sections of Los Angeles I see the very same people marching through the streets of Belgrade and the Congo. To me, this is not a racial struggle...but a human struggle. What is it that makes a man segregate his neighbor by plastering upon him the name African American? Human relations. If we would expect good behavior from those we meet, then we should make damn sure that we do well by those who cross our path. It is for this exact reason that I see such modern conflicts over race as a human issue and not a racial issue. But wait, could we not call it a Jesus issue? For if we live today as Christ Jesus {Galations 2:20}, then He is indeed present in ALL of Gods children. Jesus didn't differentiate when it came to race, social standing or wealth. One of the things which pissed the Jewish Pharisees off to no end was that this man Jesus (Gasp!), associated with sinners and tax collectors. As Jesus saw it, it was these very sinners who needed to be called to repentence {Mark 2:17}. Jesus saw the man...not the lable put onto the man.
"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will become of me?' But...the good samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will become of him?"
~Martin Luther King Jr.
~Scott~
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