Jesus had a wake up call. He had ventured into pagan territory. Until then he had not seen his mission as including pagans, certainly not the Canaanites who were ancient enemies of the Jews. He had even told his disciples, “Go no where among the gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” His initial reaction toward the Canaanite mother who was seeking help for her sick daughter is to ignore her. We then heard a charming story in which Jesus uses language that smacks of bigotry. I cannot think of any other story where Jesus seems so harsh with someone seeking his help. She outwits Jesus, forcing him to change his attitude. He was both challenged and surprised by this encounter.
What happened a week ago in Charlottesville, Virginia really challenged and surprised many of us across America as a stark reminder that the threads of bigotry, prejudice, anti-semitism and racism still are woven in the fabric of our society despite the progress we have made since the days when segregation was the mantra of the deep South.
No one is a racist at birth. That isn’t in our genes. Racism and bigotry are learned and they can be unlearned just as a file can be deleted from a computer. Deleting information in a computer, however, does not obliterate it entirely. It can still be retrieved. Likewise, any traces of racism and bigotry that you may have “unlearned” since the days of segregation can be relearned if we do not resist the language coming from white supremacists and other like-minded people who lack the humility to love all of God’s creation.
Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia said, “Racism is a poison of the soul and sadly it is the ugly original sin of our country, an illness that never has fully healed.” Despite the opening line of the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men are created equal, not everyone is treated equally in our country. What happened the past week is more than a dispute about statues and history. There is the weeping wound of racism and bigotry that white Americans try mightily to ignore, hide or rationalize. In due time, they will become just another minority amongst many in our country, so we are likely to witness more and more unrest in the future like what we have seen in the past week.
As Americans, we pride ourselves for being rather tolerant. We tolerate protest marches in general, but if our society is to survive, it cannot afford to tolerate intolerance itself, the message of white supremacists, which was vividly similar to what Germans heard decades ago.
At birth, we have no choice about our race, ethnicity, or gender. In due time, some people will go through much effort to change what can be altered, such as their gender or the values of their childhood, but the good majority of peoples accept who they are as God’s gift to them.
We do have a choice, however, when it comes to how we treat and respect others. Nelson Mandela of South Africa observed, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
The world will certainly be a better place if everyone kept in mind the greatest commandment: we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. From that commandment springs forth the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The last time citizens were silent against white nationalists, more than six million people died. Would you care to be treated in the same way that Jews and other victims of the holocaust were treated? I suspect not. Would you care to be treated in the same way that many African Americans were treated in decades past when segregation was the way of life in parts of our country? I suspect not. Would you care to be treated in the way migrant workers are being treated now, threatened with deportation, which means being abruptly separated from their loved ones? I suspect not.
In its latest editorial, the Everett Herald opines, “It’s sadly necessary now to counter the impression that it is acceptable in America to discount the humanity of any among us and seek division and discrimination based on race, religion, color, culture, gender or sexual orientation or identity… Once we’ve found our voice in opposing the most blatant forms of racism and hatred, we can then find the will and the words to confront our own prejudices and oppose the injustices we see daily in our lives.”
This gospel confronts us with our own tendency to cause conflict by promoting exclusiveness. Alas, many of us are biased against certain people simply because their political and religious outlook differs from our own. We fail to remember that no seats are reserved in heaven for any particular following. Isaiah quotes God as saying, “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” What is necessary if we are to get there is to have faith in God and reliance on his mercy. Unlike us, God does not discriminate. Instead, God welcomes all, regardless of their race, ethnicity or gender, who ask for his mercy, believe in him, and seek to do his will. God will judge us someday not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. We should do the same on our earthly journey as well.