Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
Behind my parents home was a Japanese American family. What is significant about this family is the treatment they received when living in California and being forced to move out of their home to homes on military-style bases because of the fear there would be Japanese sympathizers among them. To understand their plight here is a link to a video that reveals what these camps were like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxekM4zGAhY
After the war, Andy and his wife moved to Minnesota where he established a long career as an Engineer. I share their first names with you because one of the first things we do when we want to dehumanize someone is to refer to them as a group, not by their name. Adolph Hitler did this with another group of people when he made derogatory references about 'Jew's or Jew sympathizers.
Across the street from this Japanese American couple lived a Jewish couple who lived through the horrors of Nazi Germany. Her husband was for a time subsisting in a Nazi concentration camp before the American troops liberated them. I was told that to this day they each carried the J mark given to all Jewish people and other people determined unfit by the Nazi's as they prior to entering the concentration camp. I have included a link about life in these camps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtcnMZA0Hc
Three families living side by side. All of us worshiped at different places. All three families were proud American's that raised their children to love America and work hard to make America better.
Fast forward to the present and you will find new immigrant families coming to this country who love America equally as well. You may never know that from reading sensationalized news reports about the few bad apples out of millions of law abiding immigrants.
Many of them have spent years in refugee camps before getting the green light to come to America. Here is a link so you can better understand their plight. I was reminded of the verse from the New testament where Jesus happened to be at the scene of a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omuQmifvLLIwoman caught in adultery and was about to be stoned when Jesus intervene asking simply, "let he who has no sin cast the first stone." One by one the religious zealots of the time dropped their stones to the pavement and walked away. Jesus taught us that this woman had a name. She wasn't just an anonymous nobody that people can kill because of something she did, but she was someone in the end that Jesus died for.
Today, we have another immigrant group of people with equally as foreign beliefs coming to our shores to fulfill the American dream. Yet, many of them are being lumped anonymously together
as those 'no good people'. We choose to not personally get to know them because it would be easier to castigate them that way.
My picture is just about completed. See the faces of our Japanese family? How about the picture of Hannah and her husband? This picture is meant to humanize these people. If we can choose to learn the names of people and then learn to walk in their shoes, to understand their past it might make it easier to see diversity as Jesus would like us to see it.
If we can learn another person's name we stand less of a chance to dehumanize them.
I may never understand their religious upbringing, but I do understand that God has given us a commandment to love them.
When you think about it, America is one of the few countries in the world that truly embraces diversity. Throughout American history we have countless stories of new American's starting small businesses that went on to become large conglomerates employing 10's of thousands.
The next time you cross paths with someone from another country get to know their name. You will be surprise how warm your friendship will grow when you do.
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