Mark 12:30-31Good News Translation (GNT)
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment more important than these two.”
I do not have any problem with keeping our borders safe, nor for that matter do many of the hard working immigrants coming to this country. But, I do have a problem when lies about this group of people are spread incognito. For definition sake, incognito is having one's identity concealed such as under assumed name, especially to avoid notice or formal attention. I have a real problem when the intent of that inflamed message hurts innocent people.
I recently participated in a webinar at work on the topic of diversity which was about how our laws were stacked against the African-American blacks and the Jewish people after World war 2.
It was shortly after the war that the United States Government created the FHA program where the purpose was to provide low-interest loans spread out over many years so veterans and their young families could buy a home in newly minted farm fields now known as the suburb.
The insidious mindset of the white establishment of the day forbade blacks and jews from getting these Government loans by heavily weighting the eligibility of those loans toward the white home buyers. Even if the black family had the money they were told by the developers of that neighborhood that no decision had been made to allow blacks to move in. Even the black soldiers who fought heroically in war were forbidden to use their GI money to move into these newly minted suburbs.
If that wasn't enough, there was the pervasive but false thinking, spread by geneticists and Margaret Sanger that blacks Jews were genetically inferior and everything should be done to stop them from breeding.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of what would be known as Planned Parenthood, with help from geneticists would push this illogical thinking into the mainstream
Black families needed housing just as the whites did, but the government's solution was to build what would become 'vertical' ghettos that were in our core cities. While the 'white' establishment live with it's kind, ate in nice restaurants with its kind, and sent their 'white' children to all 'white' schools, blacks saw a continual degradation in the quality of their children's education and the quality of their housing stock; thereby, setting the stage for the geneticists and the likes of the Margaret Sangers to prove their theory on the inferiority of the black race and starting what would be known as the Birth Control Society, later renamed Planned Parenthood, an institution designed to eradicate the black race through abortion.
The God I believe in was not the author of the Jim Crowe laws, nor did he sanctioned our institutions to pass any of those harmful regulations that prevented one select group of people from enjoying the same quality of life taken for granted by others. By castigating certain groups of people through our thoughtless tweets and posts sent incognito, I believe it angers God and any attempt to sanitize that mistreatment is unconscionable.
My challenge for everyone is to step outside your comfort zone and get to know someone of a different nationality or religious background. Start by asking questions that get at the heart of understanding. As you develop relationships with them, you will begin to see people the way God sees them- color blind. As you get to know someone of Muslim faith, you will soon discover they are in many ways just like you with the same goals of achieving success and living a happy life. While there may be misguided terrorist's in the world, my experience has been that the vast majority of people are law-abiding and have the same goals and desires as the rest of us.
Just as this commandment reminds us in Mark 12:30-31: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself;’ There is no other commandment more important than these two. As you practice that commandment with everyone you meet, it will be pleasing to our God in heaven.
And that, my friends, would be a beautiful thing!
I recently participated in a webinar at work on the topic of diversity which was about how our laws were stacked against the African-American blacks and the Jewish people after World war 2.
It was shortly after the war that the United States Government created the FHA program where the purpose was to provide low-interest loans spread out over many years so veterans and their young families could buy a home in newly minted farm fields now known as the suburb.
The insidious mindset of the white establishment of the day forbade blacks and jews from getting these Government loans by heavily weighting the eligibility of those loans toward the white home buyers. Even if the black family had the money they were told by the developers of that neighborhood that no decision had been made to allow blacks to move in. Even the black soldiers who fought heroically in war were forbidden to use their GI money to move into these newly minted suburbs.
If that wasn't enough, there was the pervasive but false thinking, spread by geneticists and Margaret Sanger that blacks Jews were genetically inferior and everything should be done to stop them from breeding.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of what would be known as Planned Parenthood, with help from geneticists would push this illogical thinking into the mainstream
Black families needed housing just as the whites did, but the government's solution was to build what would become 'vertical' ghettos that were in our core cities. While the 'white' establishment live with it's kind, ate in nice restaurants with its kind, and sent their 'white' children to all 'white' schools, blacks saw a continual degradation in the quality of their children's education and the quality of their housing stock; thereby, setting the stage for the geneticists and the likes of the Margaret Sangers to prove their theory on the inferiority of the black race and starting what would be known as the Birth Control Society, later renamed Planned Parenthood, an institution designed to eradicate the black race through abortion.
The God I believe in was not the author of the Jim Crowe laws, nor did he sanctioned our institutions to pass any of those harmful regulations that prevented one select group of people from enjoying the same quality of life taken for granted by others. By castigating certain groups of people through our thoughtless tweets and posts sent incognito, I believe it angers God and any attempt to sanitize that mistreatment is unconscionable.
My challenge for everyone is to step outside your comfort zone and get to know someone of a different nationality or religious background. Start by asking questions that get at the heart of understanding. As you develop relationships with them, you will begin to see people the way God sees them- color blind. As you get to know someone of Muslim faith, you will soon discover they are in many ways just like you with the same goals of achieving success and living a happy life. While there may be misguided terrorist's in the world, my experience has been that the vast majority of people are law-abiding and have the same goals and desires as the rest of us.
Just as this commandment reminds us in Mark 12:30-31: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself;’ There is no other commandment more important than these two. As you practice that commandment with everyone you meet, it will be pleasing to our God in heaven.
And that, my friends, would be a beautiful thing!
No comments:
Post a Comment