There is no prejudice in the world today. Nadja Drygalla, the German rower, did not leave London because she has ties to a neo-Nazi, racist group named the Rostock National Socialists.
Iranian boxer Ali Mazaheri was not disqualified from an Olympic bout in what sports announcers termed a bizarre display of officiating on a series of innocuous offenses. And Charles and Te’Andra Wilson were not the victims of racial prejudice at the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Oh, wait a minute. Yes, all of these national and international incidents did occur, with a host of strife across the globe, all based on ethnic and racial prejudice in the past two weeks.
The Olympics are to be commended for their unifying ability to bring nations together in healthy sports competition. Churches also unite like minded people for the betterment of humanity, usually. We need to build on the good that it already being done.
This does not mean, however, that we should close our eyes to the injustices we see, as if they are not happening. We cannot be blind, and unaffected to prejudice of any kind, or the problems of our nation and the world will not be solved.
It is possible to solve the problem of prejudice. But first we need to see it and acknowledge it.
Yesterday I received a comment in my email regarding yesterday’s post which read: “There are several objectionable things in this post. First, it assumes that racial prejudice is why the church refused to allow the couple to marry. We don’t KNOW that is the truth. I’ve learned a long time ago not to believe everything you hear.” When I tried to relpy to this comment, their email account was already closed. It came from another First Baptist Church in Iowa. I saved the email. The story I sent them in good faith so it could be a positive and fruitful teaching moment, was removed from their site, and they posted a comment on their wall that they are only going to post faith affirming stories.
The only problem with this, as with every other kind of prejudice that still exists in the world today, is that we cannot fix a problem that we deny is present, like all addictions, bullying and all other negative and destructive behaviors. Like the leaking 100 year old sewer pipe that eroded a Brooklyn, New York rural road in yesterday, CBS News New York reported that, the leaking sewer created a mammoth, underground sink hole. The black pavement on the top of the roadway looked fine, like when we deny there is a much deeper rooted problem like prejudice. Annette Flood had just parked her car on the street in front of her house just five minutes before the road caved in. What’s the problem?
The answer is to drop judgments, judgments against ourselves and others. We get physically and emotionally sick when we carry around needless hatred inside our minds and hearts. This is a physical reality. Find the peace. Find the solution. Find the common ground. Find the way of Ghandhi. Find the Way of Martin Luther King. Find the way for all human beings to raise the tone, and love and accept each other, not just the white, heterosexual, young, American ones.
Namaste