As a Christian, and even as a pastor, I am downright ashamed of how we view people. I was born and raised in the South East region of America from Virginia to South Carolina. As I study the history of our country and the region in which I live, I am appalled at how people were viewed and treated based on trivial information. People were seen by their status socially, their stance spiritually, their views politically, and even their skin racially. As I reflect on how ludacris this was, I realize that not a lot has changed in today's culture.
I am privileged to come from a family that has people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, and I don't reference them as a color; I refer to them as family. What if we labeled people by the differnce in body sizes? Or shape of their noses? Or quality or quantity of teeth? That is ridiculous, right? "Hey, the other day I was talking to this 'flat-nosed' guy who...". "can you believe what that 'mushroom-topper' did at...". I know it sounds funny, but it also sounds demeaning. What you are doing is qualifying a person with a single attribute like a flat nose or being too big for the pants they are wearing...yet we qualify people based on a single attribute of the pigmentation of their skin.
The idea of labeling people is one that goes beyond racial issues to social statuses,interests, personalities, and opinions. It is as if we as a society no longer value a person and their individualism; therefore, we label them in an effort to give some description or background to another person. What does it matter if someone is "wealthy", "poor", "old", "young", "outgoing", "introverted", "black", or "white"? Does that one label help to describe or give background to an individual? I don't believe it does, but I do believe that it creates tension between those being labeled and those labeling.
My goal in life is not to minister to "white" families or reach out to "black" families or help "Hispanic" families etc. My calling of God is to love people the way God loves them. I will not label people based on trivial descriptions of income, age, history, lifestyle, and especially not color of skin. God help the church to put down her constant labeling of people and love them like Jesus.
As I conclude, let me say that I have several friends that have darker pigmentation in their skin than I do, and I have several friends that don't have as much of a tan as I do. I don't have a black friend; I have a friend who is working hard and supporting his family and teaching them to love God and seve him. I also have a friend who is not faithful to his wife and is not a dad to his kids, and doesn't follow the God who created him. So my question is which one was a "white guy" and which one is a "black guy"? If you answered either shame on you. Both were said by people who need encouragement, love and need the Grace of God in their lives despite of what color their skin is.
Sometimes in our innocent comments we will label people as a color or some other defining term. Remember, that to God....people are people not colors.
