“People are different.” That’s something I’ve said a number of times and firmly believe is true. Each of my children, each of my students, and each of the other people in my life is a unique individual whom I should treat with awareness of their individuality and respect for the person God created them to be. 

Unfortunately, humans are not good at dealing with all of this individuality. Our limited mental processes lead us to lump people (and everything else) into categories so that we can deal with them more easily. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing so much as a necessary one, but we turn it into a bad thing when we start treating people badly because of the categories we have placed them in. Human history is littered with examples of the harm that people do when they see others as members of some other category rather than as individual human beings created by God. We celebrated MLK Day last Monday because Dr. King stood up to advocate for the oppressed while arguing against hatred and violence toward anyone.

Being part of one of those underprivileged categories hurts. I cannot claim to have a clue what it is like to be an African-American in current US culture: I’m about as white as you get (very pale-skinned and blonde). However, as a female computer science professor who has also worked in the industry, I have experienced more demonstrations that I was part of the denigrated minority than I would ever have believed possible in this day and age.

So what does this issue of categorization, bias, and privilege have to do with faith? More than some of us remember on a daily basis. 

James flat out tells his readers, “Don’t do it”: “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1 ESV). In case they didn’t get the message, he later goes on:

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:8-10 ESV).

It is crucial that we not miss this. If we show partiality (or favoritism), we are committing sin and are guilty as transgressors of the entire law. God takes prejudice seriously.

Now some might note that James is primarily focused on economic distinctions. His example of showing partiality has to do with treatment of the well-dressed and the shabbily clothed. I would argue that this distinction is one that we still struggle with in churches. In how many churches would someone who clearly couldn’t afford new clothes feel as welcome as someone in a new name-brand outfit?

The Bible doesn’t stop with treatment of the poor and the rich. It also addresses ethnicity and culture. We see multiple passages where Jesus has a conversation about the most important commandments: 1) Love God, and 2) Love your neighbor.  On one of those occasions, he tells a lawyer to go do those, and the response is telling. “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10:29 ESV). Jesus responds by telling the story, familiar to many of us, of the Good Samaritan. That story must be understood in context. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. It was a hatred rooted in ethnicity, culture, and religion. Jesus is clearly saying, that all people, even those in the other group that you despise, are your neighbors.

This shouldn’t have been a surprise to the lawyer. The Jews were a people set apart in the Old Testament, but God repeatedly demonstrated that outsiders who were not enemies should be treated well. Leviticus has multiple requirements to provide good and or equal treatment of the “sojourner among you.” King David’s great-grandmother was a Moabite woman (Ruth 4:17-19).

As the gospel spreads in the New Testament, we see it scattered to a variety of people. Both women and men hear and believe. It goes to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Some of those we hear about are rich; some are poor. Paul declares: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:27-29 ESV).

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have no excuse for acting out of prejudice of any kind. Let us strive to be part of the solution in this broken world and seek to treat every person God places in our path with the kindness and respect and love that God would have us show.

 

Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash