Mocking the Germans

I feel silly writing a post against racism. In the back of my mind, I hear a voice saying..."I think that ceased to be a problem in the 1970's."

Or did it?

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with the 5/6th graders at my church. I find working with kids fascinating becuase you get a front seat into the messages they are hearing from adults at home and school.

I asked the girls to imagine 'the most evil people in the whole world' filling the sanctuary that we sat in. "Who are some of those people?" Responses: Obama (this IS Nebraska), and People from Pakistan.

Stop.

Does this disturb you? It does me. Instead of thinking about injustices like rape, abuse, exploitation...or heck even terrorism (which is evil). They responded by identifying an ENTIRE cultural group.

About a week after 9/11, my dad was grabbing a drink in Lincoln. If you've seen my dad, the next part of the story won't surprise you. He has naturally deep-toned skin (darkened by days in the field), his hair is black and his eyes nearly match. As he finished his drink a couple of guys at a table nearby started yelling at him and making racist remarks...assuming he was from the Middle East.

The irony of the situation is that my dad is one of the rare people in the American mixing pot with a pure heritage--but he's German. All eight of my dad's great-grandparents immigrated to America from Germany.

Which makes the group at the bar seem pretty foolish. And assumptions about the character or values of an individual based completely on their cultural identity (or apparent cultural identity) are pretty foolish.

And they are wrong.

Jesus made this point when he told the disciples the story of the Good Samaritan. He knew that racism and cultural self-righteousness was prevalent in the Jewish nation. So he told the story of a man from the "wrong" cultural group displaying greater compassion/righteousness than the most pure of the "right" cultural group.

And Jesus asked, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' {hands}?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."