Peter, in the House of Cornelius, began to speak: “I really understand now that God does not consider some people to be better than others." Acts 10:34 (ERV)
Is this the absolutely most difficult thing to learn? It seems we get it wrong such a staggering amount of the time. Seems like everybody has somebody they think they are better than--rich over poor, churched over 'heathens', one skin color and ethnicity over another, one nationality over another, one neighborhood over another.
Even in prison there is a cache for certain crimes and a 'most horrible' for others, though often on the outside it might be hard to understand why a major drug dealer who has caused the abuse and deaths of many children due to the physical and mental challenges of addicted mothers and father is "higher' in the pecking order than a molester. Or why NA folks can be snarky to people addicted to marijuana or alcohol as though there is something 'better' about being 'badder'.
And, of course, folks in the free world, even some church folks, feel better shunning folks who are struggling with public sins even as they are mired in secret sins, or the more acceptable 'white collar sins' of gossip, mean-spiritedness, laptop porn, too much booze too often, mental cruelty and uncounted others that we justify "because other folks are worse."
Really, Paul speaks to all of us because at one time or another we have all been guilty of judging the homeless or bad drivers or the parents of unruly children or the children of cantankerous old people or somebody somewhere sometime.
So let's just let go of the finger pointing and get on with doing better. Let's respect women...and men, let's respect folks with all skin colors and from all locales on Earth, speaking all languages at all levels of efficiency, from all socio-economic strata, youth and aged folks, people who eat all kinds of foods with all kinds of spices and listen to all kinds of music and wear all kinds of clothes. Oh, and folks falling on the full range of the political spectrum and folks who are smart and folks who are not. Because God has made clear the measure of worth: "God does not consider some people to be better than others." And the converse must also be true, God considers none inferior to others.
Even specific behaviors that are unhealthy or dangerous cannot be attributed to anyone other than the person so behaving because there IS NO them or all them or all those or those folks...there is only us, my friend.
So just stop. Now. Permanently.
God says.
Is this the absolutely most difficult thing to learn? It seems we get it wrong such a staggering amount of the time. Seems like everybody has somebody they think they are better than--rich over poor, churched over 'heathens', one skin color and ethnicity over another, one nationality over another, one neighborhood over another.
Even in prison there is a cache for certain crimes and a 'most horrible' for others, though often on the outside it might be hard to understand why a major drug dealer who has caused the abuse and deaths of many children due to the physical and mental challenges of addicted mothers and father is "higher' in the pecking order than a molester. Or why NA folks can be snarky to people addicted to marijuana or alcohol as though there is something 'better' about being 'badder'.
And, of course, folks in the free world, even some church folks, feel better shunning folks who are struggling with public sins even as they are mired in secret sins, or the more acceptable 'white collar sins' of gossip, mean-spiritedness, laptop porn, too much booze too often, mental cruelty and uncounted others that we justify "because other folks are worse."
Really, Paul speaks to all of us because at one time or another we have all been guilty of judging the homeless or bad drivers or the parents of unruly children or the children of cantankerous old people or somebody somewhere sometime.
So let's just let go of the finger pointing and get on with doing better. Let's respect women...and men, let's respect folks with all skin colors and from all locales on Earth, speaking all languages at all levels of efficiency, from all socio-economic strata, youth and aged folks, people who eat all kinds of foods with all kinds of spices and listen to all kinds of music and wear all kinds of clothes. Oh, and folks falling on the full range of the political spectrum and folks who are smart and folks who are not. Because God has made clear the measure of worth: "God does not consider some people to be better than others." And the converse must also be true, God considers none inferior to others.
Even specific behaviors that are unhealthy or dangerous cannot be attributed to anyone other than the person so behaving because there IS NO them or all them or all those or those folks...there is only us, my friend.
So just stop. Now. Permanently.
God says.
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