May 7, 2010
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
What is good in traffic is not good in Christian life
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
(Listen to Paul read this column | Weekly podcast)
I know red means stop and green means go, but what do black and white mean? Let me explain.
I recently wrote about my experience in trying to buy a patio set from a large store. The set was on sale and on display, but the store associate told me that it was not available. The set was not in stock, she said, and I couldn’t buy the display model because the store needed to show customers what was available. Even though on that day it was not available.
A good store employee — like a shepherd — would have tried to help me. The employee I met — like the hireling Jesus talked about — did not care about me or even about the reputation of the store. The shepherd cares for his flock. A hireling is paid at the end of the day, and that is that.
I used that story to reflect on the reality of immigration — of people who could see what the United States has on display, but which remains unavailable to them.
Our Statue of Liberty proudly welcomes people, while some of our sons and daughters, the descendants themselves of immigrants, tell others throughout the world to stay away.
One reaction I received asked me to “separate illegal immigrants from the people who come to this country in a legal manner.” That is certainly a fair request, even though I know that birth is a legal method of entry into our country. Many undocumented persons are born here, which makes them legal citizens despite the status of their parents.
The most provocative and painful part of this particular reader’s reaction, though, came next.
“We also wonder if you would be so eager to help these illegal immigrants if they were Muslim,” wrote the reader. That comment struck me as coming from a deeper place in the heart of the writer, somewhere where judgments are made beneath the level of rational thinking.
The comment suggests that customs and conventions go far beyond helping us remember that red means stop and green means go, or that left means loose and right means tight. The comment suggests that we should also live by the unthinking principle that Christian means good, Muslim means bad. No examination of the individual is required.
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I don’t mean to belittle the legitimate fears of people who have experienced injury and insult from those who hold extreme views. I do mean to challenge all of us to to examine the conventions and shortcuts we make in everyday life.
Red means stop and green means go. We need to rely on such a sign.
But in no way can we accept a summary judgment about a person who is black or white or yellow or brown, or who is Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist. If any of us bleeds, our blood is red, and all of us owe our existence to one God.
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Take the time to examine the shortcuts of your heart. Reflect on any judgment you may have made about another person based on skin color or language spoken.
Take the time to get to know someone from another country, or maybe even someone from another part of town. We have the example to follow, of Jesus who spoke with a Samaritan woman and the apostles who decided to welcome Gentiles into the faith community.
Above all, we have the encouragement of the Spirit, the one who was sent into a world that had been torn apart into many languages, the one who brought to us the ability to understand each other at Pentecost.
The issue of immigration is too complicated to rely on stereotypes. The challenge for a Christian is to see clearly, not through the angry and distorted squint of prejudice, but through the lens of Gospel values.
Comments are welcome at office@cfm.org or the Christian Family Movement, P.O. Box 925, Evansvsille, IN 47706-0925