Humans have always had cultural blind spots. In ancient times, every people approached outsiders with suspicion. Even in English we see the remnants of this thinking that “strangers” are “strange.”
Generally, humans gravitate towards others they consider like themselves, eschewing anyone whose difference is off-putting: be it cultural, racial, physical, or mental. The fear of the unknown may be “natural” in some respect, but it isn’t something that Christians can use to justify the unloving behaviors that haunt our history as well as our headlines.
Once God had delivered on the Promised Land to Israel, the Lord worked with the Hebrews on their own cultural prejudice by reminding them: “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9 NIV). God cultivates our sense of empathy in order to shed light on our blind spots.
Early Christianity took the lead in breaking down the prejudices of its day when Paul proclaimed that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female” (Galatians 3:26 NIV). Still, Paul did not expect to dismantle slavery or elevate women to equal status with men in his own era. Patience, too, remains an important component as we pursue Truth.
When I look at the social controversies that make the news today, I wish those who pit themselves against each other had more empathy and more patience to seek understanding through common ground. Instead, the extreme positions share an unsettling judgmentalism and haughtiness. “We have the moral high ground. Anyone who opposes us in any way is completely wrong.”
We could learn a lesson or two from the Master Interventionist when it comes to unveiling each other’s blind spots.
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