We should never make light of prejudice. It is a prejudgment made against a class of people, based on generalities not rooted in truth. Prejudice is evil because it does not give the individual a chance to be known.
Prejudice and Perversion
Usually when the individual is known the prejudice toward the class disappears. Sometimes, however, the prejudice is strengthened, because the individual lives up to the prejudice and does his class no good. But the prejudice is still wrong, because others in that so-called class could dispel it.
But it seems natural for men and women to seek the company of like minded people with similar beliefs and values. It is natural, and grace builds on nature. It is difficult and almost impossible to totally accept people whose values are diametrically opposed to one’s own .
While I can see eye to eye with a black man or woman, can agree whole heartedly with a Jew or an Arab, feel perfectly at home with a dwarf, I would find it impossible to be at one with someone who hates Christ, mocks my religious beliefs or believes that homosexual marriage is just fine. I am uncomfortable with a rabid pro-abortionist, a pornographer, an atheist who believed my Catholic beliefs are false, and a flaming homosexual who believes in same sex marriage.
Sorry, but that’s me and I’m not about to change. I pray daily for the abortionists, the atheists, the homosexuals, but I don’t pretend to accept them into my company of close friends because that would be phony. I’ll talk with them, meet with them , pray for them and hope someday to spend eternity with them in Heaven before a good and gracious God who forgives everyone and straightens us out.
I am not a hater or the abortionists, only abortion, I am not a hater of homosexuals, only homosexual activity, I do not hate the pornographer, only his pornography. The problem is that we are what we eat, and enough evil in our lives and we take on the evil. We can let go, but until we do I find it hard to distinguish the activity from the actor.
Just as I will never accept homosexuality, pornography or abortion as normal I will not accept those who practice these perversions as normal or people to be cultivated, until they change. I know wonderful people who have fought all these perversions and who I count among my best friends.
An Overlooked Prejudice
Meanwhile, a whole class of people being treated like dirt are completely overlooked. They are, alas, tall people. Nobody really knows this prejudice until they pass the fatal mark of six foot four. That is where the permanent prejudice begins.
Little children run from you . All seats , especially on planes, are made to accommodate midgets. Try to buy a shirt with a 37 sleeve. Try to get a suit that fits and looks good on you. Shoes? Forget it. They are made for people with short toes. Ties must be folded in such a way that you hardly have a tail to put a tie pin through.
But apparently with height comes humility. You don’t see tall people marching for equal rights, demanding higher pay because they can reach the top shelf or overhead compartments others can only dream of.
Prejudiced Attack on Gibson’s Passion
Kidding aside, much prejudice is found in the person who feels hated. We believe the whole brouhaha against Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is manufactured from whole cloth.
Some really unhappy Jewish people who possibly suspect that they missed the boat and are in the wrong church, don’t want to be reminded that the majority of the world has accepted the true Messiah and they didn’t and they still don’t want to acknowledge that they’re wrong. Christ came to his own and His own received him not and they still don’t receive him and it just eats at them.
See the Passion next week and see if we aren’t right. It’s about as far from anti-Semitic as you can get, but a Jew who denies Jesus is left out in the cold and this movie is an affront to him, not because he was not invited but because he refused the invitation. That’s our reading.
