I’ve been taking a break from this blog, but recently I ran across an article that’s important and relevant, so I wanted to share it. It’s by Doug Muder, and it’s one of the best essays I’ve ever read about discrimination of all kinds, discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Muder has strong political opinions that some of us will enjoy and others will find irritating. But regardless of his political positions, he has really done his homework. He provides startling quotes and data, some of which show how people use religion and Scripture to rationalize their own prejudices. Here’s an example:
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
This wasn’t written by some racist in the 1800s. It’s from a ruling by a circuit court judge in 1967. He wasn’t quoting the Bible, but as I pointed out in an entry on January 3, 2014, several Bible passages make it sound as if God accepts, or even commands, slavery. Before the Civil War many preachers quoted those passages to justify the enslavement of Africans.
I encourage everyone to read Muder’s essay. Even if you disagree with his political slant, the facts he presents are important and unsettling:
http://weeklysift.com/2015/07/06/you-don’t-have-to-hate-anybody-to-be-a-bigot/
Roger Christan Schriner
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