Day 124: A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR OUR WORLD IN CRISIS - Prejudice and Racism

DAY 124

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Week Eighteen – Thursday 16 July 2020

A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR OUR WORLD IN CRISIS

Prejudice and Racism

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: In Times of Conflict

The United States was divided into slave and free states in 1860, and in the census that year there were just under 4 million slaves counted, remaining slaves until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 that abolished slavery. While slavery remains our most troublesome source of present day prejudice and racism, our racist history also includes the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the broader Asian Exclusion Act of 1924. Then there are the numerous accounts, ignored in the present-day teaching of American history, of the repeated slaughtering of whole groups of Native Americans with men, women and children gunned down.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013, leader in the movement to dismantle apartheid in South Africa and then its president. The racism of South Africa was addressed not with riots but with intentional meetings focused on truth and reconciliation. Dare we pray for a similar time “to work together with mutual forbearance and respect’ model for our racism and experience reconciliation?   

Racism – the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” This is what fueled the extermination of millions by the Nazis in WWII. And where does it come from? Jesus said “… out of the heart come evil thoughts …” (Matthew 15:19). In God’s sight no race is superior: “red and yellow black and white they are precious in his sight ...” 

Reflective question: Will you let the Holy Spirit examine your heart for prejudice or racism?

Reflective Scripture: Malachi 2:10 “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us all?”

Reflective hymn:

“O God, We Bear the Imprint” – Shirley Murray (1931-2020)

O God, we bear the imprint of your face: the colors of our skin are your design,

And what we have of beauty in our race as man or woman, you alone define,

Who stretched a living fabric on our frame and gave to each a language and a name.