Article October 21, 1991 Issue

Seeing beyond racial stereotypes

When a spiritual view of man takes over, barriers of fear and misunderstanding begin to dissolve.

David Reed

I was on vacation in an unfamiliar city and had inadvertently wandered into a minority neighborhood. As a stranger there I felt a fear that I wanted to resolve in a healing way. I realized I had to see that my own and everyone's well-being wasn't merely dependent on time or place. From a spiritual standpoint, safety is based on man's inseparability from God, on the eternal coexistence of God and man as loving Father and loved child.

The Lord's Prayer, given to us by Christ Jesus, provides a standard by which our response toward others can be measured. This prayer begins, "Our Father which art in heaven," acknowledging God as the universal Father of all.

Community conditions, or the state of thought in a community, doesn't alter God's love for any of us. His love isn't partial but always all-inclusive. It was up to me, in that unfamiliar neighborhood, to appreciate this spiritual fact. I knew that the God-derived qualities in my heart and in the hearts and lives of my friends back home could be recognized in that community I was visiting, or any other community one might be in.

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Man—not a stereotype, but a genuine child of God
October 21, 1991
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