Article November 18, 2019 Issue

Improving racial harmony by truly loving our neighbor

Laura Clayton

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor’s Christian Science Perspective column, August 21, 2019 and later as a Web Original on August 26, 2019 on JSH-Online.

Many years ago, I had an experience that taught me a lot about racism. It showed me that improving racial harmony in society begins on the individual level.

Since girlhood I’ve loved and tried to live by the idea of loving my neighbor as myself. I’d been taught to take to heart this biblical injunction, which appears in many religious traditions in various forms. When I was a young adult, however, I had an experience in which I badly missed the mark and let in an unloving, prejudiced reaction that really hurt someone—and deeply disturbed me.

I began some serious soul-searching.