"You will go to jail if you do that in the outside", a kid was told as he was reprimanded for threatening everyone around him. The kid answered, "I don't care". That statement has stuck in my mind and something that I have reflected on. Why should he care?

    It seems that every person we encounter has a trust account with other persons. This is the term I use for that intuition we have about people which makes us either be more comfortable with them or not, or creates expectations we have for them. Our prejudices affect how we treat other people, and other people are affected by our prejudices. We may make an Asian person shameful when we expect him to be good in Math, and then he discovers that he is not as good in Math as he is expected to be. On the other hand, an Asian person may hate the shame of not being as good in Math as he is expected to be that he recreates a new identity- an Asian goth perhaps. Prejudies cause people to put on masks to hide shame. 

    Sometimes these prejudgments are brought about by a person's actions. A person who has gone to jail may have a lower trust account with most people he will meet. Unfortunately, the trust account may be low just because of the color of a person's skin, or other things that has nothing to do with what he has done. People may be prejudged for what people that "resemble" them has done, or what people who "resemble' them is perceived to be like because of characterizations learned about them. Prejudgments can lead to injustice- unfair treatment of people. 

     We can't be prejudice free. Denying our prejudices just pushes it in the subconscious and the issue is not dealt with to be prayed about and to be repented of. Knowing that we have prejudices, what do we do? The command to love our neighbor requires us to do something about these prejudices as we enter other people's lives. Grace requires us to have an attitude of acceptance towards other people. Grace does not just mean welcoming a person physically in our presence. Grace means accepting the person as a whole (musical preferences, fashion sense, intellectual capabilitie, etc.). This does not mean condoning sin. Confronting sin and being loving does not have to be contradictory. We can have loving relationships with sinners, just as God has loving relationships with sinners like us.

     What we can do to reduce the sting of prejudice (being shameful, wearing masks, people treated unfairly positively or negatively) is to make a committment to respect the whole person. This is more than treating a person with physical kindness- not cursing them, being welcoming. This includes respecting their preferences and thoughts and feelings- not belittling them becaue of it. Sometimes young people get a bad rap just because they like rap music (they are automatically distrusted or avoided). It is true that a lot of rap music glorify violence and probably contributes to anti-social attitudes. It is good to point it out (other music has bad messages too if we listen carefully, even the ones that sound nice). However, we should strive to treat people who listen to rap music with the same consideration as people who listen to classical music.

     We need to examine our hearts and make it a goal to eliminate favoritism. When we start looking at people as less or more, remember that they are lovingly formed by God for his purposes, even though their rough edges may need some smoothing. Look at people as God sees them- creatures made in the image of God with great purpose, to rule creation and to multiply God's image throughout the whole earth.