A belief that a person or group of people is "other."
That can be racial. It can be religious. It can be simple anger at having someone cut you off in traffic. It is the thought that someone is less than you based on a criteria.
Any thought that doesn't acknowledge complete parity between people is a dangerous thought.
And we do it all the time.
We make judgments based on anything that is different from us. In a high school lunchroom, it is blatant. Lines are drawn based on athletic ability, wealth, beauty, etc. with each group creating the lines that they are better than the others. And anyone on the other side of the line is targeted for shunning or out and out abuse.
As adults, it is more subtle. We feel justified.
Christians? Think we are immune? The lines dividing our churches say we are not.
We are the only ones who can stop this. And we have to do it personally. In our own hearts.
We have to come to a place of knowing that we are the same. Completely undifferentiated by economics, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, immigration status, the random geography of our birth...
We are the same.
Loved by God.
If God doesn't differentiate--and there are tons of stories from the life of Jesus that shows that He does not--then how could we? How dare we?
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