catapult magazine

Read this issue’s Bible study verses: ../issues/backIssue.cfm?issueid=19#study

What principles can we glean from the Bible for interacting with people who are in some way different from ourselves?

it’s always affirming to hear one of the greats reproduce the same wisdom from different experieces. Swami Vivekananda lectured:
“We should look upon each other in the most charitable light. It is not so easy to be good. You are good because you cannot help it. Another is bad because he cannot help it. If you were in his position, who knows what you would have been? The woman in the street or the thief in the jail is the Christ that is being sacrificed that you may be a good person. Such is the law of balance. All the thieves and the murderers, all the unjust, the weakest, the wickedest, the devils, they are all my Christ. That is my doctrine. I cannot help it. My salutation goes to the feet of the good , the saintly, and to the feet of the wicked and the devilish. They are all my teachers . As I see more of the world, see more of men and women, this conviction grows stronger. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? Both sides of the shield must be seen.”

Yeah. I can’t add much to that, at least, nothing profound or new. So let me state the obvious:

It is easy to distrust, fear, or hate someone that you do not know.

Similarly, it is much harder to distrust, fear, or hate someone that you do know.

I guess I don’t really agree with Swami.

How does this relate to the race issue? I don’t understand the connection.