When people are different from us, its easy to judge them or have some kind of preconceived idea that affects the way we treat them. Not always, not everyone, but if we’re honest, we know it’s true more often than not and more than it should. Good looking, bad looking, obese, rail thin, jock, geek…
A friend sent me a link yesterday with an interview of some lady who went undercover into an evangelical Christian church. Undercover? In a church? What, are they some kind of illegal group or mafia-type now that you have to go in undercover?
She wrote a book – naturally – about her experience. I don’t know what all her findings were, but she did mention in her interview that after she got past her preconceived ideas about them, she realized… Christians are people, too.
Do we do that? Judge people or groups to the point that we don’t even see them as human any more? Do we forget that they have feelings, ideas, children, parents, jobs? The people you come across in your daily activities — if they don’t look like you, even if they don’t act like you, even if they believe things you would never believe in, remember… they’re still just people, too.