The following is from Larry Page, executive director of the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council:
I am compelled to say something about the state of race relations in our nation. As a white father of two black teenage boys and a grandfather of three biracial children, I am frustrated that we aren't progressing at a faster pace in this matter.
The heated rhetoric and histrionics, drenched in irrationality as they were, that preceded, attended, and followed the Florida second degree murder trial of George Zimmerman reveal the depth of the problem. The way that the “race hustlers” on both sides of that dispute have attempted, and succeeded in some instances, to exploit the entire Zimmerman affair and ramp up hostility and resentment among their particular “constituencies” is despicable and unconscionable. It’s obvious that racial tensions in this country lie just below the surface and can erupt easily.
I will not comment on the particulars of the Zimmerman trial itself (even though as a former prosecutor I have a strong and informed opinion that the verdict was correct); there has been enough said and written about those aspects. My desire is to offer something – modest as it may be – that might contribute to the way that we believers can help lead Americans out of this racial quandary.
In the tenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells the touching and beautiful story we’ve come to know as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus recounted it in response to a question. A lawyer associated with the Jews’ religious leaders asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” The context for the question was the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus drew a word picture to capture the essence of selfless, sacrificial love for others. The timeless story showed how one person had an apparently unlimited capacity to love and serve a severely beaten and dying man – a man who was a total stranger.
However, the story doesn’t end there. There is an equally moving and profound lesson Jesus teaches. It is a simple proposition – one about race – about how we should relate to others irrespective of race, ethnicity, and heritage.
The man beaten, robbed, and perishing in a ditch was a Jew. The servant, the central character in the parable, was a Samaritan. Typically, the Samaritan would have despised the Jew. In a similar vein, the Jew would have routinely shown antipathy toward the Samaritan. Members of those two groups had great animus for each other; hatred is not too strong to describe their passions.
Interestingly, two countrymen of the beaten man, a priest and a Levite, “religious leaders” among the Jews, had seen the plight of the poor man. Surely, they would stop and help him, right? Not on your life. With wanton disregard for his life, they each went on their ways, “passing by on the other side.”
The priest and Levite saw what would be, if they chose to get involved, an imposition on their time, an inconvenience, a hindrance, an expense, and an interruption of their very important (in their estimations) lives. Each thought that he was way too busy to get involved and couldn’t be deterred from what they were about. In short, they saw through human lens.
The Samaritan, in contrast, saw through Godly lens. He saw a human being in need – nothing more and nothing less. And race and ethnicity didn't matter to him. Americans would do well to emulate the compassion and selfless service displayed by the Samaritan. We believers must lead out vigorously in modeling those attitudes and actions. It is our mandate, and I pray it will be our legacy.
After finishing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked the lawyer who among the priest, Levite, and Samaritan had proved to be a neighbor to the beaten man. The lawyer said correctly, “The one who had mercy on him.”
And Jesus said approvingly to the lawyer -- and just as surely He is saying to me, to you, and to every other believer – “GO AND DO LIKEWISE.”
I think we can agree that this should be a priority for us all. It is surely of paramount importance to me. Not unlike what another father expressed fifty years ago, I desperately want my children and grandchildren to “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” It was then and it is now a standard worth aspiring to.
