Prejudice

I know we are all prejudice in some areas of our life.  For example, I do not like liver and I am sure there are a lot of you out there that feel the same way.  However, it is more about being prejudice against people.  Before we go on, lets define what Prejudice is:

Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

A (1) : preconceived judgment or opinion (2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. 

I am typically not prejudice against any particular race of people, or so I thought.  This past Friday, a young girl pulled into the parking space next to my car and could not have been more than a foot at the front and about 5 inches at the back away from my vehicle.  I waled up and said “Really!”.

I then walked to my car door and was ready to get in and back out.  Here comes the father. Now why the father was not in the car still amazes me, but he was not.  He comes over and starts telling me how his daughter is going to straighten her vehicle.  If that was true why did she put it in part?

Anyway, it took me be surprise because I really had no intention of engaging this young lady in any type of conversation. However, the dad continues to go on and on about how she is a new driver.  I tell him I do not care.  He then proceeds to ask me were my kids new drivers at one time. I replied with yes and before they ever got out onto the road we went to an empty parking lot and drove and drove and drove.  Then they learned how to park and backup.  Once they were done with all of that, we got out onto the road etc.

He continues to go on and on.  All I wanted was I am sorry.  You are right she should not have parked like that.  My wife said that is what he said, but it was not.  It was excuse after excuse.

Finally, I just told this guy to leave.  What he said next I do not remember, but then I followed it up with leave before you get hurt.  He asked me if I was going to hurt him over this and I replied no I am going to hurt you because of your attitude. He then says something about defending his daughter. This is a complete lie as I was not close to his daughter and other than saying “Really!”, I was not engaged with his daughter.  If I had been in her face, then I could see where she may have needed her father to help.

He continues on and on.  Finally, I am to the point were I am very pissed off and walk to the end of my car.  I think my wife knew I was to the point of physically hurting this guy.  Now I am yelling at this guy and he says something to the effect of “Give me a break!”.  I replied with a not so kind of answer as he walks away.

His daughter pulls out and they leave.  I follow suit.

On the way home my wife asked me why I get that way at times. I thought about it and it is intimidation to quickly end the confrontation.  Most people do not want to engage in physical contact and would rather walk away than fight.  I am not one of them.  I am calm when I need to be calm and I get out of control when I need to get out of control.

I also realized that I am prejudice against Indians from India or Pakistanis.  To me they look very similar so it is difficult to distinguish.  I have formed an opinion on most of them without knowing them.  I based this opinion on how I have observed others that represent their culture.  This was not fair to the guy or his daughter.

Now with all that said, I started to think about how would Christ behave?  Was Christ prejudice?  He really did not like how the Saduccees and  Pharisees acted and misguided the people, but is that prejudice?  If Christ is God and God is all knowing, then that is not prejudice since He has the knowledge to make a decision.

So you may be asking what are you trying to get at?  That is a fair question.  We need to make decisions based on fact about each person and not stereotype people.  Just because one person acts one way does not mean that the entire race will act that way.  There are a lot of people who hate whites simply because they are white.  Why? They are basing their opinion on what they have been told and observed from some whites.  Since a few whites act this way, then all whites must act that way.

When Christ interacted with people, He already knew their history.  However, He did not show any prejudice type behavior towards any of them.  He was compassionate, understanding, good listener, wise, and loving, but in the end He would tell each of them what they needed to hear to be saved.

While we cannot save people as Christians, we can certainly display the same type of behavior that Christ did.  We just need to get over ourselves.  Some people are great at doing this and others like myself have a difficult time. It is not that I am full of myself, but rather I feel like people just do not give a crap anymore and I am expected to be tolerant of everything they do.

I realize there are ways on how I am supposed to speak to others:

Proverbs 15:1-2 New International Version (NIV)