It was common back then to hear white people say, “Some of my good friends are blacks.” But that wasn’t really true most of the time. You hung out with people like you, and other people were not always seen as, well, people.
My moral foundation was laid by the civil rights movement. When I got older, I took a lot of teasing from people in my very small rural town–oh, did I mention all white, almost all of German descent, almost all Lutheran. The first black people and the first Jewish people I ever met became my friends at the University. I was 17.
I just thought of them as people–not objects or abstract groups. I guess I’m still reflecting on the reactions of my small group when we read the first chapter of Romans where Paul is trying to get people to reflect on their sins and acknowledge that we have all sinned, and therefore we are not deserving of grace. But a few jumped on the first words of the list and never read the rest. The first thing mentioned was homosexuality. They said, “There. See. Paul hates homosexuals, so we are justified in doing likewise.”
Similarly, I see the political process–not only in the United States, but worldwide–degenerating into similar ideas. Treat us like people, say the people. But rulers, even democratically elected ones, tend to just see groups to be controlled or groups to be bought off.
The writer Donald Miller (“Blue Like Jazz”) differentiates between people who espouse propositional Christianity versus people who try to live like Christ. I sympathize with that remark. Even though I’m trained in propositional, or theoretical, thinking, I think Christianity is dealing with one person at a time. Trying to understand them. Encouraging where they need encouragement. Healing where they need healing. Reprimanding when they have lost the path.
But not in theory toward a faceless group. Only in person.
Faith Venture 
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