According to dictionary.com prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason. Mirriam-Webster defines the word as an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics. Bottom line: prejudice for any reason is not fair, it is not rational, nor is it based on facts.
Typically, when we are prejudiced against something or someone, we are prejudiced because of how we were raised or an experience we had. I am prejudiced against mink. You see, when I was around 9 or 10, I raised rabbits. I love rabbits. They are fun. I had several (actually I had a lot) as pets. I even showed one of my rabbits at the county fair. One morning, when I went out to feed my rabbits, I opened the lower barn door, only to discover the carnage of rabbit parts scattered all over. I was beside myself to say the least. I ran to get my dad who came running and was just as upset as I was. Although I think he was more upset because I discovered the devastation.
It was a mink. It had gotten into the barn, discovered the rabbits in their cages and tore the cages open and began to kill them. The mink did not eat the rabbits. They killed just to kill. Mink are one of several animals that do what is known as surplus killing. I hope you understand why I don’t like mink and why I am prejudiced against them. My experiences of them is not good. The end result of the mink’s action was that I was not allowed to raise rabbits anymore because my dad wanted to get rid of the mink and we were unsuccessful in trapping it. If the topic of mink comes up, which fortunately it rarely does, my brother calls me out on my prejudiced opinion since he knows the reasons behind why I don’t like mink.
The bigger issue with prejudice happens when we are prejudiced against people groups. We make laws that keep people from living their best life based on the color of their skin, their religious practices, their physical appearances, or any of a number of reasons that in the scheme of things are nothing but prejudiced. We may have had a bad experience with someone but that doesn’t make everyone like them a bad person. We may have been taught to dislike a certain type of person based on our parents’ prejudices. We may believe the untruths that proliferate social media platforms. And just let me say if you are getting your news and information from any social media platform may I recommend you watch ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, or other related and reputable news source? Because social media is for entertainment and keeping up with friends and family. It is not a news source.
I think the best thing we can do is be aware of our prejudices and more importantly, why we have them. Knowing the why’s can aid in stopping us from saying or doing something that would inflict harm into the life of another person. Something I believe Jesus was against. Jesus taught that we are to love our neighbors and our neighbors consist of everyone. While we shouldn’t put up with bad behavior, we also are to treat people in the way we want to be treated. I think the other thing we discover when we learn about our own prejudices and why we have them is they tend to go away.
As we prepare to celebrate July 4th, keep in mind what our founding fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence…the very principles that we will celebrate on Thursday:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” When we are prejudiced, we disallow the very fundamental rights to people that our founding fathers held as truths for all men…and if they were writing the document today it would include the language that these rights are for all people.
Peace,
Pastor Beth
Beth's Blog 