Quote from Forum Archives on August 30, 2003, 1:35 pm

Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>

Forthright Magazine
www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross

COLUMN: Field Notes

Stereotypes
By Michael E. Brooks

"For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes
they have closed, lest they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should
understand with their hearts and turn, so that I
should heal them" (Matt. 13:15).

In the early 1990s I worked in a campaign in
Crabwood Creek, Guyana with Rick Hale, Stan
Little, and several other North Americans. Rick
and Stan were physical opposites, Rick standing
less than five feet, six inches in height and Stan
measuring a full six feet, seven inches. Rick was
slender, and Stan was husky, weighing well over
250 pounds. One evening as we prepared for our
preaching service an older Guyanese lady pointed
to the front of the tent and asked me, "is that
Brother Hale?" I looked and replied, "no, that is
Stan Little." She shook her head and said, "All
you Americans look alike to me."

Stereotypes and prejudices are common to all of
us. We have our pre-formed opinions and facts have
a hard time penetrating. So often we see what we
expect to see, or we hear what we want to hear.
Understanding is difficult, because our minds are
not truly open. Sometimes it is like the case of
the lady in Crabwood Creek – we don't learn
because we have already decided we cannot learn.
We limit ourselves. In other cases we place the
limitation outside ourselves. With regard to
people we decide that others are not worthy of our
effort. There is no important difference, so why
should we bother to try to distinguish? Or we may
apply these principles to knowledge and
understanding. In the first case, we think, "I
just can't understand; it is all too deep for me."
In the second we reason, "there is no absolute
truth; it doesn't matter what I believe. God will
accept my sincerity."

Jesus noted these prejudices among the religious
leaders of his day. Their minds were already made
up and they had ceased to listen or learn from
others. They stood condemned before God because of
their unwillingness to open their minds to his
revelation in Christ. We look back and judge them,
noting their pride, selfishness and hypocrisy. But
do we guard ourselves from the same temptations?

God's revelation is complete. The faith has been
"once for all delivered to the Saints" (Jude 3).
So we become smug in our certainty that we "know
the truth and the truth [has made us] free" (John
8:32). But one fact does not necessarily follow
from the other. It is true that all necessary
truth has been revealed. It is not certain that we
know and understand that truth perfectly. In fact
it is certain that we do not. "Therefore let him
that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1
Cor. 10:12). God's truth is infinite, far beyond
any human ability to fully comprehend. Our
knowledge is finite and our obedience is
imperfect. Our path to faithfulness is not self-
righteous assurance that we have perfect
understanding or full obedience, but rather that
of humble, penitent reliance upon God's mercy.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-9).

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