“The Help” is undoubtedly a fascinating and excellent movie
based on one of the darkest periods of this nation’s recent past. Yet if the
only thing we take from it is how far we’ve come from those days of racial
prejudice and how much better off we are than those Southern women with the
effrontery to treat others with disdain, then it’s time to give ourselves
another think.
Peter didn’t think twice about
shucking off his new religion and returning to the old when the Judaizers
showed up. Instead of appearing to be on the “outside,” he coddled to the circumcision
party, giving offense to the Gospel. There is prejudice. It was born of sinful
pride, and we each have more than enough of that to go around ourselves.
Nope. We aren’t like those women in that movie. Not us at
all. And yet when was the last time we scrambled to be first in line, clawed to
be first at the table, shouted to be first to make a point? When was the last
time we were frustrated when the other person was “too stubborn” to hear what
we had to say, while all along, we, of course, were spoke with perfect clarity
and sense?
Prejudice isn’t a matter of degree; it’s a state of fact. We
commit prejudice because we cannot fear, love or trust in God above all things.
Therefore, we break the Eighth Commandment against others, daily and much; we pre-judge
them based on our own criteria of the way things ought to be. It’s hardwired
into us. It’s called original sin from which we cannot free ourselves. We may struggle
against it, but we lose. Even our covetousness simply hides our prejudices. We
want more so we won’t be like them;
we desire less so we can appear to be more like these. Who can free us from this body of death? Thanks be to Christ
Jesus that He already has!
