I don’t have a guilty conscience about it, but I was born a person of privilege. I have had advantages, not of my own making. I was born a lower-middle-class Caucasian in the South. I did not have to grow up with people disliking me because of the color of my skin, although I had nothing to do with that. I did not grow up speaking English as a second language and having people misunderstand me. I could not help that. I was not born a homosexual so I never experienced hatred for something I did not control. I was not born with any physical handicap so people did not automatically assume that I had a deficiency. I had no control of that.
If I had been born in an earlier generation I could have been rejected for being left-handed or having red hair. Sadly, most of these prejudices would have been approved by the church.
But not the Bible! Acts 10:34 has the Apostle Peter declaring “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.” No prejudice on God’s part! 1 Samuel 16:7 says “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” John 3:16 assures “for God so loved the world (the whole family of mankind) that He gave his only son.”
God has always been an “equal-opportunity” lover. We Christians must be like that! We cannot ask people to change and be like us before we love them. Ezekiel 3:15 has the prophet identifying with people he did not know: “I sat among them where they were living.” Jesus was the incarnate (fleshed-out) God who came to us in open love. That is our calling. And our privilege.
“O Great Lover of my soul, thank you for loving me just as I am. I
could never prove myself worthy of your tender mercy. Amen”
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