One – perhaps ‘THE’ – redeeming quality of man lies in his ability to sense his kinship with all men. Yet, there is a deadly cancerous infection that inflames our eyes causing us to not see or to distort the uniqueness of each human face. In order to ‘see’ you, I need to humanize you. I am thinking of an aboriginal tribe where the greeting is ‘I see you.’
How many woundings must we endure in order to realize that ALL of humanity has a stake in the well-being, in the freedom, of one person? What will it take for each of us – beginning with ‘me’ – to accept the reality that when one person is wounded, offended, marginalized, or shunned that we are all wounded, offended, marginalized and shunned?
Consider that for theists, prayer and prejudice cannot dwell in the same heart (which is why so many of us have developed our capacity for compartmentalization). Worship without compassion, without healing, without reconciliation and without forgiveness is, at minimum an abomination.
We theists profane God’s name when we refuse to embrace the other; when we refuse to ‘heal the wounded stranger’ in our midst (for Christians, the parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’ provides us ‘the model’ and ‘the lesson’ – how many ‘Good Christians’ ignore this parable).
More than 150 years ago our great President, Abraham Lincoln, signed ‘The Emancipation.’ Lincoln affirmed that all are free and equal. How many of us are still striving to embrace all and relate to all as if each of us is truly free and equal? How many of us, by our silence, continue to support the wounding, the offending, the marginalizing and the shunning of those who are not ‘like us’? How many of us, by our silence, support these types of oppression?
Consider, gentle reader, that there is a form of oppression that is more painful and more scathing and more demeaning that physical injury or economic privation. This oppression is public humiliation.
As I noted in PART I, I am a 72 year old, white male and I spent the first 18 years of my life living in a small city that was close to being 100% white. For years I looked upon the color of my skin with pride – if not hubris. Today, what disturbs my conscience is that my skin happens to be white and instead of my white face radiating ‘God’s Image’ it is taken by others as an image of arrogance, overbearance and intolerance.
Whether justified or not, I have become a symbol of arrogance and pretension, giving offense to other human beings without my intending to do so. This is the effect of what ‘we’ the old ‘white’ majority have sown and nurtured into life for hundreds of years. For others, my very presence inflicts insult. William James reminds us that ‘we convince by our presence.’ Marshal Mcluhan reminds us that ‘the message received is the message.’
When I stop and step-back and observe my heart is saddened and sickened as I observe the cup of humiliation that is running over; the cup of life seems too often to be sitting empty in a locked cupboard.
The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel noted this: ‘Bloodshed,’ in Hebrew, is the word that denotes both murder and humiliation. The law demands: one should rather be killed than commit murder. Piety demands: one should rather commit suicide than offend a person publicly. It is better, the Talmud insists, to throw oneself alive into a burning furnace than to humiliate a human being.’
Consider that we theists must first ask for forgiveness of those whom our society has wronged before asking for the forgiveness of God. How many of us theists have humbled ourselves and asked for the second forgiveness and have ignored (continued to ignore) the first forgiveness?
I leave us with the words of Thomas Jefferson: ‘I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.’
Searcher-Seeker 
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