While in Tucson, I was watching CNN, which had a “man on the street” interview in which passers-by were asked “Is bigotry a sin?”
Is broccoli a vegetable? Are Converse All-Stars shoes? Is Paris Hilton unlikely to become an ordained Baptist minister? Is Tina Fey cooler than I am?
IS BIGOTRY A SIN?
That most, not all, of those questioned answered “yes” gives me little comfort. That the question even should arise — that thinking people would even offer up such a non-rhetorical question — is a soul-numbing testimony to how far we’ve fallen. Of course, greasing the slope are those right-wingers who spew forth hateful, mocking venom about undocumented workers, gays, poor women, autistic children, drug addicts, and others they don’t know, don’t understand, and sure as hell don’t like. Pushing us down it with a macho shove are those on the religious right who applaud them, or, just as shamefully, fail to condemn them. And worse yet are those nasty preachers whose only message to the poor is that their own membership in the Covenant allows them to develop a theology that legitimizes contempt for the needy around them. These are the ones who hurl invective at those on the outside — and celebrate the love of Christ with those on the inside. These are the ones for whom the obscenity of questioning that bigotry is a sin goes unnoticed, immersed as they are in the teachings of bigots themselves.
It’s a sin to despise others, it’s a sin to judge people on externals, and it’s a sin to revel in differences among people that keep “them” down and exalt the ones just like you.
And a people too calloused to recognize it are, indeed, a people under judgment.