He was a big boy. Not fat, mind you, tall and big. But, he was as gentle a person as I had ever known. I had known for the few years I had lived in the town. As a matter of fact I knew the whole family. I counted them as friends. I had never known of him to be sick, or at least have any sickness that wasn’t normal like colds and that type of thing. But yet he took us all by surprise in his senior year of high school when for no apparent reason he departed this world. To my knowledge no cause of death was ever discovered. I remember the comment of another friend when told of his death. In a laughing voice she said, “That big nigger died?” After more than 30 years those words still resound through the memories of my mind to this day.
Sadly, comments like that are not limited to the non-Christians. Eleven o’clock a.m. Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. In America 2009 that shouldn’t be the case especially with Christians. God’s call to Abraham was a promise to all people not just people of one race or nationality: and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3). But we just can’t seem to see all people as equal people before the Lord. No matter how different in appearance the other person is we need to adopt the attitude of Christ and see them as our equals. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “There is no Jew or Greek. There is no slave or free person. There is no male or female. Because you belong to Christ Jesus, you are all one” (Galatians 3:28). “We” are all one.
It is amazing that nearly 2000 years after Christ came that hatred and racism still exists. As the Gospel spread in the first century it went to many places. And among those who heard and responded it to was a most oddly picked group. The first none Jews that we have recorded as responding to the Gospel were a two of the most hated of groups: A Samarian in Acts 8 and a Black man in Acts 8. Coupling that with the first European to respond to the Gospel being a Woman named Lydia in Philippi (Acts 16) it seems that it is time that equality is extended to all people. Christians should be leading the charge to accept people who are different after all Christ called us to be different didn’t He?
Until next time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You: All Y’all!
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com
bobbycohoon