Losing the Labels!

"In a culture that excludes others, prejudice and hatred are common. Prejudice has deeper effects, in addition to simply causing people to exclude others: It is at the root of hostility that is cruel and voilent.

We have made great strides in understanding one another better, but there will be prejudice until you and I deal with prejudice. There will be sexism until we rip up its roots in our hearts. Until we take people of other races into our hearts we will not recognize "them" as real human being. Until we have loved a gay person we will fear gay people...The walls will only come down when the labels are changed into human faces." (Radical Hospitality, 28).

I like that last line. One of my professors said: "The fact that people who don't know Jesus are going to hell goes down far to easily for Christians whose only friends are other Christians." When we finally are able to see past the labels into the eyes and hearts of people - then, an only then will we rekindle the missional urgency of the early church.