Yesterday’s quote is a shorthand version of some wisdom I learned from Dick Foth.
“People are hard to hate close-up” captures the essence of Dick’s advice whenever someone stereotypes a group of people. In Dick’s words:
Whenever someone says, “You know what THOSE people are like, right?” His response is a simple question.
“Which one?”
Sadly, we all do it to some extent, this nasty stereotyping of groups. Whether it’s along racial, social, or political lines, you and I have this tendency to divide folks into groups and assign certain positive or negative traits to everyone within the group.
It’s the exact opposite of the way Jesus encountered people. He dealt with them as individuals, one-at-a-time. His friends included Nicodemus (a Pharisee), several women with troubled pasts, and a former tax collector-turned-disciple (Matthew).
He spent much of his time with misfits and social outcasts. In fact, he specifically said that’s where we should look for him.
I chuckle at myself as I write this, because a couple of my best friends are hard-core members of a group I tend to demonize. I’m sure I know what the people in THAT GROUP are like.
Then I hang around my friends, and they’re not like that at all.
People really are hard to hate close-up.
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About the photo: Becky and I spent last week riding bikes in Glenwood Springs and Moab. The scenery was remarkable. If you’d like to scroll through a few photos, here’s a link.