We Are All Godde's Children

Remember how I said that going on the mission trip gave me lots of ideas for topics? Well, it did and I am sorry that I have not been writing about them! I have been really tired lately, which really sucks...

One of the topics is more like a rant about semantics. You see, one night the minister and his wife of the church we were working on gave a talk about being missionaries. They used to be missionaries in the middle east to Muslims, which is fine, except something the minister said really bothered me. He was trying to convey the point that we-that is, Christians-are very similar to Islamic people, but I did not like the way he did it. "Islamic people are sinners!" is what he said and I was quite taken aback. I know that he was trying to convey that they are like us and yes, I do believe that we all sin, but if I were to talk about different groups of people's similarities then I would look for the positives and not the negatives of their character-specifically, that we are all children of Godde. The way he said it, it sounded as if he thought Muslims were more sinful than Christian are and I just do not agree. Later, he further explained his position more carefully, but inside I was still fuming. Why? By focusing on a group's negative aspects he othered them and made them seem dangerous. When I am focusing on someone's sin, it can be very difficult not to become judgmental, but if I focus on the fact that we are all Godde's children, then I cannot help but be filled with love.

Right now, there is a lot of prejudice against Muslims in the United States and in other countries. With terrorism always in the news, it is understandable, but fearing groups of people is not a good thing. We must remember that one group of radicals does not represent all of a religion. We are all Godde's children and we all deserve love.