So what do you think about the Cambridge fiasco? Was this way overblown or what? How about Obama's reaction? Did you think his comments last night were divisive? Should he have commented at all? Some say he made a huge blunder in his getting involved, especially since he didn't have all the facts.
By now everyone's heard the story about Professor Gates who was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer who was called to the scene of an alleged break in of a house in an upper middle class neighborhood.
Is this a case of racial discrimination? Reverse racial discrimination? Pride?
Well I guess it depends on who you speak to.
This morning in our bible study we talked about racial prejudices. Only, in this case, it had to do with the Samaritans and the Jews. Most people know the story of the Good Samaritan and how he did something very noble in caring for his down and out, left for dead, Jewish enemy.
Many don't know the intense hatred they had for one another. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they were half breeds. While held in captivity the Northern tribe of Jews married Assyrians so their offspring were half Jew and half Assyrian so they developed the name Samaritans because of where they came from. Samaria was the capitol of the area that this all took place. The other Jews, who came from the Southern Tribe and exiled into another area, managed to stay pure and thus began the great racial hatred between these two groups.
So today we studied Jesus' interaction with a Samaritan woman at the well in her city. The Jews would go to great lengths to avoid Samaria even if that meant taking a longer trip which they gladly did to stay clean. They felt even walking near to the city of Samaria they would be defiled. So great was their hatred. But Jesus, a Jew, on his way to Cana took the most obvious and short route; straight thru Samaria. What was he thinking?
Jesus, the great peacemaker that he is, shattered all barriers. Not only did he have a lengthy conversation with a woman, which was unheard of in His day, but she was a Samaritan outcast as well. She was a woman of ill repute living with a man after having five husbands. He asked her for a drink of water. To drink from her utensils would certainly be taboo. A Jewish man asking a woman of ill repute, and a Samaritan to boot, for water? Was he crazy?
By the time Jesus was done with Samaria and the Jews, they reconciled through him. The last thing Jesus said before he left was to preach his word throughout the world, Jerusalem, Judah, and Samaria.
President Obama would do well to learn a lesson about racial descrimination from Jesus. Martin Luther King got it. He understood. President Reagan got it. It's about shattering those barriers, not putting them back up.
I'm afraid Obama's statement did more to stir the pot than to bring healing to a racially charged incident.