What about the human race?

I was sitting in my car at a traffic stop the other day when a neatly dressed young woman came toward me soliciting donations for her cause. I make it a point to listen even if I decide not to donate. So when she approached me, I smiled as she said: "Would you like to make a donation to save stray dogs and cats? Any spare change would be appreciated." I responded without a moment's hesitation, "I'm more concerned about saving lost humans." Looking puzzled for a minute, she asked. "Really. What do you do?" "I'm a Christian. Do you attend a church?" I asked. "Yes, I do." she answered proudly. "Wonderful, then you should know all about saving humans." Our conversation ended there as the traffic light had turned green.

The next day, I was on my way to dinner with a friend when an older woman, dressed in a 60's throwback floral patterned skirt with matching top, approached us on the street. As we made eye contact, the woman thrust some literature in both our hands and began to lecture us about the cruel and inhuman treatment of chickens. Thrusting the sheets of paper back in her hand, I explained that my friend and I were heading to dinner, and really didn't want to spoil our appetites. Having said that, we started quickly walking away. Well, this really seemed to set her off so much that she chased after us shouting more chicken atrocities. My friend and I retreated into the safety of the restaurant. We found a quiet table and turned our attention to the menu placed before us. When the waitress came back for our order, we both ordered the chicken.

There are so many causes being promoted nowadays that clamor for our attention and support. But when I think about the human condition in the world today, I am burdened by the fact that concern for human life seems to be at an all-time low. Witness senseless killings in Niger, ethnic cleansing in places like Myanmar, ISIS backed fighters killing innocents, crazed dictators brandishing their nuclear weapons, racially motivated killings in the U.S., wars with no end in sight— women, children, the elderly being sacrificed, and for what? Where is the campaign to save the human race?

Humans need saving more than cats, dogs, chickens, tigers, whales, elephants, prairie dogs, kangaroos, rhinos, and the other 241 million species listed under a "save the" search on the Internet. I know of only one person who campaigned specifically to save human life—in fact it was His life's work—and that was Jesus. Many don't want to give Him credit, but the fact is His gospel of salvation has saved lives by the millions the world over, and is still doing it today. Jesus Christ came into the world to save humankind, not animals or ecosystems. Look around you. I bet you know at least one person—perhaps two or three— who need saving from something, The Good News is that there is something you, and they, can do about it. It's not about joining a religion; it's about having a relationship with the only one who came to save the human race. Questions are expected and welcomed. Find answers at peacewithgod.net Can your journey toward peace be any closer?

How Jesus taught me to love Muslims

This was my first ever conversation with a Muslim—

It started with her asking if she could sit down next to me to say her prayers? Naturally, I said "sure" as I glanced around at all the other empty benches and wondered why here, why me? She starts to pray silently for which I am glad because I had imagined something totally different would take place. I glanced over periodically to see if I could read the prayer coming from her lips. I could not. Then a funny thing happened—I looked over again and she was talking on her phone. 

My thought was, "Muslims are no different than Christians when it comes to interrupting a conversation with God to answer their phones (I hate that about us). My lowered opinion of her piety made me not want to say anything more to her, but my curiosity got the better of me. So I began:

How often do you pray a day? Five times for the ritual prayers and some in-between times for personal needs.

Is it still Ramadan? Yes, for 10 more days. It lasts a month.
And you only eat once a day? You must get hungry. I time my meals to after sunset and before sunrise, so I actually eat two meals with a little water. I thought to myself, "That's just like us Christians always trying to bend the rules."

Then I asked her about those 100 virgins that Muslim suicide bombers claim are awaiting them in heaven. 

Her response surprised me. There are no virgins. We believe that only "virtuous" people will be in heaven. The suicide bombers are being lied to because taking even one innocent life is condemned in the Koran. They won't be in heaven.

Do you think the London fire was set by Muslim extremists? I don't think so because Muslims lived there too. And because many were awake at 1 am in the morning doing their prayers when the fire started. Muslims were able to run door-to-door to alert people of the fire. They helped save many lives. The news media won't tell you that.

Our conversation was interrupted because she had to leave. I had so many more questions I wanted to ask. As she thanked me for letting her sit with me, I had one final question—
Why did you choose this seat? Because when we pray, we have to face east. and you were sitting in the perfect spot. Imagine that?
She then added, You're such a nice person. To which I responded with a smile, "I'm a Christian" (meaning my faith says I should show everyone Christ-like love).
"As-Salaam-Alaikum," I said as we grasped hands. She responded, "Wa-Alaikum-Salaam," conferring peace on each other. If only I had had a few more minutes with her. It's true what they say about Christians— often the only bible some people will ever read is us.

What if there were no black, brown, red, yellow or white people, only human

Racism is incredibly successful, despite having no basis at all in fact. There is only one race – the human race. —Deborah Orr

In the wake of the Charleston church massacre and police shootings of unarmed blacks, a cry has once again gone out for an end to racism in America (#ENDRACISMNOW). Americans will never rid themselves of racism until they put an end to the idea of racial groups. Without race, there would be no basis for racism. You'd have to hate me for some other reason like I dress funny or talk with food in my mouth for instance. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but not as ridiculous as this whole pretense of race.

As much as America tries to justify using race to socially stratify, identify and classify groups of people, it cannot. Clearly, I'm not black and you're not white, yellow, red or any of the other colors we've all been conditioned to paint our fellow human beings. Everything about race is a false, contrived, misleading, controlling, divisive, debasing concept meant to control some and elevate others. God created one race—the human race; and we're all equally a part of it.

The notion that human beings belong to distinctly different racial groupings is simply untrue. Anthropologists, geneticists, biologists have proven this. But for reasons previously stated, societies have been culturally programmed to believe otherwise. We've been falsely lead into believing that we have no genetic or biological antecedent. The problem is this view can't be supported by scientific evidence.

Science has proven that all living humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens. There is a wide consensus that the racial categories that are common in everyday usage are socially constructed, and that racial groups cannot be biologically defined.

According to historian John Henrik Clark says race is a means of dividing and controlling groups of people:

The idea of "race" was developed as a direct response to the exploitation of other peoples, to provide both a pretext and a justification for the most unjustifiable conduct, the enslavement, murder, and degradation of millions of human beings.

and author Paul R. Spickard writes,

Race is primarily a sociopolitical construct. The sorting of people into this race or that in the modern era has generally been done by powerful groups for the purposes of maintaining and extending their own power.

The seeds of race and racism in America are traceable back to slavery. Race coding originated with light-skinned Europeans who forged a system to enslave their darker-skinned African-born captives.

The issue of race and racism has been at the center of American culture, politics and capital development since European colonialists first set foot on land they claimed as theirs.—Malik Miah

Slavery reinforced a belief of light-skinned Americans that they were somehow superior to the darker-skinned Africans under their control. They used their dominance to justify the cruel and inhuman treatment imposed upon these darker-skinned humans, and the racism that continues to this day.

Thus was created the only slave system in the world that became exclusively "racial." By limiting perpetual servitude to Africans and their descendants, colonists were proclaiming that blacks would forever be at the bottom of the social hierarchy.—Audrey Smedley

Racism is a horrible part of America's history, but it's a history that all Americans share. And when they travel to other countries, Americans import their racist thinking and behaviors to other cultures where it never before existed. The only way race and racism will ever be eradicated from American life is by the collective will of future generations. The old ways of thinking have to die out as well as those who maintain them. Quite frankly, we're not there yet. People are still dying in America—both black and white—victims of racially motivated killings. Last week, it was Charleston, 52 years ago it was Birmingham, not to mention all the other incidents in-between. At what point is the price we are paying to keep race and racism alive too high?

Who in America has not had his or her whole life existence defined or marred in some way by race or racism? The U.S. government and many of public institutions knowingly or unknowingly encourage race coding by forcing people into racial categories on official forms —primarily, whether the applicant is white or black. It's an open invitation to use this information to discriminate, segregate, or exclude from further consideration or give preferential treatment. Despite laws against it, discrimination still happens. It's in America's blood so to speak.

So what can we as individuals do about it in our everyday dealings with persons of different racial or ethnic origins? We can decide collectively or individually to de-sensitize race and eliminate the need for racial categories altogether.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's a start toward changing attitudes about race and moving toward reversing the damage it has caused. Just imagine if race were a non-issue, think of how much time we'd have to explore new ways of relating to each other.

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them, and named them “Human Beings.” —Genesis 5:1-2 GNT