One of them

Today's quote of the day in the N.Y. Times is the report of a young woman who, when asked what she did for a living, told a third party acquaintance she worked in the banking industry, and the reply was, "Oh, you're one of them."

It reminds me of the reaction I sometimes get when I tell church people that I work for the national staff. After I accepted my current position with the denomination I was in a group of pastors and church leaders that I'd been working with for over a year. They were thanking me for my work with them and sharing comments about the process that we'd been through together.

The funny thing was that it sounded more like a post mortem than congratulations. It was almost like, "Oh, you're one of them now. It was great knowing you, but now you've gone over to the other side." I found myself protesting, "But it's still me. I've not changed. The things I know and love and am passionate about and committed to are no different than the last time we were together." In fact, I was acting on those very things, wanting to offer them to the wider church!

How often do we dismiss people with gifts, talents, personality, and passion because we identify them as "One of them?" We categorize people all the time, before we even have a chance to know them. And we categorize them after we get to know them.

Eric H. F. Law, diversity training specialist who founded the Kaleidoscope Institute, has a great video on YouTube about perception and how we stereotype others. You can watch it here.

I think about Jesus and how he approached the other. I don't know of anywhere in Scripture where he dismissed the other by saying, "Oh, you're one of them." If he would have done that he wouldn't have eaten at the home of Zaccheus, or conversed with the Samaritan woman, or given the Pharisees the time of day.

It will be a different kind of world when we can overcome our penchant to say, "Oh, s/he's one of them." It will be a better world.