Prayer 22
Worship
Prayers for the Age of Technology
Object:
Dear Father Of Us All:
Much to our surprise, we have learned that race is not what we thought it was. Our scientists are telling us that what we have been calling races are primarily conflict groups, with the conflict focused on some aspect of difference. Only sometimes is the difference a physical feature.
Careful research has shown that no reliable basis exists for identifying races according to physical differences. The physical features commonly associated with race you have caused to be widely diffused throughout the human population. They are, it has been discovered, actually distributed in a manner represented statistically by the bell-shaped curve of normal distribution. All human beings of all so-called races, we are assured, are far more alike than they are different.
Jesus and some of your more discerning servants of the past have called our attention to these truths. But most people have been unwilling or unprepared to believe and heed them.
Now a crisis is upon us. Human society is being devastated by racial and ethnic conflict, and prospects are that the situation could easily become much worse.
Increased mobility and modern means of communication have intensified intergroup contacts, and false assumptions about race have exacerbated old animosities. Powerful groups, exploiting others, have found in such assumptions convenient rationales for their actions, arguing that differences in social status are indicative of racially defined inherent difference.
Lord, have mercy on us. We are sick with the deadly virus of such attitudes. Help us as we struggle to rid ourselves of them and the many forms of discrimination and injustice which they spawn. Give us the will and show us the way to break out of the confines of racism, tribalism, nationalism, sectarianism, and all forms of narrow groupism in which prejudice is nourished. Amen.
Much to our surprise, we have learned that race is not what we thought it was. Our scientists are telling us that what we have been calling races are primarily conflict groups, with the conflict focused on some aspect of difference. Only sometimes is the difference a physical feature.
Careful research has shown that no reliable basis exists for identifying races according to physical differences. The physical features commonly associated with race you have caused to be widely diffused throughout the human population. They are, it has been discovered, actually distributed in a manner represented statistically by the bell-shaped curve of normal distribution. All human beings of all so-called races, we are assured, are far more alike than they are different.
Jesus and some of your more discerning servants of the past have called our attention to these truths. But most people have been unwilling or unprepared to believe and heed them.
Now a crisis is upon us. Human society is being devastated by racial and ethnic conflict, and prospects are that the situation could easily become much worse.
Increased mobility and modern means of communication have intensified intergroup contacts, and false assumptions about race have exacerbated old animosities. Powerful groups, exploiting others, have found in such assumptions convenient rationales for their actions, arguing that differences in social status are indicative of racially defined inherent difference.
Lord, have mercy on us. We are sick with the deadly virus of such attitudes. Help us as we struggle to rid ourselves of them and the many forms of discrimination and injustice which they spawn. Give us the will and show us the way to break out of the confines of racism, tribalism, nationalism, sectarianism, and all forms of narrow groupism in which prejudice is nourished. Amen.
