StormyOne said:
My grandparents told of how the church in Columbus use to be intergrated and one week the white leaders met with the black members and told them it was time that they had their own church. The church was split. Several black members left the church when that occurred, including my greatgrandmother's mother, my greatgrand aunt, and her brother.... they never returned.... I mean think of it, they were doing the right thing, meeting as one, and someone deliberately chose to set the church on the path of segregating itself in the U.S. Makes no sense....
No, it doesn't.
Believe it or not, I was raised by parents who were brought up in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, yet they raised two children who cannot abide discrimination, and don't have a prejudiced bone in their bodies.
My father always talked of how IGNORANT it was, and he simply didn't understand it. In the small coal mining town he and my mother were born and raised in, everything was segregated. As a small child, even though it was no longer in business, I remember the movie theater, and the two separate entrances, with "WHITES" and "BLACKS" signs over each door still readable. At that time, the African American population of this town lived in it's own "backroad" section and it is, to this day, known as "N holler". I can't even say the "N" word, it disgusts me so.
I can remember walking through that section of town and being greeted by all on each side of the street, asked to come in to eat supper by the mom at practically each home, but I would have to politely say "No, my momma is waitin' supper on me, and she'll tan my hide if I'm much later gettin' home"..."..'nother time, then" they'd holler, and I'd grin and say, "for sure". Then I would head on home before I really DID get my hide tanned. I was the only caucasian who could walk that way and not be harrassed. They loved us and we loved them, simply because they were great people, and they thought well of my family, as we thought well of them. Skin color has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. This is what my parents taught me, while I was living right smack dab in the middle of it. I sure do praise God that they did. It wasn't easy either, my father and mother took a LOT of flack for their belief that all are equal in the eyes of God. For being color blind, and for teaching their children to be as well.
When I see how much energy people exert with hating others simply because their skin is a different color, it amazes me. Especially those who claim that they are Christians, and "God made us all in His image". Well, they're right, He DID create us all in His image...so what's the problem? I simply don't get it, I simply don't.
All I can tell you is that there is no discrimination in my church, itself. If there were, and I couldn't get it remedied, I wouldn't attend. I COULDN'T attend. I would be miserable.
