This was a very interesting and informative book.
Nevertheless, there are a few points I would like to address.
The Roots of Prejudice: The event that took place at the
Tower of Babel had to be more than God simply confusing the spoken languages of
the people. We’ve all seen ethnically diverse construction crews working
together quite well. Thus, it had to involve more than just the creation of
languages, namely, I think, the creation of different ideas. These ideas formed
the different cultures and inward traits of different generations, which would
literally be passed down in the blood, the DNA, of said people groups.
Guillebaud twists the topic of prejudice, or the prejudging
of someone, to condemn judging altogether. Yet the Bible tells us numerous
times that we are to judge righteously. If we judge with a righteous judgment
with the Bible and God’s principles as our guide, we will be making the right
decisions about people and not judging with prejudice, that is, judging someone
or something without adequate knowledge.
Guillebaud’s comment about ethnic jokes is off. There are a
lot bigger reasons why instances such as the Rwandan genocide occur than the
telling of jokes.
Standing In The Gap: I can understand apologizing on behalf
of an individual, group of friends or one’s families for something that was
done. I can understand a white missionary apologizing to the people of an
African nation for the sake of being able to move along the work of evangelism.
However, this chapter strays a little into the territory of the politically
correct madness that “we’re all guilty” (read white people are always guilty)
of everything bad that has ever happened to a perceived minority group. That
sentence about the guy who cries to rape victims on behalf of all men was just
too much.
I am against governments and organizations apologizing for
things that happened so long ago all or most of the generation involved is
dead. Below is the truth about some of the things that have been apologized for
by various governments, church bodies, etc. over the past few decades.
Slavery: The importation of English people who could be
employed as servants was banned. Thus, white people were forced to buy slaves
from the Jewish slave traders plying this business in Africa. In addition,
blacks owned other blacks, Indians had slaves and there were even white people
who had slaves.
The Treatment of Natives: Though whites did wrong things to
the Native Canadians and Americans, in many cases, the Indians attacked the
white people first. Incidentally, the Indians were far from the peaceful nature
lovers they are portrayed as today.
The Holocaust: I have written about the holocaust elsewhere
on this blog. All I will say here is that the entire nation of Germany was not,
in fact, guilty. There were good Germans fighting the Nazis, the same as there
were Canadians, Americans and Britishers fighting them..
Segregation: Though some of the Jim Crow laws were
definitely wrongheaded, from what I have been able to gather many of them were
put in place to help black people. Thanks to the Civil Rights movement, black
business owners lost their livelihoods, black schoolchildren were forced to
unsuccessfully try to meet white educational standards and welfare laws insured
a 90 percent out of wedlock birth rate.
For more information on what went on in Rwanda click here.http://www.frontline.org.za
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