"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ." Galatians 3:28(NIV)
Diversity is strength. All of us are gifted with different talents, different cultures, and different ideas. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone were like me. Our crops would turn brown in the field, because I certainly can't get a carrot to grow. Our houses would fall down since I have no idea how to make a structure that stands. We would have to go naked since I certainly don't know how to weave cloth or sew that cloth into a shirt. No grilled cheese sandwiches because mine always turn out black. All of our music would be played off key because I have little sense of pitch. Art would be stick figures. We would have only rambling musings to read...
What a nightmare! This may seem far fetched but this is what those racists who leave literature on our doorstep want. They want everyone to be like them. They want only people who burn in the sun and turn green when jealous, purple when mad and red when ashamed. They want people who can only love someone of the opposite sex. They want people who can only see God in one narrow, tiny box which they define. They don't want me. They don't want you. In fact most of them would probably find something to hate about themselves, after all Hitler didn't even fit his own strict definitions of the perfect human!
Brothers and Sisters it is time we stopped hating differences, time we stopped merely tolerating time that we celebrate the uniqueness and diversity of every individual. INDIVIDUALITY. That was one of the ideals that built our country. This was to be a country where all religion could be practiced without hindrance, where the poor could become rich, where the weary could find rest. Have we lost the American dream? We can not give up the dream just because we have not yet achieved it. Our immigrants had the dream. Our abolitionists had the dream. Our civil rights leaders had the dream. Our feminists had the dream. Do you? Do I? Are we willing to truly fight to achieve that dream? Are we willing to stand up and say "There is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, black nor white, gay not straight, Christian nor Muslim, for we are all one."