"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I grew up in a multicultural family. My parents were white, I am Pakistani/Portuguese Indian, and my brother Arab. Our family and home life was wonderful – in fact perfect – with supportive, gentle parents and a full fridge! (No lack!)
Outside of the home was quite a different picture. We grew up in Devon and at that time racial hatred was pretty huge. We regularly had visits from our local National Front party, asking for members. My brother and I were the only children of different ethnic origin in the schools we attended, and the other children certainly let us know we were not welcome there. We were verbally and physically got at daily.
The reason I am writing this is that lately there has been a series on television called “The white season.” It is showing different views of white working class people, many of them feeling threatened by the Asian communities. Also in this country there has been a lot of hatred shown towards people coming from other countries to work here in England. The fear that these people are stripping and taking from the British born citizens has become almost paranoid. Unfortunately with this thought has also come verbal and physical attacks on individuals, and attitudes which were quite openly racist in the seventies are appearing again.
I have been following the news relating to these attitudes and became worried about our children being targeted as well. In fact I was so impressed by the unpleasant reporting in the media that I started to panic every time I thought about it. Our older children were aware of the attitude amongst their peers too. When the topic of racism came up, our sons’ anger opposing racism was far too big. We were all being quite taken in, in fact our fear and anger was becoming just as irrational as the people that were spouting the racial hatred. I was feeling so perturbed I felt it was about time I got down to some serious study.
First I got quiet and just felt love for all people as spiritual idea, just pure unblemished fulfilled expressions of good. I could see that a lot of the bitterness and worry was due to fear of lack or unfairness. These people were feeling unloved and forgotten. I had to address this in my thought and absolutely acknowledge God’s infinite supply. That passage from Science and Health is perfect: “In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,--Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.” (S&H 206:15)
This means all is fair, and no one is forgotten. God can’t forget His children. God is Love! God does understand our need, and Spirit meets it and supplies equally for all, when our thought is receptive to His instruction.
The other passage I keep with me is one of our Association memorizing pieces which I use a lot: “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,--whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” (S&H 340:23)
Just the part ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ is enough. We can love unconditionally. If someone has a hateful opinion, we can melt it with love, not angry reaction, and this breaks the mesmerism. Any one who expresses racial hatred is so lonely and desperate that they don’t feel happy with themselves. They want to feel needed, useful, and valued, as do all people. If we don’t feel valued we feel abandoned, and this thought leads to bitterness and resentment.
This prayer based on “one infinite God, good” is going to be with me every time I open a paper or hear hateful talk. I have to stand firm knowing we are all under that great umbrella of the one infinite God good, and this takes away the fear. I am realising how important it is to watch the subtle suggestions that may say we are unprotected; yet if we wear our panoply of Love no mental daggers can touch us.
I see how important it is not to be taken in or alarmed by error’s sirens. Sometimes error screeches so loudly we can get caught up in the same miasma that we are objecting to, that of irrational unfounded fear. Love will always be the answer to hateful suggestions. So my work in progress is to love, love, and love again.