Reconciling Human Dignity with the Gospel

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world.
Red, yellow, black, and white;
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Have you ever wondered what the faces of the little ones looked like to the writer of this song? How did he see them? Were they precious to him? Or just precious in Jesus’s sight?

Who are the red ones? I don’t know exactly. But I do know that one of the most famous tobacco manufacturers named ‘Red Man’ has a picture of an Indian on the pouch. So have we relegated the red ones as Native Americans or some other ethnic minority.

Who are the yellow ones? Asians have often been described as having a yellow skin tone. They’re not dark nor are they white. It seems to be some other shade most closely resembling a hint of yellow.

And then the obvious black and white tenets of skin color are given. These are often the most identifiable skin tones. But those colors breed across the globe. Where are they from? New York, LA, Detroit, Somalia, South Africa, Liechtenstein, Liberia.

So what is the purpose here? To shed light on one man’s bout with something much worse than racism that creeps into the soul.

I believe our natural tendency is to gravitate toward 3 social constructs: comfort, commonalities, and control.

By doing what is most comfortable I’m really saying we’re doing what’s familiar. This is shaped by our upbringing; our family’s background, traditions, and values. Every child’s mind is shaped at an early age by those closest to them until the words, actions, and attitudes begin to be displaced against their own convictions.

By commonalities I really mean social interests and preferences. This could be choosing to play Fortnite in your bedroom over shooting hoops at the local park. This stage is a search; we advance in the direction of new ideologies more befitting of how we feel by what we see. We rally around certain issues and interests with ‘our people’ to affect change.

By control I really mean leveraging the situations and circumstances around us for our benefit. Theoretically, a balanced social construct is ideal; where everyone is viewed and treated equally. However, humanity has been marred with an imbalance since the beginning and people generally try to tilt the scales in a direction that is most favorable to themselves. And that’s manipulation and control at its finest.

Sharing my thoughts and feelings doesn’t make me right or better than anyone else. But they should be validated as being real. They could be real and wrong. And if that’s the case then hopefully I’ll continue to craft my personal values and perception of others through a more carefully filtered gospel-centered lens.

I’m not so naive to believe that this world is anywhere near perfect nor will it ever be. But I will do my best to contribute to a society that values the right and dignity of every human being. To do so will require me to fight against the tide of some fabricated lies woven deep into my depraved mind. And the best weapon to ward off the deceit that surrounds these erroneous personal and social constructs is the gospel of Jesus Christ; one that is saturated in unconditional love and forever proclaims His life for mine.