Jelly Roll

 

Jelly Roll

Leviticus 19:28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 11:14 “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?”

1 Samuel 4:18 “And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.”

Matthew 7:17-20 especially verse 20

Matthew 7:20 “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

     Maybe it was America’s Got Talent or The Voice the other night.  Jelly Roll, in all his bigness, commanded the stage and sang a special song.  The camera did not hide it but zoomed in close to reveal his many tattoos.  Markings about his face and arms made him out to be loosed from a recent police lineup.  His hair, though not pronounced, must have hinted at curls about his neck.  You know, the way women wear them.  I fought my perception. And why?  Because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

     My good Christian understanding had formed in me a concept.  What did my model believer look like?  Surely white, slim, able bodied with a short haircut without markings upon his skin and certainly no earrings.  Wow!  This was my poster child on my inner wall.  This was wrong.

     Bias is the first step to prejudice.  It is unfounded judgement based on peripheral characteristics.  In this case, the man’s appearance.  Bias in electronics talks of the transistor operation.  If the transistor is forward biased, current flows and the signal is amplified.  Upon reverse biased, the transistor cuts off and the signal is squelched.

     I meet people on the streets.  They look quite different than my model believer concept.  With every meeting my transistor is threatened.  Will I forward or reverse bias to amplify or squelch the Spirit within me?  Will I reach out my hand in compassion or will I treat them as social lepers?  I have this fighting in my head.

     What if Jelly Roll came to my door in a hoodie?  What if he were black, a different color than me?  What if my racial stereotyping geared up to enhance my profiling so enforced by my limited view brought through by American television?  Television in essence destroys the neighborhood because it always looks elsewhere to define our neighbors.  Am I that perverted in judgement to slam the door in his face for ample suspicion of his motive?

     Person preference violated gives way to biased judgement.  Upon building biased thought, discriminatory behavior acts out until a full-blown prejudicial spirit consumes. It killed Martin Luther King Jr.  A president got shot in the head.  Companies reserve HR to mitigate poor employee relationships.  We/ they and me/ you attitudes abound.  Those different than our personal models of decency, suffer.

     I find no fault with Jelly Roll.  I do not know the man.  But I know this man.  And for my personal thoughts, I am ashamed and continually repent.  Lord, please help us to love, the love that transcends difference with Your great girding of understanding.

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