"You Have to Be Carefully Taught"

The title of this song from the musical, "South Pacific," came to mind as I sat watching the Nashville Christmas parade last Friday. Children have to be carefully taught prejudice, because they don't inherit the hate gene through the birth process.

On both sides of my front-row chair at the parade were two boys ages 3 and 1. Each sat in the lap of a parent from an Arabian country. The father is studying at Vanderbilt. We had gotten to know them through an international student program at Vanderbilt.

I played with the 3-year-old and held the baby. Neither was at all concerned that I am Caucasian. In fact, the baby "made eyes at me" and gave me so many smiles I wanted to take him home with me.

Then an unexpected thing happened. Standing behind me was another little boy of African-American heritage. Probably around 4-years-old, he could barely see the parade between the chairs. Impulsively, I asked his parents if he could come sit in my lap so he could see better. They agreed and lifted him overhead, where he sat on my lap for probably an hour!

Again, the little boy didn't ask why a white woman was holding him. In fact, he was completely absorbed in the parade. We tapped our hands and feet as the bands marched by, and he only occasionally looked back to see if Mom and Dad were still there.

The scene reminded me of a time 40+ years ago when my husband pastored an inner-city mission church as a seminary student. One day I was sitting on the porch steps holding an African-American baby. A little girl came up to me and asked, "Is that your baby?"

Her question was a perfect reflection of a heart not yet hardened by a color-conscious society, where ethnicity decides for us who we like and with whom we socialize. What a travesty to judge people by the color of their skin or their native tongue!

This Christmas sing along with me, "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World." I know it's not a Christmas song, but it should be! After all, Christmas would have no meaning if Jesus had not come to save us ALL from our sins.