We play favorites from the moment we emerge from the womb.\u00a0 As babies, we establish primary connections with those nearest and dearest to us, and we\u2019re uneasy with strangers.<\/p>\n
As we mature, our challenge is to outgrow the mindset of estrangement.\u00a0 People differ, so we thrive when we\u2019re curious about them, get to know them, and appreciate their variety.<\/p>\n
However, when we\u2019re urged to avoid unfamiliar people and ways of life, prejudices are born.\u00a0 Some dissipate quickly after we share life experiences with those people.\u00a0 Without personal contact, prejudices can harden and become pernicious.<\/p>\n
San Diego Unitarian Universalist minister, Tom Own-Towle, tells about a friend of his, a conservative man, whose young adult daughter revealed to him that she was a lesbian.\u00a0 The father was shocked and distraught. In his frustration, he became scornful.\u00a0 The daughter withdrew, and the two didn\u2019t communicate for months.<\/p>\n
But, as his daughter\u2019s next birthday approached, the father felt a change of heart grow within him.\u00a0 On that day, he took his daughter out to lunch, followed by a long walk together in the woods.<\/p>\n
There, he took a deep breath and shared with her, \u201cSusan, what you told me rocked my world.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t accept it, and it\u2019s roiled inside me for months.\u00a0 I realize now that I can either hang on to that belief or my love for you.\u00a0 There\u2019s not room in my heart for both.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear to me that my love for you is much, much stronger than my devotion to that opinion.\u00a0 You\u2019re my daughter.\u00a0 You are who you are.\u00a0 I refuse to forfeit my love for you just to hold on to my judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Unitarian Henry David Thoreau once wrote, and members of the Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship agree, \u201cIt\u2019s never too late to give up our prejudices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We play favorites from the moment we emerge from the womb.\u00a0 As babies, we establish primary connections with those nearest and dearest to us, and we\u2019re uneasy with strangers. As we mature, our challenge is to outgrow the mindset of estrangement.\u00a0 People differ, so we thrive when we\u2019re curious about them, get to know them, … Continue reading On Prejudice [#62]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8850,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213\/revisions\/8850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sedonauu.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}