I was raised in a home where there was no hint of racism. It was totally foreign to me, until, in 1970, I went to a certain small college in a certain state in a certain town. I saw the racism of white folk against blacks for the first time in an almost segregationist atmosphere. My psychology teacher, for example, made it perfectly clear on two occasions that he did not like Negroes or Catholics. Being that I was dorming at this college, I would often shoot hoops with other boarders. It didn’t matter to me that the boarders I was playing BBall with were all black athletes from the football team. I was unaware that white folk were not supposed to socialize this way with blacks, not in this certain small town. I got a fair share of dirty looks for doing this, but no one ever said anything; they just assumed I was a liberal Yankee from New York (I was from Jersey).
So, the world needs a “Conference” on racism. But this is a different kind of racism with far worse consequences. It is the kind that leads to wars and genocides. And the existence of this kind of racism is a sad reality that plagues certain parts of the world today. Race is an easily definable term. In its most generic sense it encompasses all of humanity. We are members of the human race. So are pre-born babies. I am glad the Russian Orthodox have raised the issue of anti-Christianism. And I think the Catholic Church should raise this other issue at the Conference: the racism against the most defenseless of peoples, the pre-born.
.- Following the beginning of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in Geneva on Monday, the Russian Orthodox Church has asked the conference to introduce the idea of “Christianophobia” into international laws concerning discrimination. Read full article here.
