Jesus Loves the Little Children

It's Tuesday already and I've been mulling over this thing in my head for two days now. On Sunday I read in the Chicago Sun-Times that "many national religious leaders lobby for increases in immigration," but huge majorities of the actual congregations feel that there are too many immigrants already. Huge majorities? What does that mean, you may ask. We're talking about 69 percent of Catholics, 72 percent of mainline Protestants, and 78 percent of Born-again Protestants. I guess Jews are a little more liberal on the whole. Only 50 percent of the Jews who were polled said there are too many immigrants in America.

So much for Judeo-Christian ethic. So much for being a nation of immigrants. I suspect all the native Americans, from Cherokee to Ute, would like to send all the damned immigrants back where they came from, but that's a different issue. I remember distinctly being taught this little song when I was a kid, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white......" I kind of took that to heart, as one of the core values of Christianity. I kind of believed that the religion itself was pressing the idea that all people are created equal. This was reinforced by social studies classes where I learned that the founding fathers instituted this idea in our constitution.

Of course I grew up in Central Arkansas and what went on in my little kid brain as regards religion and government was a great deal different than what was actually practiced all around me. On the government front, Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to keep African-American students out of Little Rock Central High School. On the religion front, the church I attended with my family voted to not accept an African-American family in our congregation, and made them drive 45 miles to the closest church of our particular denomination that would accept people with just a little too much pigmentation in their skins.

Come to think of it this doesn't just apply to black-white relations in the South. Western Europeans adopted the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Europeans adopted the Orthodox Church. Among Orthodox Christians, the Greek Orthodox wouldn't be caught dead in an Orthodox Chuch with Russian Orthodox sorts. Way too Slavic.

A Catholic friend of mine came to visit many years ago, and wanted to attend Sunday Mass. I've kind of gotten away from the whole church thing, so I just pointed said friend to the closest Catholic Church to where I lived. As it turns out, said friend was appalled that I sent her to a Mexican Catholic Church. Mexican Catholic? German Catholic? What? Aren't you all Catholics for goodness sakes?

In Northern Iowa where my wife, Babs, comes from there are separate Lutheran Churches for the Norwegians and Germans. Say what? Couldn't possibly be a Norwegian and going to a Lutheran Church with a bunch of Germans. They wouldn't even know what lutefisk and lefse are. Probably want you to eat sauerkraut at a church social. This is not even to mention the fact that the local Catholics have their own town. Lutherans and Catholics living in the same town and mixing? Can't have that. Next thing you know you'll have Lutheran girls and Catholic boys, Lutheran boys and Catholic girls getting married and having mixed faith kids. The horror!

In Chicago I've noticed that there are Korean Baptist Churches, African Methodist Churches, Spanish speaking Pentecostal churches, and lily white Episcopal Churches. There are Catholic Churches that cater to every race and ethnicity and don't go visiting some other group's church. People will stare. You'll feel darned uncomfortable. Some of these churches have roots in language differences. Some have roots in discrimination and prejudice. At some point, after we all become socialized into basic Americana, it all becomes a little ridiculous and xenophobic. It goes beyond religion and into clannishness.

I guess the point of all this rambling is that even if the ideals of a belief system are irreproachable, the actual practice gets somewhat skewed. Human beings are a clannish and suspicious group as a whole. They don't like anybody that isn't just like themselves and for the most part are a prejudiced bunch of Bozos. So much for my childish idealism and belief that all people are equal in God's eyes, that "all men are created equal." Just shove me off in a corner and I'll sing to myself, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world...." No, you can't sing with me. You won't let black people, Mexican people, Korean people, German people into your church. My church, The Church of There Ain't No God, but There Sure As Hell Is Morality, is all inclusive. On second thought, maybe you can sing. Even if I disagree with you, we're all inclusive here, and we try our best to be non-judgmental.