3RD DECEMBER

FROM PREJUDICE TO FREEDOM

“And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

(John 1:46, NKJV)

Nazareth? Nathaniel was from the nearby town of Cana. The Jews despised Nazareth primarily because a Roman army garrison was located there at this time and it was speculated that the people were careless and had low morals.

I listened to Chimamanda Adichie talk about the danger of a single story. She said her first roommate in the university asked her how she had learnt to speak English well and was confused when she said that Nigeria’s official language is English. With patronising, well-meaning pity, she asked if she could listen to what she called her “tribal music,” and was very disappointed when she produced her tape of Mariah Carey. She had a single story of catastrophe about Africa.

On the other hand, some years ago, quite a number of Nigerians youths, especially the uneducated, struggled to find their way to America to pursue their dreams of making money. Some were engaged in driving taxis, selling hot dogs or doing menial jobs, with little knowledge of the academic potentials and other opportunities in America: a single story.

We have many intertribal and ethnic single stories in Nigeria, which have deprived us of the unity of purpose. Nathaniel had a single story of prejudice against Nazarenes. He overcame it and went to see and meet Jesus. And not only did he receive salvation but he became a disciple.

We must be open to learning and neither allow our prejudices to deprive us of opportunities to fulfil our purpose, nor our stereotypes of Christianity to cause us to miss Christ’s power and love.

ACTION: Choose to be informed and broadminded.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank you for the Internet and other tools of information technology. Please grant me grace to access knowledge positively to overcome my prejudices, live peaceably with all men, free from fear and according to your will.