Several days ago, I read a review of Kevin Roose’s book The Unlikely Disciple by John Dobbs that so intrigued me that I had to go to Barnes & Noble the next day and get a copy. It’s an amazingly well-written book that captivates the reader in a number of different ways. What’s most intrigued me has been his concessions about stereotypes.
I am not going to go into the nature of Roose’s experiment. You can read John’s review to get the jist of it. Or you can watch the YouTube video below to get an idea about what the book’s about. But I will say that, insofar as I’ve read, Roose reveals an inherent danger in buying into certain traditional stereotypes. Sometimes things aren’t as we might expect, nor as they might seem. That’s the danger in making irrational judgments about people without considering the authenticity of a person. Formulating opinions of people based upon ethnic, gender, socio-economic and religious stereotypes is shallow, lazy and inconsiderate.
Jesus crushed the complex ethnic and religious stereotypes of both Jews and Samaritans by engaging a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4) and telling a parable of a Samaritan who helped man, presumably a Jew, left for dead (Luke 10:25-37). He sought to change conceptions of how Kingdom people looked at others. Stereotyping disrespects others and leaves us in the dark about the reality of people.
If you are a person who gets no further with people than a silly stereotype, think about what you might be missing! You may miss out on the opportunity of affording one the “good news.” You may miss out on your own personal elucidation concerning people about whom you are misguided. Get to know people deeply. Try to understand where they’re coming from. If we do, we’ll be more effective as salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16).
