2017-11-03-Discrimination Against Race, Gender, and Views

Session

Lesson

Prolotheos: “Almost everything different about someone, his group or his views can become a reason for discrimination. Discrimination starts with a dislike and develops into antagonism of un-accepted differences. Being different is not a license for anyone to become inconsiderate. To oppose differences because it is different is a conservative attitude that resists change. Differences will exhibit changes and changes are essential to growth and diversity, necessary to prevent crystallization and stagnation in life and society. Three major targets of discrimination on Urantia are race, gender, and views.

“Race is not an accident or aberration. It is an important evolutionary feature used in life implantation in all seven universes. Generally, different races appear in due course in the evolutionary cycle with the purpose of bringing diversity to the human species in a given sphere. Racial diversity contributes to social evolution as it challenges human beings to tolerate living amidst people different to themselves. There are two ways to react to racial diversity: to resist it, rejecting and discriminating against it, which promotes conflict, or embracing it, looking beyond appearances, accepting differences as contributing factors and learning to tolerate it by dealing with it. It’s ultimately up to the individual which path to adopt: love or hatred.

“Gender is more than a reproductive endowment in the human species. It determines important differences starting with maleness and femaleness. Those differences are accentuated at intellectual, emotional and personal levels. In your world, women have been discriminated against, subjected and abused by men simply for being women. Also, any individual of either gender that asserts and lives a different sexual orientation to those dictated by genetics and society suffers fierce discrimination. Sex and gender discrimination is particularly wrong because it targets something the individual has neither control over nor choice in the matter — a birth endowment. Besides, gender discrimination wants to restrain the legitimate freedom of choice of individuals, the right of living a different sexual orientation.

“Views are opinions, perspectives or visions, uniquely private and characteristically personal, different from everybody else. Having a different view, expressing it, and even defending it is part of your right to free speech. But since any view may spark disagreement, the door for discrimination against this is open. Any freedom comes with responsibility for either speech or action. Any individual should be held accountable according to the law for what he or she says or does — if it incites or causes the law to be broken. But none should be discriminated against for having and expressing different views from others. Even God respects our views and thoughts. He sends His Thought Adjusters to adjust your thoughts to the Father's will. He does this with your cooperation, but in no way against your will. You may disagree, dislike or even combat others’ views — it’s your right of choice — but you shouldn’t repress them, or prohibit them from having these views just because you don’t like them.

“Race, gender, and personal views are endowments of creation and personality. It’s impossible to discriminate against any of these attributes without causing violence to human nature. A neutral acceptance, that is, indifference to any of them is not enough if you want to live according to the Golden Rule. Unconditional love loves and accepts the person as he or she is, although you may not love his or her life choices. Love despite race, gender or views and kindly disagree with the manner of how people use or deal with these endowments if that is the case; but do not stop loving human beings because of it. I am Prolotheos, your teacher, and tutor on High, wishing you higher understanding to deal with people’s differences — with love always.”