Who are we really? (continuing prayer for Virginia Tech)

Spiritual resource to share: spiritual identity

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One post from The Wall (a Blacksburg community's response to the Virginia Tech tragedy), drew my attention to a growing concern about cultural stereotyping. Here is an excerpt:

Tuesday night, at an Emory candlelight vigil, a South Korean student stood up and said he was afraid. He was afraid that the shooter at Virginia Tech was going to ruin things for all South Korean students studying in America. Perhaps he was thinking about the backlash towards Muslim students after Sept. 11.

But Virginia Tech does not need to become an example of a culture clash. As educated people, we are taught to see the foolishness of generalization and false-attribution. I pray that nobody on this campus feels afraid because of what they look like, or because of the hometown they left to come study at Emory. We must find the courage to unite against the unfounded stereotyping used by some in the aftermath of Sept. 11. - D.H.

In a couple of days, we welcome into our family a very well-loved international student who has been here for over seven months. Not only is he fun and active in sports, he is well liked by his fellow students, teachers and community members. He is from South Korea, so I have been attentive to the climate of thought here. Although I don't think there will be an issue in this community, the issue of negative cultural sterotyping still needs to be addressed prayerfully.

South Koreans students represent one of the largest international student populations in the US, according to my son's admissions counselor at his school. And since racial stereotypes have flamed into ignorant acts in the past, I feel that prayer - focussed on all of us as God's children - is going to help dissolve the negative suggestions of ethnic stereotyping.

The identity of one does not determine the ethnic character of all. To me, each individual has a unique relationship to the divine. Each individual has their own spiritual journey, which reveals his or her own spiritual qualities.

But classifying ( stereotyping) others can be a subtle force, making us feel that we know others when we don't and isolating others on the basis of physical characteristics or behavioral patterns. I felt this when I lived abroad for a short period of time and I had the opportunity to see that I was more than my cultural sterotype. As a child of God, I had unique talents and insights. I could see that God determined who I really was.

So it makes sense to me to continue that prayer and line of thought that recognizes each individual in his or her own true light, as a child of God. We're not absorbed into a clump of humanity, but we are all children of one God who is spiritual -- good and loving.

I can also support the intelligent care of our community to see beyond cultural stereotyping to the spiritual qualities in each of our community's students.

This intelligence runs throughout every community. The spiritual insight, to recognize the good in each individual member, has a healing impact. Being alert to everyone's spiritual identity helps to bring people in to community, as opposed to seeing only their physical attributes which tends to isolate others who are different than us.

Man is not absorbed in Deity, and man cannot lose his individuality, for he reflects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, solitary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance. - Mary Baker Eddy

(For more articles and resources on this topic, see Virginia Tech prayers.)

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.