L OCA L L Y S OUR CED
The Beauty of Unity and Strength in Diversity Manny Mill I am a Christian who happens to be Cuban. In other words, my faith in Christ dictates to my Cuban culture, not my Cuban culture to my Christian faith. I left Cuba as a refugee with nothing, but I am still Cuban. I am loud, love to dance for Jesus, and eat black beans and rice and much more of our Cuban cuisine, but I no longer let my culture direct how I live as a Christian. Jesus is my King, my Lord, and my Older Brother. Your culture may be different than mine, but we both matter to God.
galaxies in space, the immense seas, and their occupants, all the vegetation and animals on the earth! It is truly amazing and breath-taking. Likewise, as humans, we are also diverse, and each of us is eternally valuable with a body, soul, heart and a mind with ideas that can change for the better who we live, as we contribute to the wel fare of each other. We are each unique, but we are one human race with the same color of blood! We must value our fellow human beings, especially those who look, think, or act differently than we do. We must defeat discrimina tion, and eradicate xen ophobia, which is fear of people who look dif ferent than we do. As an old Amish saying goes, “The only time to look down on your neighbor is when you are bending over to help.” We must train ourselves not to react, but to respond in love. First John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear in volves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (NKJV)
Diversity is the topic of the day! It is a sensitive subject, but an essential one we must wrestle with. Many are afraid to tackle it because we can easily understood. I have had the privilege of not only talking about it, but most importantly living it out passionately, intentionally, and with integrity for over 03 years. I may not under stand your particular situ ation, but I can tell you that as a former inmate I feel your pain and your bur den, and I have chosen to enter into others’ personal
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the heart of Christ in me. No man or woman is an island to himself or herself. We need each other. Each of us has an essential role to play, no matter your color, class or culture. Colorful diversity is a beauti ful thing when it unites us and infuses us with the security and strength we all need. A very appropriate word to clearly de scribe this type of intimate, colorful diversity is “ koinonia ,” which in Greek means “belonging together in mutual partnership.”
Jesus said in Luke 10:27, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (NKJV) Who is our neighbor? Anyone and everyone that God chooses to send our way, regardless of what they have done or where they came from. According to the Scriptures, we must embrace them with genuine God-given love.
You see, as we look at God’s majestic and glorious crea tion, we see unbelievable diversity, trillions of stars and
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan many times in his career, including
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