Saul the Bigot Anywhere you travel in America or the world, you will soon come face-to-face with overt or covert forms of racial prejudice. You will find volatile situations of racial and ethnic tensions just waiting for the right incident to set off conflict and violence. And not surprisingly, much of the world’s racism is religiously motivated. That’s why only spiritual transformation can lead to authentic social transformation. It was that kind of radical spiritual transformation that happened to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road when he met the risen Christ. Before that encounter, Saul was a caustic, bigoted true-blue Jew through and through. He was motivated by spiritual, racial, and cultural pride (Philippians 3:3–6). Like so many of us, Saul’s world was neatly segregated between us and them. But God temporarily blinded him in order to
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