'Is God Racist?' is an interesting question that may sound a bit scandalous! Yet most theistic religions arose from and were influenced by, a particular cultural and ethnic setting (eg Judaism, Islam, Christianity etc). This, in turn, influenced people's beliefs, values and behaviour, as illustrated, for example, by the following legend:
Once upon a time, as all good stories begin, God walked the earth, and one could talk to the Divine, face to face, as one would with a familiar friend.
Times changed – as they always do – and God became a distant memory. However, if anyone wished to see the face of God, and share their deepest fears and longings, there was a special mirror into one could look deeply and see again the face of the Divine, and remember instinctively the inner wisdom they carried.
Unfortunately, some tried to claim the mirror as their own, which led to disagreement – and disagreement turned to war – and in the process, the mirror was dropped and broke into a million shards of glass that spread across the face of the earth.
However, each shard still carried the capacity to see a partial reflection of the face of God – each unique to the land in which they lived – so each person thought, when they looked into the shard of mirror, they saw the truth. This, in turn, led to more conflict until a fool one day, tired of the bickering, suggested everyone should return their shard of mirror and lay it together piece by piece.
When the last piece of the mirror was inserted, it suddenly became whole once more – and when each person looked into the mirror they beheld within their own reflection, the face of God.
The truth was a mirror in the hands of God.
It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it,
and they looked at it and thought they had the truth. - Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
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