Race and Your Community

Race and Your Community

University of Phoenix

ETH125

04/11/10

This paper is to be an autobiographical research paper on my community. Contained within this paper I am to answer certain questions posed to me. I will answer those questions in my own way. Although the answers may not be satisfactory to the requirements of this course, I will answer them honestly. I believe that many will be surprised with the answers to the questions. I tend to make people think by what I write. I will admit that the community that I will write about is not the usual community. The community that I will write about is my church community.

Contained within my community are a many and diverse group of people. There is everyone from drug addicts to prostitutes, from alcoholics to homeless, from bikers to inner city youth. Then there is me. I come from an upper middle class family. We are all different. We look different, we talk different, and we act different. However, we are all the same. We are all sinners. No the others in my community do not look the same. No one looks the same. We are sinners. Within the church we are the same. It does not matter what we have done our where we come from, we are all the same within the church.

Most churches that I have attended in the past the leaders have had an attitude that the "bad" people in the church are beneath them. In my church it is different. Everyone is treated as an equal. I like this treatment. I hate it when people think that anyone else is beneath them. I, personally, try and treat all people the same. In my church we make an effort to help those that want to get out of their situation.

Others outside of my community think that my church is terrible. They think that we associate ourselves with the down and out. Why is there a double standard in this world to those that need help. We all need help in one way or another. I have seen too many people oppressed and abandoned. I have seen people hurt by the things that are said and done by others. I have been involved in these persecutions of others. I do not like the things that I have done in the past. It was not until I really realized that through Jesus Christ, I could stop what I was doing and treat others with the respect that they deserve.

You know, it is kind of strange sometimes to sit next to someone that is an ex-drug addict, or someone who was homeless. They are the same as you and me. They have only made some decisions in their life that have had adverse reactions on their life. Through Christ and my church, we are able to help those people and make their life better.

A recent event that just occurred at my church shows that there are some leaders within the city that