Social exclusion.
Marginalization.
Segregation
Racial injustice
Alienation
Disenfranchisement
Outcasts

What do all these terms mean?

They all describe something that happens when some people (who have more access and power) identify other people (with less access and power) as different, and therefore because they are different, they are to be sectioned off, segregated, and excluded in some way.

In Jesus’ day, if you were a Samaritan, if you were a Gentile, if you were a leper, you were avoided, ignored, excluded. They didn’t visit where you lived. They wouldn’t drink from your cup or eat food from your plates.
They had no interest in any kind of a relationship with you.

In India, if you are one of the Dalits, an Untouchable, you are considered someone a polluter of society. The same with the Burakumin of Japan, or the Baekjeong of Korea or the Ragyabpa of Tibet or the Al-akhdam in Yemen.

For too long in the United States, if your skin was dark brown or black, you were often excluded in thousands of ways, and by hundreds of laws. In sections of our country, even in major cities, you were told where you could live or not live, what schools you could and could not attend, whom you could marry or not marry, what motels were off-limits, what cafes you could not frequent, what drinking fountains you could or could not use, what restrooms were not yours and which ones were. If you took public transportation, you had to sit in the back.
Depending on your skin color, you were either pulled over and given a warning…or you were pulled over and jailed.

Even churches claiming to love God and follow Jesus followed suit. Some welcomed everyone, while others made sure social and racial dividing walls were not only erected, but maintained.

To deny these realities is to deny the truth. But not just here and not too long ago. The history of humanity – in virtually any society in every country -- is covered over with discrimination, inclusion and exclusion. Our world has always had its “insiders” and “outsiders.”

Does God care about these things?