Today is March 12, 2022. Seventy years ago today, my parents welcomed me into the world. From this you’ve already learned that I do indeed qualify as a senior citizen. Additionally, I’m white, male, heterosexual, live in the South Central United States and a member of a Southern Baptist Church. Most folks, including those who would claim to know me fairly well would, without thinking, stereotype me and apply several labels. Just so we’re on the same page, allow me to provide some definitions. The word stereotype is defined as a noun that refers to a metal plate cast from a mold taken from a page of movable types; or a transitive verb meaning to cast or print in stereotype or to fix permanently. A label is defined as a noun meaning a small slip of paper, etc. attached to anything to indicate it’s destination, ownership, etc.; codicil; a projecting molding: or a transitive verb meaning to mark with, or affix a label; classify. So, as with many English words we find several possible ways to use the terms stereotype and label. The definitions that most apply here are to assume that all individuals with certain characteristics came from the same “mold” and therefore should be “classified” as such. When someone does this, I believe they are showing prejudice.

Most would likely assume that I am a Republican, conservative, Christian, racist, financially well off, a gun owner with a huge arsenal including assault rifles and other fully automatic weapons, with a high school education at best, etc. I could go on, but you get the idea.

As I look back over the passed six years, and more especially, the passed two, I am appalled at several tendencies I see among the American peoples including:

(1.) assigning people to groups to oppose,

(2.) general ignorance (lack of knowledge),

(3.) an inability to apply general knowledge to applicable situations,

(4.) an inability to make one’s own decisions.

So here’s the deal. If you would like to understand me so that you can decide whether to oppose me or not, I’ll label myself. I’ll give you a starting point. I am a Christian. Nothing matters more than that. That one fact about me controls everything that I believe in and stand for. That’s it. Nothing else. I am a Christian. My Christianity colors my Worldview, as it should. My Worldview is a set of beliefs that begins with the fact that I believe that the God of the Bible created all that we know to exist.