Homily: Acknowledge, Then Advance by Charlie Muller

Our theme for today’s service, “First Thought, Second Thought”, came from Julianna. After she said it, it really struck me. I was in love with this idea. I looked it up and it actually comes from someone on a website called Tumblr. A quote as profound as this I thought surely would come from someone famous or a more prestigious source. Not Tumblr. Well, that was a prejudice; my first thought. I’ve never used Tumblr and don’t know anything about it. So how was I qualified to judge it? I wasn’t. All I had heard about Tumblr was that it’s where twilight fans talk about vampires and bloggers blog. It couldn’t be anything more than that, right? Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website. It allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Well I didn’t know any of that! My second thought was me realizing that It doesn’t matter who says something. If Gandhi says something it’s equally important as Tumblr user: danosaurs-and-philions. The full quote is, “… the first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think. What you think next defines who you are.”

Prejudices like these don’t come from me. It’s what I’ve been influenced to think by friends, social media, in pop culture, the news, or even from family. These thoughts aren’t mine. It’s not my choice that they’re in my head. But once I’ve recognized this prejudice and I continue thinking like this, It becomes my fault because it shows I’ve come to accept them. It’s important to think about and examine our judgements. Why did I think that In my mind? Is that really true? This kind of critical thinking and self analysis is important in the fight against prejudice. It’s difficult to stop making judgements. When we make a judgement about a certain type of person, it’s usually because we don’t understand them. If we have

had a bad experience with one person we might associate that judgement with people of a similar background. Prejudice seems to be filling in the unknown with false information. Perhaps if we get to know certain people better these prejudices will fade away. In order to better understand the world we try to categorize it. It’s dangerous to do this with people.

This quote doesn’t mention taking action against prejudice. This past week I went to a protest against police terror and mass incarceration. I went out and took action. I wanted to join the black lives matter movement. It was the first actual protest that I’ve ever been to. It was an amazing experience. I want to continue to help protest and combat prejudice. It’s a truly special feeling to be part of a group. Family members who had lost their children from police violence spoke and told their stories. One of the ideas said by many of the families, was that “We’re all a family and we all need to be a family to overcome. To get through the pain of losing loved ones we need to be a family. To help end police violence we need to come together.” The speaker told us to turn to the people around us and say, “I love you!” I had some friends there but most of the people, I didn’t know. It was a little uncomfortable doing this. But it was an extremely powerful act. Will you join me in this act? Turn to your neighbor and say, “I love you.” This is how we can fight prejudice and injustice. Through love and by being a community. We need to be a loving family to each other.

Everyone has wisdom and a voice that deserves to be heard. Tumblr serves as one of many platforms for these voices. We shouldn’t make snap judgements about someone just because they aren’t famous. Or just because the color of their skin isn’t yours or they speak a different language than we do. Let’s overcome our prejudice to value the inherent worth and dignity of every person.