For over 100 years after the US Civil War, despite the fact that Lincoln had declared the Emancipation Proclamation, Jim Crow laws existed across the US. Certain hospitals were for whites only. Lunch counters did not allow people of colour to eat there. City buses were separated into white sections and black sections. People struggled for years to reverse such discrimination. And slowly over the past 50 years, such hate filled laws were reversed. Slowly the Jim Crows laws disappeared and everyone is able to eat at lunch counters or to sit in any seat on a bus.
This separation was wrong then. It was based on hate. It was based on fear. It was based on the idea that one group of people is somehow superior to another. It goes against the idea that God lovingly creates each one of us no matter the colour of our skin, the language we speak, our sex, our gender identity, our citizenship status, or the religion we practise. And we must raise our voices against such segregation.
But the spirit of such laws has been showing it's ugly head once more. Much was made of Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples because it went against her religious beliefs. She eventually was jailed for not doing her job. Other businesses have attempted to follow suit. Signs such as no blacks, no gays, no illegal aliens, no muslims, no jews, no immigrants have popped up all over. Jim Crow is alive all around the world. And again such laws are still as wrong as they ever were.
This week, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary for Donald Trump, was refused service at a small restaurant in Virginia. Citing their disagreements with the Trump administration, the restaurant refused to serve Ms. Sanders because of her job. Now I have not been, a fan of Ms. Sanders. She has been the mouthpiece of a government intent on dividing the world into us and them. She is the voice, albeit a paid one, of the new Jim Crow movement. And most likely, I would find a lot of agreement with the political leanings of the restaurant owner in Virginia. But if refusing to serve one person is wrong, then I cannot condone the decision to refuse Ms. Sanders service. If discrimination is evil, which I truly believe it is, it is wrong always. I cannot pick and choose who to discriminate against. Otherwise I am no different then Kim Davis. Blessings.
