Many of us find meeting people from another context, culture or language challenging. When people think, say or do things differently, we find it – well, strange. That is why we call them ‘strangers’! It is much less work relating to people who are like us – and strangers find the same. That is why, in any context, minority ethnic groups will almost always cluster together; this is the unexplored reality behind our current debates about race and discrimination.
Many cities in Europe, during the Middle Ages, were divided into distinct areas for the different ethnic groups that lived there, each with their own diet, culture, and dress. Yet when I lived in Slough in Berkshire, in the 1980s, I found exactly the same thing. I could tell you precisely which streets were occupied by Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and indigenous white British. We find life easier to live amongst people like us.
Creation unity
What does scripture say about this dynamic, and about our encounter with the stranger? The first claim is that all humanity is made ‘in the image of God, male and female’ [Genesis 1:27]. Such a claim was radical then, when Genesis was written, and it is radical now. It is all too easy to treat those who are different from us as less than us, and another small step to treat them as less than human. Scripture forbids it.
