a Sound Mind

Renée Antrosio – November 1, 2022 2 Comments

As we continue to learn, we lean on Jesus’ example in scripture of how to see with eyes of love, especially the marginalized and disempowered of our society. Jeff Trask shares his perspective to give us another point of view. May we grow in love to be more like God, as Jesus modeled for us. -Renée

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at a national conference about health inequities to free and charitable clinic workers all over the country. In that talk, I discussed things like being aware of dangerous ideologies that lead not only to negative thinking about black and brown people but hurts everyone in the end.

For example, some politicians insist on cutting entitlements like Medicaid because there’s an unspoken belief that low income individuals should earn their healthcare- namely, or not namely, black and brown people. However, when you look at the facts-  working age adults, while representing about 24% of the beneficiaries, only cost 12% of the Medicaid budget. The remaining groups using Medicaid are kids, people with disabilities and the elderly. Even if you assume every working age adult is scamming the system, they only make up a small fraction of the costs. And to be statistically clear, the majority of those adults are not black and brown people nor are they scamming the system. A false ideology allows politicians to push to cut a program that would primarily hurt our most vulnerable populations. 

What other false ideologies based on race or culture have resulted in damage? Happens all the time, unfortunately. However, how often is it not noticed? I recently saw a special that revealed how misrepresented black and brown people are on news reports related to crime. Do people understand the misrepresentation or do they adopt the belief black and brown people are more likely to commit crimes? 

As believers in God and Jesus, how do we navigate misinformation, false ideologies, and misrepresentation? If we consider ourselves followers of the truth or the way as biblical writers described it, how do we overcome all the misdirection? 

Perhaps the key is to hold firm to principles that transcends our political viewpoints or skewed perspectives. Perhaps we can learn from Jesus, how he treated people society shunned like they were worth their weight in gold. What if this country, or at the very least, Christians, treated those shunned through racial stereotypes and misrepresentation like they were worth their weight in gold? What might that look like? Seemingly, something like reparations for those unfairly marked and treated by others, would be a simple and even obvious step in the right direction. After all, God considers us to be so much more than just our weight in gold so perhaps that’s the least that can be done. 

Challenge yourself to lean on scripture and Jesus’s way before believing and acting upon the misrepresentation of others and subsequent negative effects of that unfairness. Research the sources that you use to form your opinions that lead to your decisions. For God gave us the spirit of faith, love, and a SOUND MIND. 

Jeff Trask, 2022