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WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. AN INVITATION TO YOU: To follow this blog, click here.  If this blog has blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! ______________________________________ Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post: https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/WWW_Podcast_Episode_3_2020_01_20_The_Perils_of_Prejudice.mp3   Back in the late sixties, I applied for a teaching job in a large midwestern city. I had just earned my Master's degree in my subject matter from a prestigious college and was eminently qualified for the position. Imagine my shock when, instead of being considered for the job, the superintendent of the school district told me to "go back to my own people." To say I was speechless would be an understatement. Never before had I experienced prejudice, and prejudice simply because of my ethnicity. (For those of you who don't know, I am of Italian descent).  Moreover, little did I know back then that I would have had legal recourse in the matter because of the then recently passed Civil Rights Act of 1964 that made employment discrimination illegal. But, as the saying goes, we get too soon old and too late smart. :) The sting of the superintendent's prejudicial slur dug deep. Yes, I forgave him from my heart, but the scar of his hurtful words remained. Instead of making me bitter, however, his words deepened my compassion for those who suffer prejudice of any kind. For the first time, I knew what prejudice felt like. So, what exactly is prejudice? Noah Webster in his classic 1828 dictionary defines prejudice as follows: "Prejudgment; an opinion or decision of mind, formed without due examination of the facts or arguments which are necessary to a just and impartial determination." The current edition of Webster's dictionary defines prejudice as "an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge." When we think or act with prejudice, we are doing so without just cause and without logical reason. We are forming a preconceived opinion about someone, an opinion that has no basis in logic or experience. Sadly, prejudice still exists today and, sadly, it will always exist until the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Until that glorious day, we will have to deal with prejudice, whether it's the prejudice of others toward us, or our own prejudice toward others. So, in this podcast, I would like to offer some logical reasons that prove that prejudice is not only a sin but that it is also counter-productive and counter-intuitive. In the process, we will learn ways to deal with prejudice in a manner that glorifies God and respects others. First, some logical reasons that render prejudice illogical, foolish, and sinful: Reason #1: All people ultimately descend from Adam and Eve and from Noah after the Flood. Since we share the same original parents, we are all in the same human family. In Acts 17: 26 NET, the Bible says this: "From one man he [God] made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live."  Reason #2: There is only one race: the Human Race. All differences in skin color resulted from the amount of people's exposure to the sun over time in a particular geographical area. The skin contains a pigment called melanin. Melanin determines one's skin color, hair color, and eye color. Exposure to the sun affects the amount of melanin produced by the skin cells. The more exposure to the sun, the more melanin in the skin cells. The more melanin in the skin cells, the darker the color of one's skin. So,