Am I biased about anything?  Of course I am. I, like everyone else have life experiences that have taught me certain lessons. And of course growing up I picked up many opinions from my parents and others around me.

South Carolina is one of those biases that runs in me. This goes back to my high school history class days and learning that SC was the first to jump out of the Union because of the slavery issue. Then of course a hundred years later there was Senator Strom Thurmond who was consistently voted into office, even many years after senility had completely taken him over. He was perhaps the most vocal person against the Civil Rights Movement in the  1950s and 60s. I guess he finally admitted he was wrong about those feelings but not until many years later. That does take a little of the taint off of him but not much.

Another of his cohorts in the battle against giving civil rights for African-Americans was the senator from  their sister State North Carolina and that was Jesse Helms.  Mr. Helms grew up under Mr. Thurmond’s wing in the Senate and became the chief architect of “States Rights” which was a code word, although not a very hidden one, adamantly promoting racial segregation. Mr. Helms seemed to revile in his bigotry all the was to his end.  I still hold South Carolina responsible for the 500,000 or so casualties during the Civil War. Call it a prejudgment if you want as it surely is. I’m sure there are a lot of good people in SC but I don’t know anyone there and the way I quickly skirt through the State when I travel south I guess I never will.

A much stronger bias I have is against Christians who say they follow Jesus and follow his words but then proceed to do almost the opposite of what he taught. I just don’t have a lot of tolerance for people in that state of mind. They seem to be thoroughly  and selfishly grounded in the secular world than in the Christian one.  They do so much harm to the “body of Christ” and they seem oblivious to that fact! Unfortunately that group is getting larger and larger as our political divide in the country grows. They seem to be on the wrong side of so many issues.

They say all things come in threes so I guess I will have to admit to a third bias. The last and probably strongest bias I have is against violence  in general and war in particular.  I can’t understand why so many nations, and the U.S. in particular, race to war instead of finding other options. Of course, since the U.S. is the overwhelming superpower of the time this probably goes to the old saying:

If all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.

Since we spend more than the other 96% of the world’s populations  combined on our war machine everything looks like a situation we need to jump into.  I hardly remember any extended time in my life where we were not sending our young men, and now even our young women, to die for the latest cause.  Regrettably, as has been shown so many times in the past, the country we go to war with most often becomes a future ally in the not too distant future so that just re-enforces the futility of war. Why can’t we learn to put peacemaking first and war a very very very distant second?

So now you have it. We all have our biases. I just admitted to three of mine. Our biases often come from our life’s experiences or from those we look up to but sometimes they also come from a nobler source. Someday I might get over the first bias on this list :)  but I will never surrender the last two.

But what do I know.