Below, is a Peanuts cartoon that brings home a point: We live comfortably with our presuppositions.

Now, understand what I am NOT suggesting by posting this ‘toon. I am not drawing an analogy between God and the Great Pumpkin. I am pointing out that in the church, as in the world, we often don’t question our assumptions. We refer to doctors as “he,” or soldiers. We often don’t stop to consider that God might use women in the church in ways we don’t think about, or contrary to our a priori interpretation of scripture.

A similar thing happens in matters of race. A number of years ago, several of us minister types had to be reproved by some African American friends about our clueless racism. It never occurred to us that we MAWGS (Middle aged white guys) occupied a privileged place in society. We just didn’t think about it. How much injustice is done because the people involved are just “out of mind.”