Articles
Stereotypes Kill Evangelism
Google defines stereotype, “a widely held but oversimplified idea of a person or thing.” Stereotypes help us manage our world. Rather than process millions of different people or things individually, we divide and place them into simplified brain bins. Why ponder the differences between pasta, meatballs, and pizza, when we can just call it Italian food? Why concern ourselves with the differences between Chinese and Japanese people when we can just call them Asian? Simpler right? Yes, but it can get us into trouble. People don’t like to be stereotyped. We don’t like to be lumped in with a larger group. Try this on: “People in the church of Christ are all the same: just a bunch of legalists.” Ouch! I don’t want to be lumped in with that stereotype, do you?
Stereotypes didn’t work on Jesus. He didn’t fit anyone’s neatly simplified brain bin. When Philip told Nathaniel he had found the Messiah, Nathaniel asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Nathaniel stereotyped all Nazarenes as terrible people. Yet here came Jesus, the sinless son of God, raised in Nazareth. Jesus’ own family treated Him like a stereotypical carpenter with no authority to teach or power to perform miracles (Mark 6:2). The Jews killed Jesus because He didn’t fit their image of a stereotypical king (Luke 19:19-22)! Stereotyping ignores the fact that we’re all unique individuals made in the image of God. When Jesus spoke to people, He always spoke to them as individuals, not as part of a larger group. He didn’t let the stereotype about tax collectors stop Him from calling Matthew to service (Matt. 9:9), or the stereotype about “sinners” stop Him from eating with them (9:11), or the stereotype about Samaritans or women stop Him from speaking to the woman at the well (John 4).
Worst of all, stereotypes kill evangelism. They are the breeding ground for assumption. We assume we know what kind of person they are, what they think about God, and how they’ll react to the gospel simply by the category they belong to in our mental filing system. Stereotypes become a barrier and a dividing wall between “us” and “them,” but Jesus broke those walls down at the cross (Eph. 2:14-15). Not everyone in a denomination is a person who cares nothing about obeying the Lord. They may just be confused. Not every atheist is a militant enemy of Christians. They may just not know what Christianity teaches. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. Not every guy with tattoos and a pony-tail is a hardened ex-criminal. Not every woman dressed immodestly is a harlot only interested in fornication. God created individuals with their own identity, mind, and personality. As Christians trying to help others find Christ, let’s throw out the stereotypes like our Lord did and remember, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4).
