Tried With Fire

The following excerpt is from The Happy Christian by David Murray, in which he tells the story of what happened in the checkout line at Walmart. He left this chapter to the end of the book because it may be the hardest for his readers. I appreciate his transparency because this is a hard confession to make: "Wouldn't it be much better if they weren't here? Yes, that's the question that arose in my mind. Followed by: What right do they have to be here? Which suddenly provoked an inner dialogue:     Hey, you're an immigrant yourself, Murray!    Yes, but I'm not a Mexican immigrant.    What's the difference?    Well, I'm white and speak proper English.    So what? Does that make you better than them?    Well, yes ... I mean, no ... I mean..." "It was an unforgettable moment of painful self-discovery. I had to face the facts. I was prejudiced. Racist even. It had been there all along, but it was being exposed in all it...

I have several missionary heroes, and one of them is J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM). My roots hail from China, and the first Christians in my family were my paternal grand-grandmother and my maternal grandparents. Their conversions were the act of the Holy Spirit, of course, but through the means of missionary labor. These unknown saints may not have been associated with CIM, but Taylor left his mark on missions in general and China in particular. European imperialism was sweeping through Asia at the time. Countries were subject to gunboat diplomacy and trade agreements in favor of the conquerors. I don't know if the British opinion of the Chinese was the same as the sentiments in North America , but I think it would be safe to say that there was very little sense of equality. However, Hudson Taylor's attitude was quite different, which is perhaps one of the reasons he is so respected. Taylor adopted the dress, living quarters, eating habits,...