We also need to confess our own. We have all been following the story about John Rocker, the Atlanta Braves relief pitcher who made a series of bigoted remarks about blacks, homosexuals and immigrants. When his ugly words were quoted in Sport Illustrated magazine, the Braves sent him for psychological counseling. Now, that s interesting. It s interesting because, as one article in The New York Times noted, there is a consensus among psychologists and psychiatrists that racism is too common to be considered an illness.
Psychiatrists can diagnose and treat depression, phobias, neuroses.
Those conditions are common and they are treated as illnesses. But racism is more common than any of those, too common to be considered an illness. We in the church have another name for racism and another way to treat it. We call it a sin. And, God knows, sin is common.