Prosopagnosia

This is a word a friend introduced me to yesterday. It is also called face blindness where though a person will still see parts of a face normally, all the faces may look the same. He said, “Given your devotion this morning perhaps that describes impartiality/no favourites: “we should see all faces as being the same.”  James knew this even before the word was created.

“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 1 v 1-4)

Was this a hypothetical situation? Or had James heard this was happening? What we do know is that though this may seem an exaggerated form it is happening every day and at times very close to us.

• We look at the cover. The outward appearance. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.

We have not got to know this person yet. We have not even entered a conversation with them.

What is it about the person that makes us uncomfortable? What is it that we don’t approve of, or don’t like? The thing is, usually no one knows you are looking at the cover.

• We judge the cover. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes.

We have made an assessment of the value of the person by what we see. But how can what we see determine what is really of value?

• We treat people differently according to how we have categorised them. “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet.”

“To treat a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, because of their race, gender, sexuality etc” according to the Cambridge Dictionary. James knew it without a dictionary, “have you not discriminated among yourselves?” The categories can be quite a long list amongst Christians keen to keep their Church pure.

• We become worse than what we have judged. “…become judges with evil thoughts.”

When we use externals to make quick judgements to change future behaviour all based on bad motives it is called partiality and that is a dangerous and a divisive place to be.

Partiality can lead us to a place of pride and of self-righteousness. So James is saying in order ‘to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ 1 v27, we must not be like this. Acting in this way is actually a rejection of the religion that God accepts. 

Let me end this by going back to my friend and a big shout out to him, Paul Robinson, CEO of Release International, whose founder was the amazing Richard Wurmbrand, https://releaseinternational.org

Paul has a friend, an Anglican Priest who is Eritrean, Dr Berhane Asmelash and recently he heard him speak on the topic of Jars of Clay. “Here (in the West) we make far too much of the jar and we judge by what it looks like but in my country all the jars are cracked so all you see is the treasure.” That was the quote of the day for yesterday!

Ponder on that today as you think on your new word, Prosopagnosia.