Our system of government allows us to choose our leaders in free and fair elections; to participate in our government; to expect that the laws will be applied equally to everyone. Of course, In order for our system to work well, citizens have to respect the laws and each other. Our Pledge of Allegiance includes doing this “under God.” Respecting and affirming each other are vitally important. We find in Acts chapter 10 that God stressed to Peter that Gentiles deserved to become members of God’s family just as he was. He was not to look down on them as God-forsaken and unworthy to be members of God’s family. After his rooftop experience when a heavenly voice told him never to call unclean what God had made clean, Peter got the message. When he entered the home of Cornelius, the first thing he told this gathering of Gentiles was this: “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” Peter’s words remind us we must treat all people with respect—irrespective of their ethnicity, economic level, or social status. That is because each person is created in God’s image.
