Sermon Illustrations

KILLING EACH OTHER OVER RACE

Two million people have been killed during the civil war in the Sudan Region of Africa mostly over race, mostly over skin tone. The name Sudan comes from "bilad al sudan": Arabic for "the land of the blacks." So you might expect Sudanese to be comfortable with the color of their skin. But they're not.

"They are equating black with dullness, so a black person is stupid, automatically a slave," says southerner Agnes Silver Nyarsuk. She explains that Southern Sudanese consider themselves black, while northerners see themselves as Arabs -- and treat blacks as second class.

"For transport, an Arab lady when she enters, the men will stand up and give the place, for an Arab lady, because she's a woman," Nyarsuk says. "But a black lady, even if she is old, and she's shivering, dying, they will not respect because you are automatically a slave."

The differences between north and south might seem like one of religion but that's only a secondary conflict. Most northerners are Muslims. And most southerners follow traditional African religions or Christianity.

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