Racist neighbors

Could be worse. Years ago my wife and I were looking for a church to attend. One person told my 5 year old daughter that her mother was going to hell because she is Catholic. (Needless to say we did not go back to that particular church.) At least this mom is cordial.

Is the mom’s name Karen, perchance?

You say Super-Christian - but she’s clearly not, she’s a bigot.

And from the tone of your posts, you want everybody to get along. So an option is not to broach the matter from the “Muslim family are decent why can’t we all get along” angle (because they are not the problem) but instead ask her: why she calls herself a Christian when her behavior is not; what example is her hating other people (not very Christian) setting for the kids who interact with her kids and therefore see her behavior and thirdly, the killer: where did she learn her racism - because if she reaches deep into her Christian soul she will find that she is not on the righteous path. Amen.

Racism persists unless it is addressed. Also @SpaceLobster is right, above, you can’t (usually) fix stupid. We all don’t like to see it but passivity keeps it entrenched.

1 Like

Yeah I could take that approach and confront her. But I’ve known folks like this my whole life and I can have the entire conversation in my own head:

“why she calls herself a Christian when her behavior is not“ — I’m following the Bible and the Bible says … you are not Christian so bless your heart you just don’t get it.

“what example is her hating other people (not very Christian) setting for the kids who interact with her kids and therefore see her behavior” — This isn’t hate. Islam is evil bc that’s what God says. I don’t want my children corrupted by evil. I’m protecting them. But that’s not hate.

“where did she learn her racism - because if she reaches deep into her Christian soul she will find that she is not on the righteous path.“ — this isn’t racism. Same as it’s not hate.

We don’t hate. We just want to protect ourselves and our vulnerable children from the evil devil child who might want to ride bikes with our child.

:woman_facepalming::face_vomiting:

Weighing in belatedly…

I definitely don’t think you can challenge wacko mom or she will dig in. And as a non-Christian yourself you don’t have much credibility to tell her she’s not doing Christianity right. (To be clear: she’s not doing Christianity right, but you really can’t tell her that. Only a close trusted Christian has a chance of getting through to her on that score: ideally a respected pastor/priest.)

But you can make a point to model non -bigoted behavior in front of her.
-Get a “hate has no home here” flag for your yard.
-Mention how much you adore neighbor girls and how happy you are that SD is friends with them.
-Talk up the family in other ways. Neighbor husband was SO helpful diagnosing your plumbing issue. Neighbor wife has the MOST delicious recipe for Moroccan Lentil Soup. Neighbor daughter is THE BEST algebra study partner, whatever positive you can say (that’s true obviously).

And to the extent that you can play up your husband’s and SD’s Christianity and agreement with those sentiments will lend credibility.

The goal is to nudge the neighbor to realize that being loving and accepting of non-Christians does not make her any less Christian… in fact it makes her more so. (At least this would be my goal.)

Model the behavior you wish to see.

Have your husband or SD work in some connection to either the parable of the sheep and the goats (ok but not ideal because it has a focus on charity) or the parable of The Good Samaritan (better because it’s focus is literally on neighbors) when possible.

Obviously this is not something you’d do in the space of a 10 minute conversation, but subtlely over months or years.

That’s my $0.02.

1 Like

For reference, as these are goodies that even non-Christians will respect and that make honest “Christians” such as wacko mom (if she is honest with herself) squirm:

(emphasis mine)

““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25:31-46‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭10:25-37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Well, people criticize Neville Chamberlain for appeasement, but he did so at a time when Great Britain was not strong enough to engage Hitler. By doing so, he bought some time for the allies to prepare, or so I heard.

So what I’m saying is you should give your neighbor pieces of your lawn to lure them into a false sense of superiority while you prepare for the decisive blow.

Thanks Twig and others who responded.

I didn’t mention before that in between Good Neighbors and Whackos lives another family who is like me. Same with neighbors across from them (2 doors down from us). When the election results were clinched the Saturday after the election, I along with all those neighbors were outside, as were Whackos and all of us except Whackos were openly and loudly celebrating the news. (Good Neighbors were not outside for that). SD asked me a couple of times about the results because Jane kept insisting that the election wasn’t over. I was kind but assured SD “Yes - it’s over. Biden won.”

This may or may not have been the last straw for them. In any event: Guess who’s moving! “To be closer to their church”. :clap:

3 Likes