Culture Shock

So the longer I live in Arkansas (or the South) the more I am shocked by how different culture is here. A group of teachers and I were sitting having lunch one day this week and somehow the topic of interracial dating/marriage came up. I won't go into how I feel about that because that's another post in and of itself and it's not really the part of the conversation that shocked me. Eventually the conversation lead to church and one of the teachers said that if a black person were to walk into their church, they would probably be run out the door or at least made to feel uncomfortable enough that they would never return. I know things here are a lot more segregated than back home, but I was floored. How can people who claim to be children of God have so much hatred and prejudice for another human being? Do they not know that Jesus was not the white, blue eyed man portrayed in so many Americanized pictures hung in the fellowship hall. Did they ignore the "baptizing all nations" part of the great comission. Apparently they did not sing "Jesus loves the little children" growing up. It literally made me sick to my stomach that people could honestly feel like that was an acceptable thing to do... that their personal comfort and prejudice beliefs are more important than the kingdom.