STEREOTYPES

We made ready. We opened our doors, our hearts, our wallets to them and they did not come, at least not in the droves we expected. When they were asked, “Who wants to go to Iowa ?” not many raised their hands. They thought to themselves, “ Iowa ? Why would I want to go to Iowa ? All there is is corn, corn and more corn. What do I know about corn? I’m from the south where we grow cotton.” And so they kept their hands to their sides and we took down the cots and lowered our expectations about how many refugees would come stay with us at least for a while.

   Stereotypes: we all have them and we all are somehow controlled by them. The word actually means something that is solid, typical, has a real basis in fact. Yet all too many of our stereotypes are anything but. They are generalizations with some truth to them but so general that there is more untruth than truth.

   Over the years I have trod, albeit briefly in many cases, on the soil of forty-seven of the Lower Forty-Eight. And during those years whenever my spouse and I considered moving, we always had a short list of states to which we might want to relocate. How did we make that list? What were the criteria we used?

   Well, to be honest, I suspect 90% of it was and is based on our perceived stereotypes. California is too crowded and too expensive. The south is always too hot, has too many bugs and would certainly not welcome a Yankee. Montana is both beautiful and barren; Wyoming , simply barren; the Southwest is too dry and too brown; the Dakotas are too cold; the Northeast is wonderful but lives at too fast a pace for us. The East Coast: one large traffic jam. Nevada ? Please. West Virginia : Jedd Clampett and the Beverly Hillbillies. Oh, wait a minute. Arlena was born there and I served there for seventeen years: wonderful State – but I’d have never known it if my decision to accept a call there had been based on my conceived stereotype of “almost heaven”.

   I had never visited West Virginia before accepting a call there. Ditto for Northwestern Pennsylvania , Spokane or Cedar Rapids . First impressions were all good but also no more valuable than stereotypes. We know that but all too often we make life decisions based on those first impressions and/or stereotypes. Sometimes we get lucky and are blessed, as I have been throughout my ministry. Sometimes just the opposite is true. And sometimes we miss out on a wonderful opportunity because our stereotype truly prejudiced our decision.

   What we do with states we also do with individuals. We stereotype them and then make decisions and value judgments based on those stereotypes. Sometimes the stereotype fits. More often than not it does not because, as with states, stereotypes never get beyond first impression or go further than skin deep.

   Those who chose not to come to Iowa based on their stereotyped conception of who we are do not know what they have given up. That is their loss. When we make decisions about where we will live, with whom we will associate, about how people think or act based on our preconceived stereotypes, we are the losers.                       WJP