by Carol Powell

Prior to a year ago, if anyone asked me what nationality I was, I would have said, “I am American of Italian descent.” That was before I sent a sample of my DNA to Ancestry.com.

What a surprise I got! It turns out I am 76 percent European. Seventy percent of that European descent is Italian-Greek interchangeably. Who knew? The other six percent is from the Iberian peninsula and European Jewish.

But the real surprise was that 21 percent of my background was from West Africa. Twelve percent is from the Caucuses. I couldn’t remember where that was, so I went to my smart phone. It’s the area around Western Russia which also contains the country of Georgia. The other part of my West African connection was from the Middle East. The remaining percentage is from North Africa, probably Egypt or Libya.

This exploration into my ancestry blew my mind. How many times we have heard that we are all connected, that we are all brothers and sisters. I started to muse about the fact that we all have two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, 16 great great grandparents, and so on.

How many nationalities were there before that? Do you see where I am going with this?

As far as I know, my grandparents and great grandparents were Roman Catholics. But if there is so much Greek in me, then some of my ancestors must have been Greek Orthodox. What about the Russian connection? There must be Russian Orthodox in there too. Then we have the European Jews, the Middle East and North Africa. Some ancestors were Jewish and Muslim. Is there any nationality or religion that I am not connected to?

All of us should reflect on this when we are tempted to be prejudiced toward any group, when we want to exclude others on the basis of race, nationality or religion. Think of all the people who were involved in making up your genetic code, making you who you are. Millions of people went before each of us, sharing their genetic material, living their lives, loving, suffering, struggling, sinning, loving the country they were part of, worshipping God in the manner they understood.

Some of them were probably wonderful people. Others undoubtedly were cads. The blood of many different peoples flow through our veins, reminding us that we are connected to everyone in God’s world. The idea that one group is better than another is pure foolishness.

What causes trouble in our world is an over-indentificion with any group, however laudable. It’s fine to be proud of our national or religious heritage, but to identify with that group to such an extent that we shun others is ridiculous. This investigation into my past was a reminder that no one is purely anything. Each of us is a combination of many cultures and ways of life. The only thing we can totally identify with is being a creature and child of God. As that beautiful song from the past so well expressed, “We are the world.”