Rev. Barbara Lundblad told the following story in a sermon:              

I have a friend who is a pastor in Jersey City. A few years ago she brought a parishioner into New York City for cancer treatment at Sloan Kettering Hospital. Rather than return home, she spent the waiting hours at my apartment on the third floor of the church where I was a pastor. I left for a morning meeting; my friend stayed into the afternoon. As she was walking downstairs to leave, a longtime member of the church was walking up. "Oh, hello," she said to my friend. "Were you here to clean Pastor's apartment?"

Rev. Lundblad continued:  Now, why did she ask that question? There were many other things she could have said. She didn't know my friend so she had no way of knowing that my friend is a gifted guitarist and songwriter. She graduated with honors from Girls' High in Philadelphia and later from the Lutheran seminary in that same city. She's a caring pastor and a passionate preacher. So why did our church member assume my friend had come to clean my apartment? You know, don't you? My friend is African-American. 

What do people think of you, and why do they make their assumptions?  If you indicate to others that you are a Christian, what do they think then?   

Many seem to feel contempt for people of faith in today’s culture.  The words and actions of some who wear their “Christianity” on their shirtsleeves have a deleterious effect on the opinion of observers, and the rest of us suffer for it. 

I think a different witness is called for in a world already ruptured by bitterness, division and alienation.