Connection or prejudice?

I was getting pretty frustrated at work lately because of non-responsive people. One particular project involves a big company in Europe and getting their attention at all is hopeless. The only contact that I have in this company has been non-responsive himself in helping to locate the person responsible for our case. I finally identified a new contact who could help and emailed him twice in the last 3 weeks. No response. A journalist gave me another contact in the same company that may be able to help, so I emailed him with a reference to this journalist early last week. I was hopeful for a reply. But no response. My journalist associate did mention that if email fails me, try contacting via an introduction through him on an online networking site. After 4 days, I decided to try the online networking site. My message to the contact hasn't changed. But voila, I got a reply immediately! This contact refers me to the original contact so I emailed him for the 3rd time, but this time through the network. And voila, an immediate response the next day!

It's amazing how well this channel works. But at the same time, it annoys me to the max that it should work this way. I just can't understand how the same message from the same person (me) delivered the same way (email) and for one even have the same referral (the journalist) could illicit such different reactions just because of how it came.

People say it's who you know and someone was using it as an analogy for salvation through Christ. Relating to that, I thought my case wasn't dissimiliar to Catholics who can only get through to God through their priests. I also thought unlike these contacts, Jesus doesn't treat people who approach him differently. They all have equal access to him, which is clearly not the case with my contacts.

Perhaps in business, you have to behave differently. But last week, I also emailed a VP of a big company in the UK and I got immediate response. So I concluded that it's the individual's value of others and partly the company's culture that shape the way people treat others.

I relate that to the Church and came to think that in the same way, how our church react and treat each other shows how much we value each individual. It also reflects our understanding of the scriptures and how and what the leadership of the church encourages its flock.

Jesus was interested and value each individual because everyone is made in the image of God. Whether we are at church or at work, are we treating and valuing people the way that Jesus would? Or do we relate and treat them based on the world's understanding?