The Foundations of the Earth: all aspects of Earth

I find it interesting that Kenan titles his short piece "The Foundations of the Earth." I think he does this because this short story simply touches on all aspects of individual differences we come into contact with throughout life.  We engage in conflicts with religious hypocrisy, racial inequality, and sexuality within a lifespan, especially within the modern era in which we live today.  We first see the religious hypocrisy at play in this story.  Maggie has issues with the homosexuality, interracial relationship, and the broken "covenant" of keeping the Sabbath day holy.  We also see that Maggie is unhappy about the fact that her grandson is a homosexual, "to throw his sinful lust for her grandbaby in her face" (57).  We next see where racial inequality is an issue.  The story states, "how dare he?  This pathetic, stumbling, poor trashy white boy" (57).  Not only was her grandson's homosexuality bad enough, but he was engaging in it with a white boy.  A DOUBLE WHAMMY!  It is interesting, however, that it was Maggie's Christianity in which teaches her to respect these aspects of life.  Her Christianity helps her realize that they are not only aspects that she must respect, but also foundations that life builds itself upon.  Maggie finally asks, "But don't you want to be normal?" (64), and Gabriel answers with, "Mrs. W, I am normal" (64).  It is at this point I feel that Maggie realizes that these individual characteristics of people (religion, sexuality, and race) are only aspects of people that should be respected, not aspects of people that define them as good, bad, or punishable by her opinion.