Race and the Christian Church

I've grown up as a pastor's kid. My father is the pastor of a Black Southern Baptist Church. My dad has also been a strong proponent of racial reconciliation. Every year, for as long as I can remember, he's had a conference over a weekend in February about racial reconciliation with various pastor's from different racial makeups in the community. And every year, for as long as I can remember, white people seem to be practically non-existent in attendance. Sure, there's a handful of members who came to support their pastor, and the one or two white people who come every year (God bless their souls, really great people, too), and other than that its mostly black people, members from my dad's church, and number of Hispanic people.

Fast forward to the latter half of my First-Year in college and the beginning of my Sophomore year, I regularly attended a white non-denominational church. It was a pretty small church, which I loved, and everyone was friendly and such, but I was also the only black person there. I think by the end of my Sophomore year, I had come to place where I couldn't really deal with the racial isolation (I also started solely attending Mass, instead) coupled with the fact that there was no talk about race or racism or anything having to do with that whatsoever.

And those are the churches I've been privy to. A Black SBC with an emphasis on racial healing and reconciliation to a White Non-Denom Church that didn't have to talk about race at all.

My brother works on his campus, trying to bring about racial reconciliation as well, and he comments that a lot of the white people he talks to use, "But its hard to talk about race" as their excuse to not talk about it.

And perhaps this is my biggest problem with the usual handling of race relations in the church. It tends to become like a diversity rally and its shallowness begins to show. It becomes more about making friends of a different race than it is about acknowledging the real reason we aren't able to be really reconciled racially, which is racism.

Perhaps framing discussions of race in the cloth of "Racial Reconciliation," is not as frightening to people as framing the discussion in terms of "Racism." But what a disservice is being done, and what a stagnant body of work.

Maybe I am just bitter after watching my father work tirelessly in this area, and always having such difficulty getting white people to show up. Maybe I am just tired of White Christians who think just because we love Jesus we should be able to forget about Racism and all have a good time. Maybe I'm just tired of White Christians who say they love me with their lips, but not their actions.

Because if you loved me, you would love me enough to really know me, and not isolate me through your coded white-is-right rhetoric and bs explanations of why things are the way they are in this country. God, if I hear another person say "But I don't think of you as Black."

I'm all for being friends with people of different races and having honest discussions, yadayada, but that is not the point of racial reconciliation. Its not about us all being able to hold hands, cause we can all hold hands now. Its about there being a problem. There being something broken in the world that needs to be set right. That is real reconciliation. Working as fellow believers to set right the injustices of racism is the goal, not learning to be friends. But the great thing about working together with people against injustice is that friendships often do flow out of that work. Real, honest friendships.

If the church wants to see some real growth, some real healing across racial lines, it has to start addressing real obstacles and real wounds, not the consequences of racism. Because when one begins striking at the root of the problem instead of the branches it is a far more powerful action than if one starts with the branches. In fighting racism, institutionalized and overt, in acknowledging racism in our history and in our present, and certainly in our future, in fearlessly confronting the isolation and separation that sometimes comes with this kind of counter-cultural work, only then will walls really start to fall, and only then will we really be able to be unified.

International Blog Against Racism Week

The Week of August 4th through the 9th is International Blog Against Racism Week! Oyceter at livejournal explains how to participate:

1. Announce the week in your blog.

2. Switch your default icon to either an official IBAR icon, or one which you feel is appropriate. To get an official IBAR icon, you may modify one of yours yourself or ask someone to do so.

3. Post about race and/or racism: in media, in life, in the news, personal experiences, writing characters of a race that isn't yours, portrayals of race in fiction, review a book on the subject, etc.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to some blogging against racism!


Cheers! ^_^

Slavery By Another Name

I've been meaning to wath this interview on Bill Moyers show with Douglas Blackmon, author of "Slavery by Another Name." Its an overall insightful and eye-opening interview. I definitely want to read this book now. The book uncovers how many places in the South continued to enslave black people after Reconstruction using petty laws that were overwhelmingly enforced on blacks to return them to forms of forced labor. Hard stuff.

How One Comes to Know

I have been wondering if it is important how one comes to know things, particularly about race and racism. I know somebody who knows about the death of Emmet Till, but only because he's very against abortion and in his readings on abortion Emmett Till's death was used as an analogy to what needs to happen in order for the ugliness of abortion to be exposed, as the ugliness of violent racism was exposed at Till's funeral. Now, I don't have a problem with the analogy, but it seems that the story of Emmett Till is not seeping any deeper than as a argument against abortion, and that seems wrong to me. And so, it makes me wonder, if one comes to know about horrible acts, but they never pierce the psyche, never propel a deeper thinking on the issue, never become something else to explore; if the knowledge is simply there as a footnote to something that is seens as a "bigger", "realer," or "more important," issue, then is that real knowledge?

It it is hard for me to understand white people's lack of desire to know, really know, why things are the way they are in this country. Why there's overrepresentation of blacks in prisons and poverty, why white people are the most segregated people in the country. Saying, "I didn't live around any people of color so I didn't experience racism," is probably one of the saddest things I've ever heard, as the ability for whites to live in areas where there are no people of color is a direct effect and consequence of racism.

Is ignorance really an excuse? But even more than that, is a tiny bit of knowledge fed to an ignorant person going to make any difference? Should it?

Great Is Your Mercy Towards Me

Great is your mercy towards me
Your loving kindness towards me
Your tender mercies, I see
Day after day

Forever faithful towards me
Always providing my needs
Great is your mercy towards me
Great is your grace
-Great is Your Mercy, by Donnie McClurkin


I really have been enjoying Donnie McClurkin's, "Great is Your Mercy," lately. Fantastic song, simple, but definitely a message worth repeating. I think God's mercy has been more than evident to me this summer. With two weeks left before I hit the road and head back to the Nash, it is becoming more apparent to me that I need to weigh in on the greatness that has been this summer. I was somewhat dreading returning home this summer, wanting to stay in Nashville and work and hang out with friends, but God, with the infinite wisdom that can only be ascribed Him, saw where I really needed to be. Perhaps the most important lesson I've learned over this summer is that we're called to be disciplined in virtuous practices. Reading through the bible, it is interesting to see when Jesus would go away by Himself to meet with the Father, and then, at the Transfiguration, his disciples are witnesses to what happens when he goes away. He is transfigured and shining gloriously, he breaks the barriers of time and communes with Elijah and Moses. A beautiful picture of, at once, both the oneness with the Father Christ shared, as well as the oneness with his followers. Seeking that kind of oneness with God and others has become more real to me this summer. There were some dark times, some trying times, but through it all, and with the help of Mr. Thomas Merton's phenomenal, life changing, pure and humbly written, "The Seven Storey Mountain," I came to know what it is like to thirst, not only for the knowledge of truth, but for the presence of truth.

It is one thing to know the truth, but quite another altogether to live it out. Sitting in God's presence day after day, praying the rosary and the chaplet of divine mercy, reading scripture and spiritual books have done my soul and my body good. Learning that contemplation is a key aspect of communing with God has changed my whole approach to living. Learning that prayers of the heart said repeated and remembered throughout the day really do help to focus and realign me, or justify me, if you will. Discovering the mysteries of the rosary has been quite mind blowing, I must say. While on a mental level I had, for the most part, accepted Mary's role as a mediator of graces, but in praying the rosary I truly felt those graces imparted to me. Such joy! Unspeakable joy, when I consider my mother praying earnestly for my soul to be more fully conformed to the image of her son-- when I am captivated by new ways of thinking about Christ's life and mission as well as the Church's and my own.

Thank God for His mercy, for letting me fall when I get prideful. For bringing true repentance that is accompanied by penitence. Thank God for His mercy and grace in allowing me to continue to struggle and fight for what I know is desired for me, holiness, love, oneness with God.

Great is Your Mercy, indeed.

"That they all may be one as the Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us."- John 17:21

The Princess and the Frog

I already posted this on my facebook, I now will post it here.

Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" (2009):

Harry Potter is Awesome

Beth at Endless Books had an awesome blog up yesterday in honor of Harry's birthday. Amazing writing. I like this part:

What fascinates me and makes me realize that Harry is still "Every Man," a picture of a soul that is growing in holiness and sanctification (there’s that alchemical nod) is that it’s not Harry’s willingness to die that *saves Harry.* He is able to walk up to death (with the help and encouragement of his cloud of witnesses, the loved ones who have gone before him) and he is able to take death and essentially go through it and come out on the other side, because the ancient magic, the grace, the power of his mother’s blood refuge is STILL operating. I know we’re told that protection ceases when he comes of age and leaves his aunt’s house. But because that blood still runs in Voldemort’s veins (life running in the midst of death! darkness not being able to overcome it!) that protection is still kept alive. And so Harry lives. Dumbledore tells him that Voldemort's use of that blood tethers Harry to life. What a fascinating phrase. He is still dependent on someone else’s sacrifice (and it strikes me this makes Lily, not Harry or Dumbledore, the key Christ figure in the books).

Good stuff.