I was listening to the podcast,
“This American Life”. The episode was #605, “Kid Logic 2016”. The podcast was
discussing how children use logic to arrive at conclusions. One story during
the podcast struck me. There was a story of a man whose daughter was four years
old and asked, for the first time, what Christmas meant. He said they went out
and bought a bible and his child wanted to know everything about Jesus. They
taught her about his birth and his teachings. He said that his daughter was
particularly interested in Jesus’ teaching of “doing unto others”. The father
explained to her the meaning of the teaching. He said that one day they were
driving past a big church and out front was an enormous cross. His four year
old daughter asked who was on the cross. The father had neglected to teach his
daughter about the crucifixion of Jesus, but he told her it was Jesus and
explained his death. He said that his message was so radical and unnerving that
they killed him.
A month later after Christmas, on
Martin Luther King Day, he took his daughter to lunch and on the table was the art section of the newspaper. His
child observed a drawing of Martin Luther King Jr. She asked, “Whose that?”.
Her father said that this was a drawing of Martin Luther King Jr. and this holiday
was a celebration of his life. She said, “So who was he”. The father said, “He
was a preacher.” His daughter was excited and asked, “For Jesus?”. He said,
“Yes, yes actually he was, but there was another thing that he was famous for.
He had a message.” The man in the interview explained that I’m trying to
explain this to a four year old and he was very careful about how he phrases
things to her, because this was her first time hearing this information. The
man said to his daughter, “He was a preacher and he had a message” She said,
“What was his message?”. The father explained, “He (MLK) said that you should
treat everybody the same, no matter what they look like.” He said she thought
about that for a minute, then said, “Well, that’s what Jesus said”. The father
said, “Yeah, I guess it is. I never thought about that way. It’s sort of like
do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He said that she thought for
a minute longer and then looked up at her father and asked, “Did they kill him
too?”
I bring this up because Martin
Luther King Day is next week. As parents, we all want what is best for our
children. I believe the best thing we can do for our children is educate them
and explain things truthfully and honestly, according to their stage of development.
A lot of parents feel uncomfortable talking to their children about sex, so
they shield them from questions and redirect children away from these
uncomfortable things. This leaves room for others to teach them about sex,
particularly from children who have been exposed to sex in very unhealthy and
destructive ways.
I bring this up because, there is something else we as
parents don’t like to talk about: Race. We want to shield our children from the
ugliness of racism and protect their little hearts, but this doesn’t grow them
to understand the truth about the world we live in. A majority of white parents
don’t discuss the ugly history of American slavery and racism. We segregate
ourselves from communities of color (white flight) and attend church services
of congregations made up predominately of white people.
There is, however, a shift in the American
Church. This shift is happening in many different congregations across the
United States. Churches, particularly small congregations, are becoming
multi-ethnic/racial. This is happening primarily due to a few things: The
understanding of the cultural mosaic of the Kingdom of God (Rev. 7:9), the
acknowledgment of systemic racism in American culture, the understanding of
disproportionality of people of color that are overwhelmingly impoverished and
imprisoned; and a desire within the church to see justice.
We can no longer wait for our
children to begin asking hard questions. We carry on the message of Christ, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). But, we also cannot
neglect the first part of this commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” I made “mind” bold, because I
believe we often forget that God doesn’t just want our emotions, he wants our
intellect. If we are to address the issues of racism and segregation in the
Church, we must use our intellect.
Many people in the
public square are going back and forth about racism in America. Many white
people are playing it down as if it’s not really a big deal. "White"
people represent the majority in our society. We are the ones with the power, the
political clout, the abundant resources, the better chance at a good life in
this county. I’m not ignoring white poverty. I grew up in poverty and in the
drug culture. I know what a hood is. The difference between me and many of my
black friends that I grew up with is, I was able to recovery from poverty. The numbers
are overwhelmingly disheartening. The majority of minorities live in poverty,
are imprisoned, have their children removed by the state, end up being shot by
the police, end up dying at a young age, etc. Some people show statistics that show
more white people are actually shot by the police. They neglect to understand
disproportionality and how it shows that by population, a larger number of
minorities are in these situations.
There are only two
conclusion that a Christian can come to when looking at the overwhelming
numbers of minorities: Either all minorities are more depraved than
the rest of society, or there is an unseen systemic disease that no one is
dealing with, called racism. If all men are created in the image of God, then
we all have equal opportunity for depravity. We are all equally in need of
Jesus. We are passing on this disease of systemic racism to our children. It
must stop! The change begins in the Church! We must reach our to our
communities, be purposeful about being a muli-ethnic/racial church, and STOP
SAYING THERE ISN’T A PROBLEM, BECAUSE THERE IS!!!
This is worth
fighting for. If we aren’t segregated in heaven, then why are we segregated
now? We have to fight for this. It will get ugly, before it gets better. They
killed Jesus for His message. They also killed Martin Luther King Jr. for His
message also. They just might kill you. If I must die for the sake of the
gospel, then I accept God’s will with joy. But, I will carry this message with
me wherever I go. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. The majority of all
societies have a responsibility to look after the minority. We white,
evangelical Christian men, need to step forward and get on that cross.
