Archive for January, 2009
X, Y, Z
Xenophobia, You, and Zeal
Have you ever been so afraid of something that you thought about it all the time? You couldn’t wake up without thinking about it. When you laid your head down at night you were sure it was under your bed. Or in your backyard, plotting to take over the neighborhood or the [...]
Wish
Wish: to want or desire.
John 15:12
John 15:17
I love the book of John. My reconciler’s journey started with that good strong book. When choosing the name we would give our second son, we chose John, which means God is gracious.
The book of John is full of reminders of God’s grace–his favor and compassion toward us. John [...]
Voice
Luke 4:18-19
Pastor David Anderson wrote a small book called Gracism. In the small but powerful book he outlines ways to reach out on the fringes of society and including people into the majority experience, regardless of race or class.
Why?
Because they don’t have a voice.
Caring about people means caring about the situations that affect them.
Uncomfortable
Uncomfortable: uneasy or anxious; not comfortable
There is a South African word that embraces a key essense of biblical racial reconciliation. It is ubuntu. It encompasses generosity, hospitality, and compassion.
In South African is was the spirit of ubuntu that led Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, to invite 2 of his prison guards to [...]
Talk
Talk: to chat, to converse, to dialogue.
“Talk is cheap.”
Or so it would seem. It’s time to redeem talk.
Talking about race can be redemptive, if you let it. All too often we Christians just don’t know how (or choose not too) let talk work for us in the area of race and reconciliation.
It’s time out of [...]
Sensitivity and Sincerity
Sensitivity: having the capacity to understand the emotional responses of others
Sincerity: openness and truthfulness
Ephesians 4:14-16
A brown-skinned girl named Vaughn Campbell was my first best friend. She was 6 and a child in a migrant family. They spoke Spanish and English. I only spoke English. They lived in some ramshackle tenements east of town. The migrant [...]
Reconciliation
Reconciliation: changing for a better relationship between two or more parties
2 Corinthians 5:16-20
I stumbled upon an article online a while back that made me angry. The author, a man of faith I think, said that he didn’t believe racial reconciliation was possible. In his opinion, to be reconciled implied that there had been a conciliatory [...]
Questions
To Question: to inquire, to investigate or interrogate.
“If you don’t know something you better ask somebody.”
I don’t know who said that but I grew up hearing it. If only we all lived by that rule, particularly in the area of racial ignorance.
Point of clarification: ignorance is defined as lacking knowledge or information.
To some [...]
Passion
Passion: (n) a strong feeling or emotion; dedication (also the sufferings of Jesus following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion).
John 4:33-35
I’m told that a writer who writes without passion should not write.
I’m glad no one has broadened that axiom into life in general. In truth, lots of people are passionate about a lot of [...]
Opportunity
Opportunity: a favorable or advantageous chance
Ephesians 5:15-17
Colossians 4:4-6
Billed as a Christian movie, “The Second Chance” had one ‘almost’ S.O.B., a few d words, a few h words, and at least one N word. Christian? My !#$@ foot!
Anyway, the message in the movie outweighs the language. IMO, without the language used in context and in character, [...]
The N Word
Sensitivity Warning: this post contains several instances of the N word, a commonly used racial slur.
The N word: yes, I’m talking about that N word.
(if you are sensitive to the word, don’t read any further).
The N word is not in the Bible. That’s right, I checked. Even in the most contemporary translations. Nigger just ain’t [...]
Mandate
Mandate: an order given that much be obeyed and not questioned.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
It was 1992. I was sitting in a racial reconciliation conference and the speaker said that God had given believers a mandate to be reconciled.
I took offense. His statement was up there with calling all the whites in the room racist or blaming [...]
Love
Love: is a verb.
2 Corinthians 5:10-12
John 14:15
John 21:17
In God’s economy love and obedience go hand in hand. As his children, we show our love by doing what he has commanded us to do.
When I think of this love connection, a conversation between Peter and Jesus comes to mind. It’s a curious almost frustrating exchange between [...]
Knowledge
Knowledge: familiarity, learning, awareness
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
The other day I heard someone say that they had encountered Christians that had no clue that there was such a thing as ‘Christian’ fiction. These believing people, though avid readers, had no knowledge about something that been growing since the mid 70s in the U.S., in fact, thriving of [...]
Jesus
Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, Christ, Savior, Good Shepherd, Redeemer, Deliverer (a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity, circa 4 BC – AD 29), as adapted from wordnetweb
John 1:29
When I was a new Christian, I read the passage above for the [...]
Interdependence
Interdependence: being mutually responsible to and sharing a common set of principles with others.
1 John 3:16
I now have proof that I was dropped on the head as a baby. My mom may never confess but she doesn’t have to, I know the deal. I was dropped.
That’s the only way I can explain my reaction when [...]
Healing
Healing: tending to cure or restoring to health
The person who made up the ’sticks and stones’ axiom never had someone call them a monkey or a jiggabo or chink or a greaser. I could go on but you get the point.
Racial epithets are harmful not just because they hurt feelings but because they cause a [...]
God
God: the Great I am, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Comforter, Counselor, the Beginning and the End
What are God’s expectations of us when it comes to race?
If I included all the Bible passages that pertain to race and ethnicity in the Bible you’d be scrolling for a long time. So here are only one:
Matthew 22:34-40.
One [...]
Forgiveness
Forgiveness: the process of no longer feeling resentment or anger over an offense or mistake, and not demanding restitution, punishment, or repayment.
“Just do it.”
1 Samuel 15:25
Matthew 5:23-24
The other day I was talking to my children about the need for breaking bad habits like talking too much during class and using potty talk. Puzzled, my 6 [...]
Equality
Equality: being of the same value or status
2 Corinthians 8:13-15
“Talents, ideas, abundance left unused will disappear like left-behind manna.”
What does seeking equality mean for you? In the Bible passage it means to seek out fairness. Is it just limited to economic fairness? I think it’s more than that. It points to a higher level of [...]
Discrimination
Discrimination: the unfair treatment of a person or group of people based on a prejudgment; to recognize or perceive a difference.
Discrimination involves perception and judgment. Perception and judgment, by themselves, are good things. When hiring a person, a employer looks for good judgment in a candidate for hire. When picking a life partner, a single [...]
Comfort
Comfort: the state of being at ease, at rest, relaxed, feeling no pain.
“Go and be reconciled to your brother.”
Matthew 5:24
Let’s face it, racial reconciliation is not at all comfortable. There’s nothing easy or relaxing about it. And there is certainly no guaranteed pain-free path to John 17 oneness.
According to Dr. John Perkins, internationally known civil [...]
Culture
Culture: language, beliefs, arts, dress, behaviors, and foods particular to a certain social group
Colossians 3:11
“Why are they all so loud”
“Why do they eat that smelly food?”
“Why do they travel in packs.”
Looking closer at the end of the Colossians verse—the Christ ‘in all.’ If Christ is in all that believe on Him, is He also in [...]
Change
Change: (verb) to make something different or cause a transformation; (noun) to lay aside or abandon, to become something else.
Micah 4:3.
It would seem that 2008 was the year of change. Americans saw things happen on political and economic fronts that we’ve never seen before. The world has changed. Forever.
But what of the church in racial [...]
Bigotry
Bigotry: intolerance based on race, religion, politics, or any other difference.
Famous quotes on bigotry:
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
~ Maya Angelou, author and poet
“Travel is fatal [...]
