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Tag: racism

When does a person become a Supreme Court Justice?

June 4, 2020 /

When does a person become a Supreme Court Justice?

Is it when they are nominated to the position by the President and confirmed by the Senate?
Is it when they were appointed to a lifetime appointment on the Federal Bench?
Is it when they went to work for a prestigious law firm?
Is it when they served as a clerk for a Supreme Court justice?
Is it when they were admitted to a top law school?
Is it when they were admitted to their undergraduate institution?
Is it when they graduated from high school?
Is it when they attended a well funded and supplied elementary school?
Is it when they had access to health care and food on the table as a child?
Is it when their parent was paid a livable wage?
Is it when their mother had access to prenatal care?

The answer is, YES, to all of these. And the break in any one link the chain can close the door for a person sitting on the bench. When we speak of systemic racism, it is a recognition all of life is a connected system, and injustice in one link can have dramatic implications on another.

I am not a fan of affirmative action. I think that a person should be selected based solely on their skills and ability to perform the job. I think that colleges should not be required to admit certain students but should be allowed to choose the best and brightest regardless of skin color or gender. I think that employers should be allowed to have workforces that are made up of the best for the job and not be required to consider race or gender in their hiring practices. I think that the color of a person’s skin or whether they are male or female should not matter. We should base these opinions solely on who is the best for the job.

So what do we do when we see a lack of diversity in the workforce, on our college campuses, in government jobs, in the pulpits of our churches? We say the reason a woman, a Hispanic or an African American, was not hired for the job is that none applied, or there were none qualified who applied. And it is true. But it also hides another truth. The reason none were qualified is that none were given a chance to be qualified.

I wish I could say that left to themselves, employers, healthcare, church, and education systems will choose to do what is right. But we know better. Left to ourselves, we will all choose the path of greatest comfort and familiarity. A way that will not open the door.  A path that will draw red lines around who is in and who is outside of our community. It is for these reasons these programs are put into place. On our own, we will remain blind to what we must do and have been doing.

When does a person become a Supreme Court Justice . . . today.

Blessings,
Stephen

Today’s resource is the video Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man shared with me by a friend. The video is produced by Emmanuel Acho who is a former NFL Player and current ESPN analyst. Acho answers many of the questions we have. Watch it HERE.

I Am Not the Expert in the Room

June 3, 2020 /


The old dictionary Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” If you are like me, no matter how many times I read that definition, I still don’t understand what it is. And it certainly does not help me to see it in the community around me. As hard as it is to define with words, I have learned this about racism: Racism always has a better explanation.

This is what I mean, sometimes I have listened to the news and said these things myself:

  • It was not police brutality; he was resisting arrest. He should have done what the officer told him to do.
  • He may have been jogging, but he was also trespassing on a construction site.
  • When a police officer pulls a young black man over, and the first question he asks is, “what are you doing on this side of town?” It’s not racism, its just an officer wanting to ask something other than “Where are you headed to in such a hurry tonight?”
  • When a cashier accuses a man she just rang up of not paying for items as he walks out of the store, it is only a simple mistake.
  • She didn’t call the police because he was black, he made threatening motions.
  • It looked like a gun.
  • He was running away.
  • When a young dies in the back of a police van because he was not strapped in correctly, it is only a tragic accident.
  • She made a threatening motion.
  • When I feel the urge to cross to the other side of the street because a black man is coming toward me, I say I am just being careful.

This is of the muddy mess of racism that we must wade into. Sometimes the explanation is the explanation; often it is not. How do we know? I have learned that I can’t know. I have also learned that African Americans have lived under the weight of racism for so long they often intuitively know the difference. What this means for me is that I must put aside what I think I know and my explanations and be willing to listen. I must trust that my African American (or Hispanic, or Native American)  friend sees, hears, and knows better than I. I am not the expert in the room.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Today’s resource I want to share is the book The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby. Tisby challenges the church to see how we have often participated in and supported the systems to maintain racist ideas and practices. Tisby does more than shine light into darkness, he also helps us plot a path forward. In addition to the book, there is also a podcast episode on Fuller Theological Seminary’s Conversing with Mark Labberton, Episode 51 – Jemar Tisby on Race and the American Church I would also highly recommend.

I like to keep the peace

June 2, 2020 /

I like to keep the peace. Really I do. Conflict is painful and hard for me. I try to see the other side of things. I do not like to disturb the status quo. I do not merely dislike conflict; I feel conflict. It weighs like a million pounds upon my body. The single act of speaking up may last only a moment, but I will mull it over for days, months, even years. I have always been this way (and some of you already know my Enneagram number). What I am writing is not easy.

As a pastor, I have prided myself on having relationships and friendships with people across a diversity of spectrum from the very liberal to the very conservative. I firmly commit that all are welcome in the doors of the church. As we worship together, every one of us lays our experiences, ideologies, and commitments at the feet of Jesus to be examined and confronted by the Holy Spirit. Every one of us has sin within our hearts. Everyone one of us is in need of confession. Every one of us needs transformation of our whole being. Transformation by the Spirit of God happens within the practices and community of the church. If we cannot welcome all, then we cannot all be changed. Those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus love our neighbor because God first loved us. We forgive because we were forgiven. We show grace because we were first shown grace. My commitment and welcome to all remains unchanged.

But because of my commitments, I also resist speaking up. Particularly in the forums of social media and blog posts when understanding is so hard to be had. I also resist speaking because I know I can never fully get away from my role as a pastor. I tell myself that I do not want to engage my church in complicated, painful discussions. I do not want to alienate. I do not like people angry with me or our church. I do not like it when people leave the church because we do not agree and feel like we cannot speak to one another.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to be in Berlin, Germany. In front of some of the homes are small square brass markers. They mark the home of a Jew who as taken away by the Nazis.

Many of us want to say, that if we had lived in those times, in Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands, we would have spoken up to stop the rise of the Nazis. We want to believe we would have hidden Jews within the walls of our homes. I want to say I would have been that person, I think I would have been the one who kept silent. Fear would have ruled the day.

All around us our black and brown brothers and sisters are crying out for us to speak up. To no longer be silent. To no longer dismiss their pain. They are dying around us. Recently, I participated in a conversation hosted by the leadership of my denomination. I offer here some of the bullet points from this conversation to help us begin to think more deeply and have the courage to speak up:

  • We cannot change our history but we can change our future. 

For over four hundred years the evil virus of racism has permeated our American culture. We can learn about our history and lament and grieve. We show the pictures of King marching arm and arm with white people in peaceful protest. We do not show the next picture of police dogs, beatings with batons, and water cannons turned on them. This is part of the story too.

  • Stop taking it personal.

As a white person, I swim the sea of my privilege. Like a fish may be unaware of the water around them I often do not feel or think of its existence. To be told that I am in the water is not a personal attack on me. It is just a statement of reality.

  • Stop minimizing another’s pain.

I do not have to understand another’s pain to be able to sit with them and mourn and grieve. Just because I don’t see it or feel it does not make it unreal.

  • Sin is the problem.
  • Favoritism is the problem.

You are not the problem, you are part of the solution. The Bible has a lot to say about sin and favoritism. Staying silent. Failing to learn. Failing to listen. Failing to seek to understand. These are not options. We can be part of the solution.

Let me say that again: You are part of the solution.

As I said in my note yesterday, each day I will offer you resources. Below are two videos (they may not be visible in the e-mail, just click the link to go to the message online and you will see them).

The first is an interview with Carl Lentz and Biship T.D. Jakes, the second is one with Charlie Dates and Beth Moore. 

Blessings,
Stephen

 

 

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Cower or Fight: Building Trust

July 11, 2015 /

Man and Dog

I have been driving the same truck for nineteen years. I can’t change it. It has a little button. A wonderful, great and glorious marvel of modern engineering. The likes of which I have not found in vehicles before or since. The “scan” button. With the press of the button, my radio will automatically advance to the next station it finds with adequate signal strength. You may be saying to yourself, “my car has such a button.” But here is where you are mistaken. Many vehicles have a “seek” button, even my relic has such. This button advances you to the next station found and stops. Many vehicles also have “scan” buttons, but these advanced forward to the next programmed station. My button is unlike these. Mine is a triumph of automotive auditory engineering. With the press of this little beauty, my radio will advance to the next signal it finds but only pause there for a few seconds before automatically advancing again to the next signal of strength, repeating this process perpetually until commanded to stop. For those who have made TV channel surfing an Olympic sport, this wonder brings your years of training into the automobile. Many times I can be found driving and listening to forty-seven radio stations, all at the same time. It is a thing of beauty. Almost brings a tear to the eye just to think about it.

It was on one of these radio binges that I was caught by the words of a preacher. I do not know his name. I do not know the church he was preaching in. I do not even know what radio station he was on. But the words I heard were like a flash of light to my understanding.

We have all seen the pictures of dogs beaten and abused. From a distance, they look like normal friendly animals. But when you step up close and stick out your hand to scratch him on the head a switch in the dog’s psyche goes off and memories of past abuse flood the mind of the dog. Instinctively the dog will cower in terror or run. Other dogs will have the opposite reaction. Fear will overwhelm them and they will lash out in anger striking at the hand extended in love and friendship. This preacher made the connection that African Americans are like the beaten dog. For centuries, they have been abused and excluded in our society. Abuse that all too often continues today.

I remember recently seeing a friends post to Facebook in response to the swimming party debacle in Texas: “If you are not guilty don’t run.” Great advice, unless your life experience has been one of injustice and abuse. Then the prudent thing to do is to run . . . or fight. The history of beatings and abuses of power by those in authority against African American people in our country is long and well documented. The passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865 may have abolished slavery, but it did not change human hearts or behavior. The abolition of segregated schools in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not change human hearts or behavior. We still have a very long way to go.

One final observation. If I wish to regain the trust of the beaten dog. The one whose natural reaction is to cower or bite. On whom does the greater burden of trust building rest, on me or the dog? The answer is obvious: On me. This is the great challenge we all face and the even greater challenge faced by our law enforcement. Centuries of abuse cannot be erased from the human psyche in a day or with the passage of law. Many well-meaning officers have reached their hand out to members of their community in love and friendship only to be bitten. But we must not give up the hard work of gaining trust.

In my next post, the last of this series, I will offer some insights on a way forward for each of us. In the meantime, I welcome your comments and thoughts. Please visit our website and post them below this post or make them on Facebook.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

What are you looking through?

July 2, 2015 /

camera lens

It was always there. That cannot be refuted. Its presence was not always seen or felt, but it came into focus one morning listening to a broadcast on NPR.

The broadcast brought together two women, close friends, a reporter and a police officer.

The reporter: An African American woman. Schooled in journalism. Trained to see what is not seen and to communicate knowledge to others.

The police officer: A caucasian woman. A veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Together these women would watch the video of Eric Garner being wrestled to the ground by officers of the NYPD and hear Eric’s pleading words, “I can’t breathe.”

Together they would watch the same video but it seemed as if they were watching something completely different from the other. Over and over again the officer would watch the scuffle and say “he is resisting, he is resisting.” The reporter couldn’t see it. All she could see was a man profiled for his race and the victim of excessive police force. By the end of the report, you could hear the strain in each woman’s voice. The tension came through the radio and I suspect their long friendship was hanging on by a thread.

What kept these two women, watching the same video, from seeing the same thing? Lenses.

A lens focuses our attention. In days past, to take a picture, one had to manually adjust the camera’s lens’ to bring into focus that which you were taking a picture of. Two people could stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon. One might choose to focus their lens on the small yellow flower struggling to bloom on the canyon’s edge. Another might take the same picture but instead focus on the vast expanse of the Arizona skyline. Both pictures are an accurate representation of what each photographer saw and chose to emphasize.

Each of us sees our world through a unique lens. A lens honed by the experiences of our life. Most of us never give any thought to the lens through which we are looking at the world and in so doing, fail to realize that our lens is distorting our perceptions, allowing us to see some things and to not see other things. As the two women watched the same video neither could see what they other saw, because of their lens.

I began to wonder what my lens might be. I wondered what I might be seeing and what I might not be seeing because of how my life had honed my lens of perception. The truth is we cannot escape our experience and the way it will change the way we see the world around us but we can recognize that it is there.

I still cannot fully comprehend the protests in Florida, Missouri, Maryland and other places. But I can believe they are seeing this world differently than I.

For each one of us, step back and ask: Could there be another perspective I am not seeing? When I do not understand how another cannot see what seems so obvious to me ask: What life experiences might this person have had that causes them to see what they see?

Knowing we have a lens leads us forward to a path of understanding.

Pastor Stephen

Living the Dream

January 15, 2012 /

Today would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 83rd birthday, and on Monday much of our nation will commemorate his legacy.

In response to a published statement made by eight fellow clergymen on April 16, 1963, King penned his much-read open Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I remember studying this letter in high school. It intrigued me so much that I wrote to the Birmingham Public Library to obtain a copy of the letter that had been written by the eight clergymen. Somewhere in my files, I still have the original letter I received in reply. In King’s letter from the jail, he speaks greatly of his disappointment with the church and its failure to speak out against the injustice faced by the black community.

‎”In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love . . . But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.”

Sadly, many of the issues that precipitated the civil rights movement of the 1960s still remain today. Racism, segregation, poverty, limited opportunities, etc. Though not as obvious as a color bar next to a door, the tensions have gone underground and continue to divide our society. They are challenges faced not only by the African American, but also by Somalis, Hispanics, Asians, and Arabs.

In Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Two thousand years later, we still struggle to live the truth of these words. Yet two thousand years later, the church in Christ Jesus remains the greatest hope for true peace and unity in our community.

Stephen

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