Forgive
me if this is going to seem terribly and painfully naïve, but I am at my core a
simple soul or as some say a simpleton. I am not a black person and have no personal
understanding of what it means to be black in America today. I don’t think many people today understand
what it means to be black in America over the last 400 years. The issues of race, slavery and America are
highly convoluted, political and touchy issues.
As such, some people (but not all) will exploit this issue for their own
self-serving agendas. It seems that
there is no space for any disagreement that is not labeled in the most extreme
terms. I recently read of an athlete
that interpreted, “I’m tired of listening to your rap music,” as a racist statement. Perhaps it was a purely racist statement
meant to hurt, maybe it was simply a statement of musical preference. But this illustrates the point that in our
current context almost everything is interpreted emotionally.
Here’s
the point, the emotions are running high and are real. They may be the legitimate reaction of a lifetime
of pain or they may be the overreaction of a herd mentality; however, the
emotions are nonetheless real. The
Daughters of the Confederacy are hurt when they see statues taken down. The
emotion is real. I will not debate whether
that emotion is legitimate or not I am simply saying it is real. Have you every tried to tell a person with
depression that they have no reason to be depressed? How effective was logic in battling
depressing? Emotions do not generally submit to logic. Is porn logical? Absolutely not, it is in every way
stupid. People do not beat any emotional
struggle or addiction by logic.
In
the charged atmosphere we are in now, any act that can possibly be interpreted
as racist will provoke an emotional reaction.
A Confederate battle flag on the top of a 1969 Dodge Charger may have
nothing to do with racism. It may have
everything to do with teenage hormones excited by Daisy Duke, but my guess that
today that latter interpretation would be impossible.
Equally
impossible is to effectively resolve what is going on simply by the sway of
argument, debate, and/or political power.
This conflict reaches into the very core of what we believe about this
nation and its history. With powerful
emotions rooted in different understandings of a long history we can’t extricate
ourselves by reason alone; in fact, we can’t extricate ourselves at all. However,
we can build a better future. But I
believe the window of opportunity for this better future is closing and if we
miss it we will miss a great opportunity for the Kingdom. We may spiral into a situation where the chasm
between people is so vast that we will not be able to reach across for many
generations. Consider the situation in
the Balkans.
So,
here is my simpleton’s opinion. We need
to pray for each other’s healing over the hurts and wounds we have. The hurts are real even if they are not
legitimate. Legitimacy is not the issue.
The healing only God can bring is the issue.
The most terrifying thing Jesus said to disciples is recorded in Matthew
18:35. Having told the parable of the unmerciful
servant, which concludes with the king turning the un-merciful servant over to
“the torturers” for what appears to be perpetual torture, Jesus utters a
horrific judgment. “So shall My heavenly
Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your
heart.”
I
cannot demand that black people forgive all the real and imagined evil they
have suffered. I cannot demand that
white people forgive all the real and imagined evil they have suffered. What I can do is ask God to heal my hurt and
help me to forgive and offer to pray for and with others that their hurts can
be healed as they forgive. We can argue till the Resurrection who did what to
whom and we will likely accomplish nothing.
Much more effectively we can reach out to those on the other side of
this growing chasm and ask for their help in praying for us and offer to pray
with them and for them.
We
better hurry, we are only one knuckle-head away from vigilante bloodshed and
from that, turning back is much more difficult.
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