I pledge allegiance to God

Think of a time when you have wronged someone.  Take one minute and actually think of that time.

If you're like me, it might take you a while to actually pull up a memory of us doing something wrong to another.  Or maybe you were quick to think of something, but refrain from going through the details of that circumstance.  Either we can quickly justify our actions, or maybe we blame someone else, or maybe we try to forget and erase those things from our long term recollections because it's too difficult to remind ourselves just how messed up we can be.  As I've been repeatedly reminded in my counseling classes this semester, it is so much easier to point out other people's faults than our own, and yet the Bible teaches us to first get the plank out of our own eyes before we can get the speck of dust out of our brother's.  As I talked about in the previous blog entry, we choose which burdens (our own or other's) in life we want to carry.  It is much easier to turn your face away from someone else's suffering than to engage it, help carry it, and help try to bring someone out of a struggle or painful circumstance.

Think of a time when America has wronged a particular group of people.  Again, take a minute to think of that people group.

If you're familiar with what I do for a living, you may already be anticipating where I'm going with this blog.  There are probably many more examples, but the two that dominate the front of my mind our Native Americans and African Americans.  We don't talk much about Native American rights these days, mainly because, well, we've taken most of their land and much of their way of life.  We don't listen to those voices anymore.  Secondly, African Americans have been "wronged", to put it lightly, and continue to be wronged to this day, yet many can live unaffected by the day-to-day struggle and confusion of the predicament that many black people find themselves in.  "But Andrew, I wasn't part of the Native American genocide.  And I'm always nice to black people whenever I see them.  They are just another person to me.  I don't see race."  Although you may not be directly involved with causing the suffering of certain people groups in this country, our turning-our-faces-away has perpetuated and legitimized the unjust systems many have to live with.

If you have Netflix, please watch 13th.  I watched this documentary about the 13th Amendment and my heart broke.  Growing up, I learned about Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, some of the Civil Rights Movement, feeling like racism and hatred was from way in the past.  Now 28, I'm amazed this movement was only like 50 years ago.  I just assumed things were better for black people now.  Where this may be true for some, it is not the case for most.  This documentary was difficult to watch but I couldn't turn my face away.  Given the chance to hear someone's entire story of suffering uninterrupted by my assumptions and comments, I had to watch.  Living in a neighborhood with mostly black people, I feel the weight of this history in their families, their schools, their streets. 

As a staff at 2nd Mile, we started watching this documentary.  We watched the first half last week.  Having white and black coworkers made the experience so much sweeter, harder, stronger.  Our boss (black) broke down in tears when describing his heart for the African American male.  Our high school director (black) broke down in tears when sharing about his murdered friend and how this friend can't meet his white church's definition of a real man because this friend has never seen one.

Colin Kaepernick.  Chances are if you know who he is, you have an opinion on this guy.  Those against him talk of the disrespectful stance towards the flag, America, those who died for this country.  This view, like any conflict with anyone ever, involves a perspective that has nothing to do with his reasons for kneeling during the anthem.  Do you know his reasons for kneeling?  If you do, did you hear these reasons from him or another source?  More importantly, if you talk about these things (with words from our mouths not words put online), who do you talk to about these things?  People that will agree with you?  People that won't object or are too scared to offer their opinion to you?  If interested, here's Kaepernick's Press Conference.

In America, people today have to deal with the evil and sinful decisions of people who lived hundreds of years ago.  The ripple effects of that evil are rampant in areas like where I live.  Nobody wants to take ownership of these evils because it's easy to deflect.  The reason Black Lives Matter and phrases like police brutality and white privilege are in conversations today are not just trying to have something to argue about.  People are dying!  People are struggling to survive every day!  And obviously it's not just black people.  But black people have a unique American history, one of great suffering that we choose to turn our faces from and ignore.

So what do we do?  How can such a big problem like this be rectified?  Let's first diagnose a smaller conflict.  If I say hurtful words to my wife and have wronged her, how do I rectify that situation?  I own my wrong and I apologize.  I do what I can to right the wrong and ask, sometimes beg, for forgiveness.  Does this process translate to big things such as genocide, racism, slavery, etc.?  I believe so.  Often before I apologize to my wife, there's is a conversation where her feelings trump mine.  As Kaepernick states, there needs to be a conversation, an understanding as to what has happened.  There needs to be a collective of white people taking ownership (however relevant).  There needs to be an extension of love, actual equality, and above all else a big huge and truly HUMBLE apology, seeking forgiveness.  One of white America's biggest corporate sins is pride and selfishness.  How does an entire majority of a country collectively make this apology?  That seems insane.  Well, I believe nothing short of a Great Awakening can accomplish this.  As I need to get right with my wife, I also need to get right with God, who I have ultimately offended by my sin.

The way these elections are shaping up, it can be easy to feel hopeless, like we are getting further away from God, from any sort of reconciliation between white and black.  Often times in the Bible, Israel would go further and further from God before coming back to him.  This country, although in pretty bad shape, is hopefully closer to humility, closer to realizing how far we've turned away from God, and how little we have taken God seriously, even us proclaiming to be Christians and lovers of the things of God (justice and mercy).

I encourage you to be humble when in conflict, quick to apologize and own your wrongdoing despite how right and justified you feel.  Lastly, please watch 13th if you can.  It is powerful and humbling.  Let me know your thoughts if you do.  We can have a conversation about it!