Black History Month 2 — (Blog 12)

“Learning from a Movie”

In the previous post about Black History Month, I mentioned the movie, “Something the Lord Made.” I further mentioned that the father and both of his sons viewed and approached their lives differently, with each having something to teach us. The father wasn’t blind to the racist attitudes in his world, but he was very grateful for progress. Life for the black man, in spite of its sad deficiencies, had improved greatly since his grandfather had been a slave. We all have things in our lives that are good and we all have things in our lives that are bad. If we focus exclusively only on one extreme, we are going to miss the big picture and fail to find the spiritual balance that God would have us find.

What Do We Learn From the Father?

As individual disciples, if we focus only on what is not to our liking, we will remain frustrated and miserable. Some choose this path in spite of the multiple biblical passages that tell us to keep our main focus on our blessings. On the other hand, if we don’t deal with the things that are not good in our lives and in the lives of others, we fail to experience change and growth in ourselves and we fail to help others with their burdens. Reality is, well, real. It must be faced but faced with God’s help and by his directions. As a follower of Jesus, I am very thankful that I am not what I once was, but at the same time, I am not satisfied to remain where I am. I’ve a lot of growth yet to experience in becoming more like Jesus. Thus, I am grateful for my progress, and content today, but not content to remain where I am. I am intent on making much more progress in the future.

Has the black person’s plight improved in America? For many, yes ─ like the father in the movie, certainly in comparison to slave days and even what followed them. More and more black people are improving their status in life through education and hard work, and I can assure you that for many, it is much improved since my youth. Many African Americans are famous people, primarily in the entertainment industry and in the sports world, but more and more are moving up the ladder, so to speak, in their lives generally. In fact, it has become politically quite incorrect to show overt racism, especially voiced in racial slurs, and a person can lose their job if they demonstrate such in the workplace. So yes, progress has clearly been made.

Progress, and Yet…

However, the large majority of black folks are not enjoying this improved status, and even those who are have to consistently face racist attitudes, even if they are now expressed  with more subtlety. My black brothers share with me how being racially profiled leads to being pulled over by policemen for no other reason than DWB (driving while black), and being followed in upscale stores to make sure they don’t shoplift. If they are what others consider successful in life, they may escape this subtle and not-so-subtle racism as known figures in the environment in which they enjoy that success, but in public where their status is not known, they know that they are not simply viewed by many as just another human being. Their color still matters, and not in a good way.

Challenges Are Color-Blind

That being said, it is still important to be grateful for the gradual changes taking place in spite of the huge need for more changes to yet take place. That is the general attitude all Christians need to have, regardless of their color. We are fellow humans, and as such, we all have our own brand of challenges in life, challenges which we can embrace with grace because of Christ. I may not have racism to contend with personally, but I do face my own brand of prejudices aimed in my direction, some of which are actually based on color (since some black folks disdain white folks ─ prejudices indeed go in both directions) and others of which are based on my fundamental beliefs in the moral standards expressed in the Bible.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to practice Ephesians 5:11 in our society: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” Many disciples are too fearful to speak up about the growing number of blatant sins in our world that are totally accepted by the majority of our citizens. Speaking up will attract persecution, rejection and ridicule. Too many disciples have drunk from the foul cup of maintaining political correctness at all costs. My point is that all of us are going to have difficulties in life, some of them very hurtful, but as disciples we are charged by Christ to not only endure them, but to rejoice in the midst of them (James 1:2-3).

What Do We Learn From the Older Brother?

What about the schoolteacher brother in the movie? He was surely viewed as a militant by many in the society of which he was a part, and almost the same way by his own father. How much should African American disciples be involved in striving for rights in society outside the church? That’s a good question and it likely has a complex answer. Most of the answer likely involves how we define “striving,” how we are doing it and for whom we are doing it.

Consider the words of Hebrews 13:5: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” But what may well be the other side of the same coin is expressed in Proverbs 31:8-9 as follows: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. ⁹ Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” In combining these two passages, it would seem correct to contend for the rights of others, yet incorrect to contend for one’s own personal rights. In the case of the brother in the movie, after he had achieved what he wanted, equal pay for all teachers regardless of color, he decided to quit teaching because that wasn’t his real goal in life. In his case, it appeared to be much less of a personal issue than an issue of justice generally.

Then we come to the issue of how we are attempting to promote social justice. With his permission, I am including two paragraphs from Michael Burns’ soon-to-be-published (April 2017 hopefully) in a section about going the way of the cross. Read and meditate on it carefully.

In his biography, A Long Walk to Freedom, famed Apartheid activist Nelson Mandela describes a time when the anti-Apartheid movement was not gaining much traction despite a great deal of effort.  Mandela was a young man and still formulating his beliefs and tactics.  He describes a speech in 1952 in which Chief Albert Luthuli put forth important principles.  The speech was entitled “The Road to Freedom is Via the Cross”.   Luthuli was a deeply religious man who ingrained this simple truth into Mandela.  It was at this time that Mandela began to realize what was wrong with the freedom movement in South Africa.  The leaders had not been willing to sacrifice.  They wanted freedom without self-sacrifice.  Mandela learned the same lesson that Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., among others had learned well: In order to obtain freedom from oppression, you must be willing to take the suffering on yourself rather than trying to push it to others.

This is the precise problem with many of the political movements today that want to impact the world, relieve the suffering of the oppressed, end racism, and many other worthy causes.  They want victory, but they don’t want the pain.  They want to make others feel the agony and discomfort.  They want to transfer the hurt back to those that they feel have caused it, or to the masses that are not directly responsible but have remained silent in hope that transferring some discomfort onto to them will induce them to act on behalf of their cause.  It will not work.  It never has.  Putting the pain onto others rarely, if ever, results in large and lasting change.  The reason is fairly simple.  Pain usually causes a negative backlash.  If you hurt me, my instinct will be to hurt you back.  The cycle of violence and hurt then continues on and on until one side is simply destroyed and can no longer hurt back.  This is the power of the sword in full effect.

1 Corinthians 7:21-23 is another passage worth considering. “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²² For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. ²³ You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.” In the first century, slaves in certain situations had legal ways of obtaining their freedom and Paul urged them to do it. In the last part of verse 23, when he said not to become slaves of human beings, I doubt that he was speaking literally. I believe he was addressing attitudes, and forbidding disciples to become slaves in their thinking by adopting the views of those in the world around them. This is very good advice regarding our issue under discussion.

Race, Politics and the Bible

That is where my concern about tying race and politics together tightly comes in. I can (and am) dealing with race and biblical principles in combination but not race and politics. Some disciples who post on social media seem to be entirely incapable of making what I believe to be the proper distinction. We cannot force society to be righteous in areas of race or in any other area. We can as disciples follow the Bible in a way that influences many in society. Thus, striving to change society can be done perhaps in two ways. The first and most effective is always going to be through demonstrating Jesus in our lives in his Body, the church.

A second possible way is to participate in legal activities such as peaceful demonstrations ─ if and when they are done correctly. Marching alongside angry, bitter people who are calling for the deaths of white policemen and/or white people is hardly a correct, permissible demonstration for a true Christian. It seems to me obvious that most protesters of any issues in our day are not in harmony with Dr. King’s approach of overcoming evil with good (the biblical approach). At least, peaceful demonstrations are entirely legal (if they remain peaceful).

A Knotty Problem Indeed!

For me personally, I have difficulty in knowing just where to land on the subject of protest marches. I find myself admiring the Civil Rights Movement as it was led by Martin Luther King. He differed from the NAACP leaders of his day, who wanted to fight injustices to blacks primarily through the court system. Dr. King felt that action had to be taken in the form of peaceful protests, and the main eight protests that occurred under his direction were aimed at various types of injustices and ended up being very effective.

That being said, he and his followers definitely broke some laws in order to do what they did. Of course, the legal system of the white population were breaking laws themselves in fighting to maintain segregation in spite of laws to the contrary. But two wrongs don’t make a right. However, I cannot find it in myself to condemn those who willingly suffered emotionally and physically to further the cause of the equality of all colors of people. As I say, it is a difficult and complex issue when trying to harmonize all of it with the Bible’s teaching. While it is true that the inspired apostles said that “We must obey God rather than human beings,” (Acts 5:29), they said it in the context of being forbidden to preach the gospel. It quickly becomes an opinion matter when considering how broadly to apply the principle to other areas.

What About My Rights and Fair Treatment?

Here is a good question to lead us into biblical teaching. I gave up my rights to Christ when I made him the Lord of my life. Scriptures could be multiplied that demonstrate this principle. Here are but a few of the many:

Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

1 Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 Peter 2:21-23
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ²² “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” ²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Keep in mind that this last passage was addressed to slaves, some of whom had kind masters and some of whom had harsh masters (look at the context). Biblically, we gave up our personal rights to Christ and must trust him and his hand in our lives in any and all circumstances. Is this easy? Far, far from it. It is the hardest thing I have ever tried to do in my life, which is why I wrote a book entitled The Victory of Surrender, and continue to read it periodically. Surrendering to God and all that he allows or causes in my life is the challenge of a lifetime; there is none greater.

If you have a deeply ingrained “fairness” doctrine, you are in for a rough ride in this journey we call life. Life on this earth is not fair, and even for someone like Jesus who only did good and never bad, life was clearly and consistently unfair to him. His solution to this and all such problems? We’ve just read it in 1 Peter 2:23 ─ “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

Having said that, justice and fairness are to be a part of God’s family. Striving for those qualities is a noble task, and because we are saved yet sinful humans, we will never achieve these qualities in the church perfectly. However, that must be our goal, and it is certainly my goal in writing about our need to understand our racial diversity better, to be able to feel safe in addressing the subject interracially, and to make consistent progress. God will certainly help us accomplish these things if we listen to him and quit listening to the world. Will we do that?

Politics, the Ongoing Challenge

Herein lies the challenge of politics for the disciple. How much can we be involved and yet be faithful to the passages we’ve just read and to the example of Jesus himself? I have said repeatedly that we have as American citizens the freedom to exercise our political rights and we also have the same freedom to not get involved at all. The challenge is how much can we be involved before we become “entangled in civilian affairs” (2 Timothy 2:4)? I have become discouraged reading Facebook (my only form of social media outside email, and a recent experience for me at that) when I see those claiming to be Christians who appear to be obsessed with politics (or nearly so, giving them a huge benefit of the doubt).

In researching how various news media are rated on the liberal/conservative scale, we have the extremes at both ends and most falling somewhere in between. Some people read or watch one extreme or the other, but for two different reasons. Some look at only what supports their present views, which makes them feel more “right” and justified in their views. Some look a lot at what is opposite their present views, just to have something to be angry about and comment about. In that case, they are really not considering the views being presented (listening with closed ears).

I do not watch news on TV unless a storm is coming and I want to stay out of the path of tornados, which are common to the part of the country in which I live. I do look briefly at the news overall on a daily basis just to be aware of what is going on in the world, but I mainly look at one of the more neutral news sources on my computer or smart phone. That approach is helpful for both my blood pressure and my Christianity.

The world is a mess and it’s going to stay a mess until the end of time. You cannot come to any other conclusion from reading the Bible. Non-Christians are going to hate and be hated by one another (Titus 3:3) because 1 John 5:19 could not make it clearer: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” God has the ultimate control, but for his reasons unknown to us humans, he has given much control to Satan. If Satan controls our world, he controls our government. I am not going to waste my time focused on something I know is ultimately based on lies (whether easily seen or mostly hidden).

God’s Clearest Way of Changing the World

What I am trying to do with my blog is help those in the church, and hopefully through the light that our examples generate, help those in the world. How do we help those in the world? One at a time, one at a time, and yet simple math is designed by God to become multiplication.

One man awake, awakens another.

The second awakens his next-door brother.

The three awake can rouse a town,

By turning the whole place upside down.

The many awake can make such a fuss,

It finally awakens the rest of us.

One man up with dawn in his eyes, multiplies.

What Do We Learn From the Younger Brother?

Obviously, we are going to learn the most from him ─ after all, he was the star of the show! He lived in a better world than had his great-grandfather, to be sure, but he lived in a racist world. As a black man, he had to abide by the rules of society to stay out of trouble and/or out of jail. He was a medical prodigy, born with a God-given gift that few could equal then or since then.

Even after experiencing some great accomplishments, he quit working for the white surgeon because he was never given public credit for what he had contributed to the overall accomplishments shared by him and the surgeon. His pride was hurt and he let his feelings win the day (until he received needed help). His wife saw him and life more clearly. She basically said, “This is what you love to do. Swallow your pride, go back and apologize and ask for your old job back.” He listened to her. Good on him!

God Rewards Humility!

Years later, his gifts and accomplishments could no longer be denied. He personally trained many of the world’s greatest surgeons, who began to call him “Sir” out of respect, and later received an honorary doctorate degree from Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Then he could legitimately be called “Doctor,” and was. Today, his portrait hangs in the entrance hall of that great institution along with the portraits of the greatest medical heroes of modern times.

How did he handle life with its injustices, lack of fairness and racism in many forms? Pretty much like 1 Peter 2 says we should. Ultimately, God is going to resist the proud and exalt the humble. Whatever our lot in life and whatever evils we may endure, humility will ultimately be blessed. We can fight for our rights, as the world tells us to do in every way possible, or we can live the surrendered life and trust the God of the universe to care for us. Bottom line, it all boils down to which world we are living for. As the old song says (and Hebrews 11 shouts):

This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

Black History Month 3 (Blog 13)

“Black Professional Sports Heroes”

Honestly, it is difficult to know just where to start with this article. In the United States, the number of black professional sports heroes is staggering. As would be expected, it was a steep uphill climb for black athletes to enter sports that had almost exclusively consisted of white athletes (with a few Latins mixed in later). The names and stories of those who braved the storm and entered that highly esteemed world were brave souls indeed, but they paved the way for thousands who would enter that same world and hundreds who would become household names for blacks and whites alike. We Americans love our sports and our sports heroes, and color makes less difference in this rarified world than in most other places.

Those Who Paved the Way

Black fighters in the boxing world were likely the first sportspersons to gain worldwide public attention. The list of outstanding boxers and world champions is a long list indeed. Jack Johnson was the first Heavyweight Champ to be crowned, on December 26, 1908. In that sense, he led the way for all other black athletes into the formerly all-white sports world. No champion in this sport captured the attention and hearts of boxing fans like Mohammed Ali, the recently deceased Champion of champions who most would crown as the greatest boxer in history.

Jesse Owens wasn’t a professional athlete per se, but in 1936 at the World Olympics in Berlin Germany, he won four gold medals and set three world records in the process. All of this took place under the nose of Adolph Hitler, who was certain that the superiority of the Aryan race would be demonstrated. As one writer put it, Jesse Owens rained on Hitler’s parade! Good!

Following a timeline, 1946 was the year when Kenny Washington broke the color barrier in the NFL in 1946. He was often referred to as the “Jackie Robinson of the NFL,” although his entry into the white world of professional football occurred a year earlier than Robinson’s entry into baseball. However, on April 15, 1947, Jackie became the first African-American in the major leagues when he played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Earl Lloyd broke the NBA’s color barrier on October 31, 1950 as he became the first black person to play in a regular NBA game.

In 1956, Athea Gibson was the first African-American to achieve star status in tennis, and in 1956 she became the first black to win a Grand Slam event (the French Open). She was twice voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year and won 11 Grand Slams, both in singles and doubles play. In 1971, she was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Gibson opened the doors for African-Americans in tennis and served as an inspiration for future black female stars such as Venus and Serena Williams. It was not until 1968 that a black male tennis star won a Grand Slam event (the initial U.S. Open), and that was Arthur Ashe. Although he is often mentioned as the African American to break the color barrier in tennis, he lagged far behind his female counterpart (not to diminish his greatness and his reputation in the least).

January 18^th of 1958 marked the entrance of Willie O’Ree into the National Hockey League as a new member of the Boston Bruins. He had played professionally in Canada prior to that night, but this was when he broke the color barrier for black hockey players. Charles Sifford was the first person of color to compete in PGA-sanctioned events following the demise in 1961 of the “Caucasian-only” PGA of America membership clause. He went on to win PGA Tour events in 1967 and 1969, as well as the 1975 PGA Seniors’ Championship. He was the third golfer to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the others being Arnold Palmer in 2004 and Jack Nicklaus in 2005. Obviously, Tiger Woods would eventually be the player destined to become the most famous African American ever to play the game. In his heyday, most students of the game believe him to be the best golfer ever, certainly no lower than second behind Jack Nicklaus. It is sad that his life off the course fell far below his life on the course, which was near-magical.

A Very Positive Presence

Any modern day sports fan is most appreciative of that color barrier being broken, because black athletes excel in many sports. I think any student of society would also say that the inclusion of African Americans in professional sports has helped significantly to weaken and break down racial barriers. In sports, it is no longer an issue of color that matters; all that matters is whether the person can play the game, whatever the game may be.

I do not have the space or time to mention all of the black athletes I admire, nor do I have the time to tell their stories and the impact for good that I believe they have exercised. Therefore, I’ll limit myself to talking about a few black players on my favorite NFL team, recognizing freely that they are a small representation of so many others just like them. The ones I mention are not my heroes just because of their abilities and accomplishments on the field, but for their characters and accomplishments off the field as well. If you are among the millions of “haters” of the New England Patriots, please indulge me and look past the team name to the men of color whom I will describe.

Opps ─ the Evil Empire (Have Mercy on Me)!

To me, Troy Brown is the face of the Patriots, for he represents as well as anyone what their team mentality is. He was a part of the team when they won three Super Bowls in the early 2000s (in four years). He was a receiver (most of the time) and caught so many passes in crucial situations that it has to be said that had he not been such a clutch player, they would not have won those championships. When he became a free agent and could have left the team to make more money, he took a cut in pay and stayed. When so many defensive backs were injured, he was asked to play on both the offense and defense, and gladly took on the task. Watching him on TV interviews makes you realize that you are seeing a selfless player who is just a nice man. As TV announcers often say of players like Troy, he is (or was) a great player, but he was a better person.

We don’t see or hear about nearly enough of what players do off the field to serve their communities. Having lived in Boston for sixteen years, I was fortunate enough to hear of some of Troy’s off-field work in the community. He and the famous (or infamous, as some will likely think) coach, Bill Belichick, often worked as a pair in going to schools in the New England area to speak to students about doing their best and making the most of their lives. The coach admired Troy for many reasons, and for those reasons often chose him as a partner with whom to work off the field.

From Chicken Server to Football Fame

Then I think of a young man who played college football at a small college in Mississippi and was undrafted as a professional. Not long before being signed by the Patriots in 2014, he was working in a Popeye’s Chicken fast food restaurant. After joining the Patriots, he was a part-time player while learning the ropes. Fortunately for him, the team went to the Super Bowl in early 2015. With 20 seconds left in the game, he was sent in to try and help stop the Seattle Seahawks from scoring from the one yard line to win the game. He had done his homework well, recognizing the play that Seattle was about to be run, a pass play.

Malcolm Butler made what most feel was the best interception ever make in a Super Bowl, and had he not made it, his team would almost certainly have lost the game. Tom Brady, the quarterback, understood the huge significance of what Malcomb had done, and gave him the truck that was first given to him for being voted as the MVP of the game. So, yes, I loved the play, but I love watching this young man’s humility when he is interviewed. He is now recognized as one of the league’s best cornerbacks, and his coaches still see a lot of potential yet to be developed. A great player, yes, but a better person.

Where Is That Truck?

Something similar happened in the very recent Super Bowl involving another fairly unknown black player, James White. He was drafted in 2014, but played little as a rookie because of having to deal with injuries. He began the 2015 season as a back-up running back, but when the starting running back was injured, he got his chance and played well from that point forward. However, 2016 was his year and the Super Bowl in early 2017 was his performance stage of fame. He scored three touchdowns, including the game-winning score in overtime. He set Super Bowl records for receptions with 14, and points scored with 20. He had 139 total yards (29 rushing, 110 receiving, joining one other player as the only running back with 100+ receiving yards in a Super Bowl), and scored three touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

His team overcame the biggest point deficit in SB history (by a wide margin), and during overtime, White delivered the finishing blow by rushing 2 yards into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown as the Patriots won 34–28. Upon finding out that he had again won the MVP award, Tom Brady quickly said, “I thought White should have won it” (a sentiment with which many fans agreed). However, when asked about it, James disagreed with a laugh, saying that unless Tom had thrown all of those passes his way, he couldn’t have done what he did (also true). Brady vowed to give him his MVP truck, but found out that this year Ford Motor Company hadn’t planned to give a truck for this award. However, on the Conan O’Brien Show, James received his truck from Ford on a live show. Justice prevailed! But again, watching this young man on TV, you know that you are watching someone with character and personality, as well as talent.

The Magician’s Hat

Finally, I have to mention a receiver, Malcolm Mitchell. He was a rookie pass receiver for the Pats this season just finished, and had a very good season for a rookie. But the captivating point about Mitchell is a very unusual one. While in college at Georgia, and an outstanding player, he came to a sad conclusion: he read at about a junior high level. He recognized that so many of his college classmates were learning so much more than he simply because they could read well. He decided on his own to do something about it. He went to the library and in a chance meeting with an older white woman, asked her for a recommendation for something good to read. In the midst of the conversation, she mentioned what they were reading in her book club.

Immediately Malcolm asked if he could join their club. He has such an infectious personality that the woman said yes, and at their meeting he was the only male and only African American present. He was so excited that he said he didn’t even notice those things! The women had no idea that he was a star football player in college. They were just smitten by his desire to read (and in his mind, learn to read much better). So here is this young black man sitting in the midst of a bunch of older white gals. He later told his mom that all of the women were older than she was (which wasn’t quite true, but almost). He published a children’s book, The Magician’s Hat, while still in college. He now travels around talking to young students in school, showing that something magical happens when you can read well. You can view accounts of the reading club activities on You Tube, and it is obvious that the women are not only very accepting of him but very possessive of him (not wanting to share him with similar reading clubs!). It is a heart-warming story.

OK ─ You Can Rub My Head!

So what do we learn from professional sports and race, especially on a team like the Patriots? For one thing, these guys are professionals and work extremely hard to be able to play at an almost unbelievably high level. All races are together in all kinds of situations, eating together, traveling together, dressing together in the locker room, taking showers together (I guess that’s still the case; it was when I was in school). They seem to be genuine friends with each other. I watch them after games, especially after they win a big one. They express verbally that they love each other, no matter what their race, and they show it.

When they hug each other, they hug like black people, even if they are white. Black guys are better at showing affection than white guys. They hug cheek to cheek. White guys are typically kind of stiff. I’ve often told my black buddies at church that I was going to have a midweek service devoted to having them teach white guys how to hug (and I wasn’t totally joking). The football players really give hugs, all of them. It’s heart-warming for me to watch. The acid test that proves they are serious about showing affection is that they rub each other’s heads. You don’t just rub a black man’s head any more than you feel a black woman’s hair (or even ask to!). But these dudes do it! The white coaches and the owner rub heads and get theirs rubbed (and hair messed up in the process). I’m grateful for these demonstrations of relationships, whatever the rest of the world might be like.

I love watching the different black guys as sports announcers or sports show hosts. They are good guys, like they were as players. Sure, you read about players who are not good guys off the field, both black and white, but I think they are the exceptions. The media is not looking for good news to print; they are looking for bad news, whether you are a politician or a sports figure. Thus, you hear more about the knotheads than the good guys.

Rejoice in our Diversities!

One of my pet peeves is when a black guy says of another black guy, “He’s not black enough,” or “He doesn’t talk black.” What in the world is that all about? I rejoice as much in the differences in their personalities as I do in the differences in all of our skin tones. God created diversity for our enjoyment, not to divide us. When blacks criticize other blacks in these ways, it seems to me that they are calling for stereotyping themselves, the very thing they hate when it comes from bigoted whites. I’m glad that they are different from one another. Are not we white dudes different from one another? It’s all good!

In spite of the racial divides in our society, I for one think that racial diversity in the sports world has been helpful and is a very positive thing. They have something to teach us. The few guys I described are only a few of hundreds that are just good people, good citizens, good neighbors and good friends. I may think that they are vastly overpaid, but that’s the sports world for you and the American society that is too enamored with sports. I have to remind myself that it is just a game, and the players no doubt have to remind themselves of the same thing. From reading Paul’s writing and his use of sports analogies, he too must have been a sports fan to some degree.

I have many sports heroes, of all races, and while I don’t worship them, I do appreciate them and enjoy them as players and as human beings. And I appreciate what the racial mixes on the field, on the court, on the course and on the track have done for us as a society. I’m sure it’s not all pretty, in fact I know it’s not, but there is much to appreciate and I hate to even think of what life in our country would be like if sports teams had not integrated early on. We are all better for it, of that I have no doubt. I wouldn’t want to have Black History Month without black athletes playing a predominant part in it. So there you have it ─ the Ferguson Sports Show signing off!

Understanding the Foundation of Institutional Racism (Blog 14)

One of the challenges I have faced in addressing the topic of race issues is in helping my white brothers and sisters understand that what we call systemic racism or institutional racism is quite real and ingrained in our society. We have difficulty understanding it because in our minds, the black person’s world has improved greatly in recent history. Of course, this is true for many African Americans, but not for the majority. And, the improvement is not nearly as significant as we might think when all factors are considered.

Most of us white folks live in an insulated world when it comes to race. Our black brothers and sisters are well aware of this fact, but they attribute it to ignorance on our parts and not racism. The difficulty lies in understanding that while we are not racist personally, we still live in a systemic racist society without realizing it. We cannot understand and support our brothers and sisters of a different color until we grasp this fact more fully, and God knows we need help in really understanding it. I believe this blog article will do much to promote that needed comprehension.

Let Tony Chukes Speak!

This article was written by one of my blog advisers and longtime friend, Tony Chukes, whose comments were included in the “Coming to Terms with Terms” article recently. As I explained then, Tony served on the ministry staff of three different congregations for a total of 17 years. He is a member of the Denver church and also a member of their racial diversity group. I love Tony for many reasons, one of which is that he is built like me in that he is going to say what he thinks and not let fear stop him. I am posting this article because it explains through a unique analogy how a systemic racism has left such a strong influence in our society even though slavery days are long past. I think Tony’s article can help us all. What follows is his writing. Read, contemplate and learn!

We Do Need to Talk

Should disciples talk about slavery in America?  Does it still have an impact on what goes on in the church today?  I think we should and it does.  If we are going to be the unified and diverse family that God wants us to be, we need to talk about the things of the past that Satan can still use to affect us and divide us today.  I am not a prophet or a great writer.  I wouldn’t consider myself a historian, although I do love history and study it nearly as intently as I study the Scriptures.

What I am, is a man with a vision.  I believe with all my heart that the International Churches of Christ can be a shining light to the nations for all to emulate.  I’ve seen great hearts grow and change by white ministry leaders, staff members, and average members throughout our church family.  These are difficult times and they demand much communication and introspection.  Blacks are not off the hook in this situation.  As a black man, I have my areas in which I need growth and help.  I will return to that at the end of this article.

Only in Christ is there hope for reconciling the race issue.  Too many churches in the world are sadly filled with one predominant racial group.  They have disqualified themselves from this opportunity to bring glory to God.   We have the opportunity and the template because most of our churches in the United States have a good, healthy racial mix, but that is not enough.  We must have the tough conversations.  We need to get out of our comfort zones and become the body that Paul calls us to be and the one Jesus died to set free.

How Early US History Still Affects Us

My goal in writing this article is to educate black and white people alike about the devastating effects slavery has had, and continues to have, on black people.  Slavery continues to be taught from a linear perspective, meaning it happened, we fixed it, and let’s move on.  The problem with this way of thinking is it dismisses the systemic effects of slavery.  Many of us are not willing to talk about slavery because it ended over 150 years ago.

If I have knee replacement surgery today, that will affect me for the rest of my life.  I will have to constantly work around that new reality.  The effects of slavery and subsequent history doesn’t just go away because the institution itself is long gone.  America’s racist history sends many of us scurrying like mice when you turn on the lights.  But let’s focus on a sub-topic we should all be able to acknowledge and discuss:  The ramifications of American slavery continue to be felt by both blacks and whites today.  This article will explore those effects in what I believe is both a unique and helpful way.

A Game of Monopoly and Racism

Most of us have played the game of Monopoly.  The starting premise is that each player has an equal share of money and can obtain property to produce wealth.  Let’s examine the 150-year period from the Emancipation Proclamation (1865) to the present and compare it to a Monopoly game.  Since the average monopoly game is about 3 hours, we’ll use that time frame as a proxy to proportionately plot black history.  Each period of fifty years will represent one hour of the game.  Thus, 1865-1915 is Hour 1, 1915-1965 is Hour 2, and the Final Hour is 1965-2015.

Hour One: Not a Level Playing Field

At the beginning of Hour One, it appears black people are going to be given a level playing field.  Optimistic people of all races will point to Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, the end of the Civil War, and the dream of American liberty for all, which downplays 200 years of slavery in the Americas. The level playing field that some might imagine existed in 1865 following the Civil War never existed.

The Slave Codes of 1705 called for treating blacks as property, disallowed them from reading and writing, made it illegal to defend themselves, and other measures all combined to dehumanize black Americans and separate them from the freedoms enjoyed by others, even other non-white groups.  Blacks often faced grave danger for simply looking a white person in the eye.  This all codified a human pecking order with whites on top, blacks on bottom, producing a struggle to free ourselves from this to this very day. The mindset of those codes and that pecking order did not disappear simply because the last rifle was laid down at the end of the Civil War.

The institutions of slavery even caused fierce division between darker-skinned blacks and their lighter-skinned brothers and sisters. That division spread to pit House Negro against Field Negro, young against old, male against female, and even slave against free blacks.

Still Not in the Game

In Hour One, on the eve of the Civil War, there were 4.5 million black people in America, but only 275,000 were free.  Blacks owned ½ of one percent of this country’s wealth and represented 51% of the prisoners in jail, statistics that have remained much the same as recently as 2010.    What does this all mean?  It means that for Hour One of our game, blacks were not even allowed on the board.

Anybody who has played Monopoly knows how important the start of the game is in establishing the foundation of wealth.  Buying that first property, interacting with and learning strategy from other players, and generally understanding what the game has to offer – all of these opportunities were denied the black man in Hour One.  Could you, in good conscience, start a game of Monopoly, bar one player from participating in the first hour, and then claim that he or she had a fair chance to win the game as they began to play at the onset of hour two?  Would that hour of inactivity continue to have an impact for the rest of the game? An obvious answer, right?

Continuing the First Hour

Following emancipation, the U.S. government occupied the South for twelve years.  We call this period Reconstruction. Early in the period, General William T. Sherman issued Field Order #15, which allowed 40,000 blacks to receive 400,000 acres of land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  Georgia? What irony! This state of Georgia was created to stop blacks from escaping to Florida, which at the time was Spanish-owned and offered freedom to blacks who made it there.  Sherman’s order represented a new beginning.  After hundreds of years of slavery, it looked like redemption had come for the black man. The South appeared to be a place where former slaves would now own the very land they once worked for free.

However, within eight months, Andrew Johnson succeeded in reversing the order and those 400,000 acres reverted to the same men who previously owned the land. The blood, sweat, and tears that had fertilized a Southern aristocracy now turned from the sweet smell of victory to the stench of death.  It would be like allowing a player to start the Monopoly game one half hour in, giving them “St. Charles Place” as a starting property, but then taking it away before their first roll of the dice and telling them that wouldn’t be able to leave “Go” just yet. Despite this devastating blow, there were some gains for blacks.  They amassed some 2,600 political leaders in roles, with some ascending to the U.S. Senate during the years of Reconstruction.  However, those political leaders were removed over a short course of time and not seen again in those numbers for another 100 years.

Ironically, in the recent Academy Awards ceremony, “La La Land” was initially announced as receiving the award for best movie, only to be quickly replaced by “Moonlight” when the mistake was discovered. Since La La Land had white stars and Moonlight had black ones, it represented a type of reversal of fortune compared to the racial history we are discussing. While the mix-up in the movie award presentation was certainly embarrassing, the reversal of real fortune produced by Andrew Johnson was devastating.

Thirteenth Amendment and Illusion

Reconstruction ended in 1877, and things reverted to the way they were.  Well, not exactly the way they were because now we had the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.  Slavery was now illegal. Or was it? The 13th Amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”  Let me elucidate the meaning of the few seemingly innocuous words “except as a punishment for crime.”   This allowed states, counties, cities, and towns to make up whatever vagrancy laws they desired to enact in order to arrest any black person that could not prove he had a job.  Once arrested, a black person had no rights, and was simply convicted and incarcerated.  When in jail, he became free labor for the highest bidders.

It’s easy to see that neither the Emancipation Proclamation nor the 13th Amendment completely freed the slaves anywhere the people had a mind to maintain the effects of slavery.  Even in the game of Monopoly, it’s possible to obtain a “Get Out of Jail Free” card or pay a fine to go free. No such loophole existed for the black man, who was called free by law but provided with no tools to earn a living. In addition to that, a mindset spread around the country that equated being black with being a criminal.  This is a mindset that is about as difficult to root out as it is to pull a California Redwood out with your bare hands.

Another Form of Captivity

The only choices for many blacks in the South during this post-war era were to work for menial wages, beg, or steal from white men who resented their freedom and looked for opportunities to limit or revoke it.  The latter choice of theft could cost one his life, and often did.  Faced with these meager choices, many blacks became a part of a new economic system called sharecropping.  This meant that whites still owned the land but blacks worked the land.  The whites maintained their wealth and power from the profits, while blacks continued to do much of the hard work and received very little for their efforts.  While some obtained small farms of their own, the majority of blacks were entombed in a prison of debt that buried their hopes and aspirations of freedom.

We have just completed Hour One of our hypothetical game.  Black people were exploited by some to create the American dream for others, but were they denied that same dream.  Slaves were the capital in capitalism.  They were the coal that fueled the Wall Street engine.  But while they were on the Monopoly board, they were stuck on “Go.”  All the other groups were making their way around the board at different speeds accumulating wealth, and establishing a legacy for their future families and relatives.  May it never be said that blacks were the only hardworking people whose sweat formed this country.  Many immigrant peoples worked hard for little wages in terrible conditions as well.  However, blacks were the only ones who toiled for generations with no choice and no earnings.  The only friend he had on the board was Chance or Community Chest.

Hour Two of our Game Begins

Hour Two begins with WWI.  Under the leadership of W.E.B Dubois, black men were taught that whites would accept them and grant them full citizenship if they fought in the war.  They believed that and returned from the war holding on to those expectations.  Well, that strategy brought about riots and the KKK expressing the vile sentiment shared by many at the time, that “You may have fought for America but you’re still N……s.”  As we approach the halfway point of our hypothetical game, we hit the Great Depression. Our country created great programs to help 15 million people return to work, but only a small percentage of those were blacks.

To placate the South, which was still bitter about the ending of its economic engine after the Civil War, unemployment insurance was not extended to domestic workers and farm workers.  These jobs were mostly held by blacks and most black households relied on these sources of income in the 1930’s.  In addition to the lack of income security, lynchings were rampant during this decade.  So called “festival lynchings” were scheduled for communities to observe and celebrate, with body parts being offered for sale after the event.  These tragic acts of violence became so commonplace that songstress Billie Holiday hauntingly sang about the “strange fruit” hanging from southern trees.

As we move into the 1940’s, WWII brought another harsh reality.  Blacks fought for the country as patriotically as any other Americans but were allowed to only fraternize with and fight alongside other blacks.  After proving loyalty to a country by volunteering their lives, blacks still were not trusted to fight alongside their white brothers and were treated as second-class citizens. The growing frustration with this treatment and the ongoing inferior treatment by whites in general led to the start of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s.

The Civil Rights Movement and Integration

We tend to venerate this period of history, but I would like to offer a different perspective.  Almost ninety years after the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks were still fighting for the fundamental rights that white immigrants got as soon as they crossed Ellis Island.  In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education was supposed to provide equality through integration. But more than 60 years after this landmark decision, much of the South remains segregated as many white people have simply moved away from blacks and send their children to private schools to avoid integrating.  Poor whites were left behind to integrate, while most whites with money avoided it altogether.

Even today, the state of Mississippi often buries blacks and whites in separate cemeteries. College football fans should pay close attention to the next Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Florida game. You’ll notice the stands are filled with white people with perhaps a few blacks sprinkled through the crowd.  And what about the coaches? Blacks play and bring in millions for these educational institutions, but blacks remain far under-represented at the highest levels.  These football games don’t necessarily demonstrate overt racism, but they are microcosms of the continuing effect of past inequities. From the black perspective, this all seems to parallel the same old situation of blacks laboring to create white wealth and power.

This may surprise you, but some blacks believe integration was the worst thing for the American Negro.  “As a black person integration makes you a guest, devoids you of wealth, and destroys your community,” says Dr. Claude Anderson, founder of the Harvest Institute and award winning writer. From the black perspective, integration was never something most whites entertained for the sake of social harmony.  It was only tolerated to placate social pressure or as a means of making money.

I’m not saying that integration has no positive effect, but we are speaking of its genesis.  Plantations were always integrated, but there was a pecking order with white skin on top and dark skin on the bottom. History does not tell us that many blacks owned grocery store chains, movie theaters, bus lines, cab companies, sports franchises, banks, and many other community institutions. In the few occasions where blacks were able to build up their own thriving economic communities, angry whites often burned them to the ground, with one such example in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921.

The Issue of Property Ownership

Black neighborhoods that had not yet been touched by the effects of integration as late as the 1950’s were some of the safest places in the country.  People did not lock their doors and crime was almost nonexistent.  I’m not arguing that integration is a bad idea, but it didn’t play out well for many black people.  Today, blacks are portrayed in the media as almost having a crime gene.  There are only four ways to make a living in any society: own a business, be an employee, a welfare recipient, or from crime.

Only 2 percent of blacks own their businesses and blacks still own less than 1 percent of this country’s wealth.  Forty-two percent of all black men are either in jail, on probation, or on parole. Slavery has left its legacy in all of these situations.  As we approach the Final Hour of our hypothetical Monopoly game, blacks are just getting their full voting rights.  The period after slavery continued to keep the black man largely locked out of any wealth-building opportunities this country had to offer. Non-blacks have their communities; blacks have their neighborhoods. The difference? Ownership of homes and businesses.

The Third Hour of the Game

The Third and Final Hour of our “game” begins in the middle of the most tumultuous decade since the 1930’s. Medgar Evers was gunned down as he walked from his car to his porch.  John F. Kennedy was assassinated in a motorcade, Malcolm X was shot in a theater with his family watching from the front row, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered on a balcony in Tennessee, and Bobby Kennedy was shot point blank as he finished a campaign speech.  The message is clear: If you fight for anything black you will die.

From 1965 to 1975, black people saw a few gains.  More blacks were able to join unions, legislation created full voting rights and fair housing legislation, and large corporations were forced to hire blacks into management positions.  These were significant steps for blacks as they broke the mold of slavery that prohibited them from having any workplace authority over whites. Ronald Reagan’s policies are often looked back on fondly, but from Black American’s perspective, they were no friend to the average black man.

Black and White Perceptions of Racism

The 1990’s marked the beginning of the end of affirmative action for blacks.  Thirty-five years of affirmative action to counteract 400 years of slavery and another hundred years of segregation and subjugation proved too controversial for many whites. Public spectacles like the Rodney King case, the OJ Simpson trial, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina all continued to drive a wedge between black and white perceptions of how blacks are treated in the country.

Then, the impossible happened. Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. Before the number of electoral votes reached 270, white conservatives were preaching the end of racism. “We should no longer have to talk about race,” they opined.  The problem is that they failed to ask needed questions of black people and they failed to consider the lasting effects of racism. You can take the nail out of the board, but the hole is still there.

The Conclusion of the Game

Three hours are up and we have now completed our hypothetical Monopoly game.   For the first two hours, one of the players was not allowed to move around the board.  All the other players accumulated the wealth that was available.  By the time blacks could advance beyond “Go,” all of the Railroads were gone, as were Park Place, Boardwalk, the Utility Companies, and all the other property had been bought.  Many blacks never advanced far enough to reach Go and collect their $200.

Not enough progress was made in the Final Hour to truly level the playing field for blacks in 2015. I doubt you will ever find a Monopoly game where several people play for two solid hours and then, in the third hour, add a new player who joins and wins. Would that even be a reasonable possibility? In Monopoly, there is an equal probability for every participant at the start of the game. For the black man, no such equal probability existed. Slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation stacked the deck against him.

A Simple Request for Understanding

Blacks are not asking for a handout or anybody’s sympathy, but for people to know the truth, for the truth can set men free. As a disciple, I am not asking for white disciples to fix all that ails society. I am simply asking that you understand the wounds that black disciples often bring with them into the body of Christ. These are the struggles that we face.

I have completed my case. For some, perhaps it may seem harsh; for others, too blunt, and still others may think that I am full of venom. I can accept all of those critiques. I humbly confess that I continue to have personal issues with race that black and white brothers are helping me with today. My intent is not to divide but to help us understand one another and have real and lasting unity that is based on truth and reality.

As I said in the introduction, I believe our family of churches can continue to be a shining light of the kingdom to a world mired in darkness. Christ is the only answer for racial division. In Christ alone is the salve for the wounds of slavery and segregation. It won’t come easy. It will take working through the fear, the damage of sin, and the mistrust that we might have for one another’s perspectives. We will have to do it together. We can do it together because we have the Spirit that unites us in brotherhood and fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14).

I pray I have been successful in giving you something to think about and perhaps a new perspective. My wish is that it helps you to see that the effects of systemic institutions like slavery don’t just go away because we feel uncomfortable talking about them or because enough time has passed. We must not believe the dismissive claims that since slavery was more than 150 years ago, it cannot not impact us today. Satan will use anything to divide us and this is no exception.

But think of this, sexism is not over because Margaret Thatcher was named prime minister of Great Britain. Capitalism is not over because Bernie Sanders ran for president. Racism is not over because Barack Obama was elected president. Your sin was forgiven when you were baptized into Christ, but its consequences and continuing challenges did not end. There is much work to be done. Listen, learn, and love—and the world will be a better place. Work together and we will be the city on a hill that God longs for us to be.

Why Think That White is Right? (Blog 15)

Do you think that white is the right skin color? Where did that idea originate? Even if you are a non-white person, how much have you accepted the idea that white is right? You may be surprised with your answer, if you dig below the surface. Does the Bible give us an answer to the question? Not directly, but in an indirect yet absolutely clear way, it answers the question most profoundly. Hopefully your interest is pricked by now, and I can promise you an interesting read. Keep going!

Approximately 10% of the world’s population can be classified as “white.” If white is right, then 90% of the world’s population is somehow inferior. That would be a sad conclusion to reach, but thankfully it would be a really bad conclusion to reach. It just ain’t so!

Who Are the “White is Right” Folks?

You likely thought first of the White Supremacist loudmouths, or perhaps of a sub-group such as the Ku Klux Klan. Then if you look at most of the history of the United States, the majority of white people considered themselves superior to black people and likely to other people of color as well. The idea of white being right somehow became imbedded into the psyche of most white people, but both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, it also found its way into the thinking of many non-whites, at least in America.

Skin Tone Variations and Ramifications

I remember a night some years back when one of my black brothers (I usually called black male disciples, “brother brothers”) asked me to get with another black disciple to help him with a problem. I had no idea of what the nature of the problem might be, but I also knew the brother and was anxious to be of service if I could. I was serving as an elder at the time, plus was serving as the leader of the BBB Club, so I was deemed to be the ideal person to help out a brother brother. (By the way, if you haven’t yet read the article, “The Big Black Brother’s Club” on my teaching web site ─ gordonferguson.org ─ you should!)

As this brother started talking, the tears weren’t far behind, and they continued at intervals during the whole session together. The issue? Growing up, he had cousins as contemporaries who made fun of him because his skin tone was darker than theirs. Being viewed as somehow inferior by his own relatives had hurt him deeply, and although he was now a married adult with children, the pain was still barely beneath the surface. He was also just a great guy, and well-educated with a professional type job. I rather doubt if his cousins who had made fun of him were all as successful as he in those areas of life, and I know that they were not as spiritually successful as he.

Hopefully, our talk helped him. It about broke my heart to hear his story and the pain imbedded in his heart. How in the world could skin tone have become such a big deal to him? Honestly, he wasn’t even that dark in the first place. That was a disturbing night for me. The idiocy of “white is right” had found its way into his heart, and into the hearts of many non-white people, as I was to learn then and later.

I remember a comment made by a beautiful young Asian woman that demonstrated a similar assumption in her culture. She said that she was getting too dark and was going to have to use more sun screen or stay out of the sun altogether. I immediately said something to this effect: “If I could change skin color with you, I would do it in a New York second!” And, I certainly would have ─ and still would!

White Skin Can Kill You!

My father died with skin cancer. I had a young single brother in my ministry staff group in Boston who became like a son to me. He was a very handsome young man, but also very fair skinned. After he was married and the father of two very young children, he developed melanoma and ended up dying with it at a young age. The last time I saw him, I knew it would be the last time I saw him alive. I spent a long time that day after leaving the hospital talking with his soon-to-be widow, trying to get her to accept the inevitable and to understand that embracing reality wasn’t a lack of faith on her part. That was a painful conversation. I remember the call that came the day he died, and the difficulty of teaching a workshop the very next morning to the church I was visiting for that purpose.

I think of other white brothers and sisters who have had surgeries for skin cancer that saved their lives, sometimes only barely. I had my first suspicious looking mole removed when I was 18 and have since had a number of others removed. None tested as malignant, but were thought to be moving in that direction by the doctors. I visit a dermatologist every six months at his direction, because he knows my history and my skin type.

What the doctor and I both know is that skin cancer occurs more often in those with lighter skin. It is a statistical fact that the darker your skin tone is, the less likely you are to develop skin cancer, and the lighter your skin tone is, the more likely you are to develop skin cancer. So when I say that white skin can kill you, I’m quoting unquestionable statistics. From a medical standpoint, I don’t value having white skin ─ quite the opposite.

How Did White Become Viewed as Right?

In my blog post, “Coming to Terms with Terms,” I made some observations about terms for blacks and for whites. As I stated then, I think the term “Caucasian” is a weird one to describe white folks. According to my research, it can be traced back to a certain Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who applied it to a large group of people whom he thought were the most beautiful. The opinion (of a white man, by the way!) was expressed in 1795 in the publication of his third edition of his dissertation regarding the different varieties of mankind. He used the word “Caucasian” (a region marking the border between Europe and Asia) to emphasize the appearance of white-skinned people, judging them to be the most beautiful.

Bottom line, what did we get from Blumenbach? An opinion of a white man that white people were the best looking! Surprise, surprise! All other similar conclusions about the superiority of one race over another comes in exactly the same way: opinion ─ nothing more; nothing less. For us Bible believers, we must keep in mind that we all came from the same pair (Adam and Eve) and sometime later, we all got off the same big boat together (Noah’s ark). In a future article, I will speak about the variations that occurred in time that make us look different, but those differences make no one superior or inferior. This is true from a scientific standpoint, and it is certainly true from a biblical standpoint.

What Does God Have To Say About the Matter?

Plenty! In the first place, humans were created in the image of God, according to both the Old Testament and the New Testament (Genesis 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:7). This means that we have the capacity to live forever, and if we accept Christ, we will. Further, even in this life as disciples, we experience spiritual growth on a continual basis that develops us more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Thus, our very nature declares our value to be far beyond anything we can comprehend. That’s why Jesus said that trading our soul for the entire physical universe would be a terribly poor trade indeed (Mark 8:36).

Further, our value is demonstrated by the price paid to redeem us from our sins and the loss of a relationship with God through those sins. You don’t pay a price for something that you don’t believe has the value of the price being paid. When Jesus died on that cross, God was shouting to the world that every human being is valuable beyond understanding. Thus, if we are all valuable beyond our ability to understand it, how could anyone be inferior to another? God went to great lengths to make sure we all understand this point. Keep reading.

Christ Makes Us One

Galatians 3:26-28
²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If we are one in Christ, distinctions in value are ended. Yes, one’s race, gender and lot in life remain the same, but not one whit of that matters in determining our value to God and to one another. Paul used some extreme examples in this passage. Jews and Gentiles outside of Christ hated one another. Slaves were the property of their free owners. Males in that society were chauvinistic beyond our ability to grasp it, as females were not ranked far above slaves. Yet, Paul said that we are one in Christ and that none of these earthly differences mattered at all to God or to our fellow Christians. If these didn’t matter, how could one’s skin color possibly matter?

Christ Demolishes Human Distinctions

 1 Corinthians 1:22-29
²²  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. ²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.

By Christ’s death, note what no longer counts. Human wisdom doesn’t count; human strength doesn’t count; human standards don’t count; human social standing doesn’t count; and human rank on the scale of nobility doesn’t count. All of the things that humans value outside Christ are totally exposed in Christ as meaningless. The world’s values are shown as utter foolishness by God through Christ. We may be thought foolish, weak, lowly and despised by the world, but God has removed any basis for human boasting and pride. We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross where absolute equality reigns supreme through him who died for us. Why should the color or tone of your skin matter in this equation? It doesn’t ─ in the least.

Christ Declares Us Equal in His Church

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body. ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

The church is described by many different terms, with body being one of the most common. Since God wants his family to be amazingly united, as Jesus is with the Father (John 17:20-21), it is not surprising that body is an oft-used descriptive term. In this passage, Paul goes to great lengths to show that each part of the body is of equal importance, for we are inseparably joined together as one. In verses 15-20, he makes the point that no part of the body is inferior, and then beginning in verse 21, he makes the point that no part is superior. This analogy means that we must have equal concern for one another, shown in our suffering with, honoring of, and rejoicing with each other. Human distinctions simply don’t matter, for in Christ we are all one.

Years ago, a brother asked for some time with me and felt a bit awkward to ask in the first place, assuming that somehow I was too important (because of leadership role?) to spend time with him. The way he put it was that he was just one little jellybean in a big jar of jellybeans. I quickly told him that I was just a little jellybean in the same big jar, no different from him. Maybe he was a green jellybean and I was a yellow one, but a jellybean is a jellybean. No one is less important or more important than anyone else. How could we be? We are all sinners, saved by the grace of God and in need of one another’s grace!

Christ Forbids the Pride of Position

1 Corinthians 7:21-22
²¹ Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²² For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.

James 1:9-10
⁹ Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. ¹⁰ But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.

To the ones who felt lowly and inferior (through being a slave or poor), God assured them that they were free and exalted in Christ. To the ones who may have felt exalted already in the wrong way, God assured them that they were slaves to Christ and humiliated by their very temporary physical nature. Rich guys die and decay too, and it happens pretty fast.

If we wanted to apply the same principle to skin color, it wouldn’t take much imagination, would it? White guy, you are no better than anyone else, in spite of the ignoramuses who tell you otherwise, and you had better stay out of the sun, by the way! Black guy, your paint job is as good as anyone else’s and black is beautiful. White or black, you are made in God’s image and live on planet earth for the accomplishment of his plans. You are totally unique and created for a unique purpose. Think like it and live like it.

Christ Grants Gifts of Equality

Romans 12:3-8
³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

James puts it well when he states that “every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). In combination with this reminder is Paul’s admonition: “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). The very fact that all gifts are from God makes us equal to one another. Gifts are not for us as individuals, to somehow make us feel good about ourselves; they are designed to help us serve others better. They should humble us, not exalt us, for we deserve nothing but receive it anyway.

Look through the list in Romans 12, and see if any of the gifts is said to be superior or inferior to any other. Of course, humans have a strong tendency to rank gifts. In the list we have what I call “upfront” gifts and “behind-the-scenes” gifts. Even in the church, we have the idea that the former are more important than the latter. As I have often said and written, we tend to exalt the gift of leadership above all other gifts, and exalt one type of leadership gift (that of evangelist) above all other types of leadership gifts. God exalts no gift above another, since he is the one who gives them in the first place. All are important and all are equal in his sight. Frankly, the behind-the-scenes gifts like encouragement and service are more closely connected to one’s character than is the gift of teaching or leadership. If God values one gift more than another, you can easily figure out which gifts he would most value. As per usual, human thinking is 180 degrees opposite God’s.

God makes this same point over and over and over to help us understand that inferiority or superiority are satanic illusions held by non-Christians and have absolutely no basis in fact for the Christian. In Christ, our physical blinders are removed now and we see each person, regardless of any and all human differences, as they really are ─ treasured creations and possessions of an Almighty God!

Why Think That White is Right?

So why would anyone think that white is right? Ignorance, pride or stupidity are about the only reasons I can come up with. Everything God says is designed to keep us extremely humble about ourselves and extremely impressed with the fact that he grants us the privilege of serving others in his name. As the little children’s song puts it, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Children may have to be taught the words of this song, but they don’t have to be taught the truths contained in it. They have to be mistaught before they see color as anything besides special in all of its variations.

As a person born with white skin, back in my early days that automatically gave me benefits. There were many other circumstances surrounding my birth that gave me liabilities. I asked for neither, but now as a disciple I am comfortable with both the benefits and the liabilities, for it all came at the hand of God in one way or another. Although having white skin is not a preference now for me, the issue is how I view it and use it. Do I view myself in any way superior to any other person? Absolutely not! Do I want to use any benefits of being white as a means of helping other people? Absolutely!

As a white person, I am able to say some things to other whites that perhaps they will initially hear better coming from me than from a non-white person. That isn’t good, but if it is a reality, I intend to use it to help them get to a better, more informed and accepting place on this subject. As a white person, some things I say mean something special to my black brothers and sisters. After preaching sermons on the subject, I have had my black friends come up to me with tears in their eyes and say something to this effect: “I have heard people of my own race say what you’ve said, but to hear a white person say it has made all of the difference. Thank you so much.”

The preceding paragraph helps explain why I feel compelled to write a blog to help us see what we have been mistaught about racial differences. Our goal in Christ is to be colorblind when it comes to seeing the value of every brother and sister, but color aware and color appreciative when it comes to seeing the beauty of God’s creative diversity in all of his creation, certainly including humans as his crowning act of completing it all. May he help us see as he sees!