New Book Study

My friend Lydia and I are starting a book study on The Heart of Racial Justice by Brenda Salter McNeil and Rick Richardson. We're meeting for lunch tomorrow (or rather, today), but here are some of my thoughts on the chapter so far.

The first chapter addresses whether race is really an issue anymore, which of course, it is, or there wouldn't be any point in writing the rest of the book!

"It is estimated that in the next 20 years white Americans will become a minority in the United States, and most of the nation's population will be Asian and Hispanic."

My first reaction to this is that I'm totally fine with that, but then I get to thinking, what does this really mean for me? For one thing, it means I need to get my rusty Spanish brushed up to fluency, and someday one of the more important things I will do for my kids is make sure they are bilingual or trilingual. But if I get right down to the heart of things, while I am fine with this happening, I am also uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong- I don't think any less of people just because they look different than me. But here when people of other races and ethnicities are hanging out in groups I'm intimidated about saying hello (no matter how badly I want to), like there's an invisible barrier, and I'm painfully aware that I'm an average white American mutt who can trace my lineage back to at least 6 different European countries, none of whose traditions I carry on.
I know this isn't how it's supposed to be. And this isn't how I want to be. I love the diversity here at school. I love talking to people from all over the world (It's only the groups that intimidate me, not individual people)

I need to learn to see the people around me as God sees them. Each and every person is incredibly special.

I'm actually scared to go to a Christian college next year. I dread returning to the bubble that private schools provide, to a student body that is primarily middle class white kids from the suburbs (because few others can afford private schools......so expensive!). I love the diversity here, singing praises to God in so many different languages, worshiping in such a colorful congregation. There is something very special about being a diverse Christian community.

But maybe my fears about the Christian colleges are totally off the mark. That would be nice.

The book mentioned Bosnian ethnic cleansing, and it stopped me cold. I stage managed a show on this last semester, and it will stay with me for a long long time. (If you don't know what happened in Bosnia, go here and here. Be forewarned, it's a very disturbing story) It makes me wonder though, what happens in a man that he can turn around and kill his friend or rape an innocent child? What corrupts us so much that we see those who are different from us as worthless or a threat?

If only we could pinpoint the cause......

"Unfortunately, the Christian church seems woefully inadequate to rouse itself from apathy in the face of these deep-rooted global and social problems...There is tremendous disparity between the vision God has for us and our current social reality, and Christians seem powerless to even begin bridging the gap."

But the rest of the book is about bridging that gap, and I'm excited!

In my opinion, the answer to the problem is love, plain and simple. And I don't mean romantic love or any of that fluffy emotion stuff. I mean down to earth caring about every single person you come across. Even the ones that hate you.

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.