Having allies

Last month my wife, who is white, and I attended a performance of a local blues band, the lead singer of which I had met about two years ago at a jam session. I had originally hoped to get some work out of it.

That hope ended during the break, when he came to talk to us — and, according to her (I didn’t hear much of the conversation), he made some racist remarks, including using the archaic term “colored” for black musicians. She became so angry and shaken that she told me that we would have nothing to do with him from here on out and soon afterwards made a post on social media announcing her displeasure.

Two people who reacted to her rant especially heartened me.

One of them was a singer and bandleader I’d worked with 20 years ago who asked his identity so that “we can shame him.” “Musicians police their own,” he said.

The other was a woman with whom I’ve attended social dances over the past few years, and she told a story I hadn’t previously known. At one dance I had just finished dancing with her when she was approached by an older white man who after their dance said afterwards, “I dance better than that colored, don’t I?” (I have never claimed to be a great dancer, though I do it a lot.) She said that she was initially taken aback and later said to him, “His name is Rick, and he’s my friend!” before really letting him have it.

Those two other folks who also expressed outrage on my behalf and whom we later thanked proved to be “allies” willing to stand up and fight for me — letting people know in no uncertain terms that what my offenders said was out of bounds. What’s more, they didn’t do anything they considered out of the ordinary; in their view, it was simply what decent people do.

I’m also reminded of the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. The late evangelist Billy Graham, who demanded his crusades even in his native South be integrated back in the 1950s. The late Jim Reeb, the Boston minister and seminary classmate of the former pastor of my former church martyred in Selma, Ala. More recently, the millions of whites who joined Black Lives Matter marches last summer in light of the death of George Floyd at the hands of now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Lately I’ve heard a number of evangelicals say, “Why do we have to focus so much on race? Can’t we just love each other?” But the reason why we need to is because racism is still very much a thing, especially with attempted suppression of black voting power and distortions of “critical race theory”— folks must be willing to say, “This will not stand.”

And that would be true love — in the Greek, agape.

Some thoughts on systemic racism, critical race theory and social justice

Back in March my wife and I closed on a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on a cul-de-sac in a nice suburban neighborhood. It’s close to pretty much everything — shopping; the main expressway to get to work, church and gigs; the whole nine yards. (The schools are pretty good as well, but since we won’t be having children that’s not a factor.)

And yet I’m occasionally reminded that I couldn’t have grown up in this home, which dates back to the late-1950s.

You see, because my parents were African-Americans, banks would have denied them the low-interest loans prevalent back then to build new houses in what we call suburbia. And over time the value of those houses would appreciate in value. Indeed, most major cities eventually not only emptied out of its growing white middle-class but took its financial and social clout with it.

And that has led to, among other things, the racial wealth gap we see today.

And that is an example of the systemic racism that critical race theory, which was formulated in law schools in the 1970s but is now being vilified by the political right as “divisive,” attempts to address. “Systemic racism” is real, folks, and black folks understand that; the situation with housing is just one example of that.

As such, I believe that it would be a Kingdom of God value not simply to repent of racist attitudes but also to dismantle the systems that crept up as a result of such. His justice says, “We got ours, and we will help you get yours.”

That’s why my racially- and economically-diverse church has from time to time has held home-buying workshops, not simply for the permanence and stability that owning a home offers but also for the financial benefit. (Perhaps other churches hold them, but I’m not aware of those.)

Thankfully, most of the specific situations that caused such systemic racism in the first place have been addressed, but the fallout still lingers. How we address that issue we can discuss—but we must, hopefully without rancor.

Because it’s not enough to open the doors without providing the means for people to succeed. In that way we can build what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the beloved community.”

Bitterness over Biden

It still amazes me just how many evangelical Christians are still angry that their preferred candidate, Donald Trump, lost the 2020 general election to Joe Biden. And we’re talking seven months down the road.

Folks are still railing about Biden’s alleged senility and dementia. They’re insisting that Vice-President Kamala Harris is the real power behind the president. They’re still complaining about alleged wholesale election fraud.

None of these have been or will be proven — because they have no basis in fact.

Folks, we need to get over ourselves because these accusations are the result of sheer bitterness that was always there but is now coming to the surface. Trump himself was a bitter person in his own right, which is likely why much of the equally bitter “religious right” supported him. And we know, because of numerous Biblical teachings, the result of unaddressed bitterness (as I have personally experienced and since dealt with).

I wonder how many Christian Trump supporters have sat down with God since then and asked Him, “What are You trying to tell us?” To this day I’m convinced that Trump’s defeat was sanctioned by God, especially after he arrogantly held up that Bible in front of that church last year, perhaps trying to indicate that “God is on my side.”

Well, He doesn’t work like that — He’s God in His own right and thus endorses no one. For that matter, He’s not a tribal deity deigned to confer political power on certain folks, nor is the Christian faith reducible to a set of political positions.

But because the above question isn’t being asked and its ramifications aren’t being addressed, what we’re seeing today is a massive sabotage of Christian witness. We’re seeing the result of placing our trust in fallible political leaders rather than God, which is straight-up idol worship. We’re not seeing hearts and minds transformed, and we’re not seeing unity of the Spirit under the bond of peace.

The beginning of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer,” recited at 12-step recovery meetings, goes as follows: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I understand that defeat hurts, but God is far more interested in how we handle it — because in this life no one gets everything he or she wants. Moreover, whatever we receive here we must understand to come from God, Who alone understands all the ramifications.

And that’s why it does us no good to remain bitter over Trump’s loss. It’s a sign that we still have some growing up to do.

A demonic delusion

You’ve no doubt heard about the criticism leveled recently at Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney from members of the Republican Party — their own — for not only refusing to believe the baseless accusation that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump but for even stating publicly that it’s false. Romney, speaking at a meeting of the Utah party, was actually booed.

The trouble, of course, is that over two-thirds of party adherents believe that nonsense. And since evangelical Christians represent a large bloc of the GOP, it becomes not just a political issue but a spiritual one as well — and one on which they look absolutely silly.

What we’re seeing is the result of a deliberate longstanding campaign by the Enemy to deceive Christians. And by longstanding, I’m talking about over 40 years.

The first and foremost problem is Christians’ focus on political and social power and, in the process, jettisoning the power of the Holy Spirit to cause the change that they say they want. Basically, they failed to trust in God and were moving “in the flesh’ — and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that little, if anything, has changed.

But rather than admit that they were barking up the wrong tree, they continued to pursue the goal of power for its own sake regardless of the means.

Which leads to their endorsement of a man without any moral compass but who told Christians that “Christians will have power.” (Given Jesus’ wilderness temptation, the parallels should be obvious, Jesus telling Satan, in effect, “Go back to hell where you belong.”) The reality is that Trump became quite literally a messianic figure, and in his arrogance he accepted the accolade; that pride led him to hold up that Bible in front of that church, and you can’t convince me that that action didn’t cause God Himself to pull the plug on him.

The delusion has become so strong, however, that, in light of the last election, which they still can’t admit that he lost, a number of people have dreamed up ways in which he would be returned to power. And they would run roughshod over the political process to encourage that — indeed, they did, participating in the riot outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

I’m sorry, but this campaign, including the QAnon conspiracy garbage, is coming straight from the pit, and as a result the witness of the Gospel is being sabotaged. I do believe that God will put a stop to it but won’t pretend to understand just how or when; when He does, a lot of people will be embarrassed — or worse.

‘Haters gon’ hate’ — dangerous times ahead

Now that Joe Biden has become president and his comprehensive “infrastructure” package will put our nation’s money where former president Donald Trump’s mouth was, benefiting probably most people, including his die-hard supporters, it would be nice if we had tranquility in Washington and elsewhere.

It would be nice, but it won’t happen because, as the saying goes, “Haters gon’ hate.”

We need to keep in mind that many of your Trump supporters never cared about policy as such — they were, and are, angry, bitter, resentful people attracted to his snarl. For the last 30 years or so politics has clearly been far less about which philosophy governs than about side is defeated — no, destroyed, out of sheer hate. Trump tapped into that contempt for anyone or anything that leaned left, not because he or anyone else was proposing any alternative. (The opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010 by Barack Obama, must be placed in that context.)

But Trump’s worshipers are still trying to promote him as a messiah. One outlandish scenario has him running for Congress from Florida and, assuming that he gets elected, becoming Speaker of the House and engineering an impeachment of Joe Biden.

(It’s outlandish for two reasons: 1) Trump’s ego is way too big for him to be a “team player’ on any level; and 2) More importantly, it was God Himself who took Trump down because he tried to usurp His throne.)

That being said, let’s not be fooled. Despite his being banned from social media for his incendiary comments that violated their terms of service, he’s still a force to be reckoned with and we forget that at our peril. Moreover, his followers don’t believe at all in accommodating other views; as we saw on Jan. 6, they see compromise as surrender.

As the phrase coming from urban America goes, haters gon’ hate. And because of that, I see trouble on the horizon.

The imminent revival, part 17 — an imminent split

Especially in America, being involved in a religious community and engaging in rituals to display religiosity have not only always been popular but are often even encouraged, especially in evangelical culture.

The problem is, however, that truly following Jesus isn’t and never has been. That’s why He said that the gate was “narrow.”

With a recent Gallup poll indicating that, for the first time, a minority of Americans aren’t involved in a church (or perhaps mosque or synagogue as well — I don’t know the breakdown by affiliation), I think it’s time that we looked at some hard truths about where the Church is today.

Since the late 1970s perhaps a majority of American evangelicals have focused on political and cultural power to maintain social power. The trouble is that in the process they’ve continually ignored the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why their efforts produce only resentment toward them and anger and bitterness among them.

That’s the backdrop of not only people leaving the Church but a growing number of self-identifying evangelicals criticizing it — out of love and humility, not resentment, mind you. The response has been, unsurprisingly, anger — against the likes of Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention; Beth Moore (no relation), the Bible teacher who left the SBC; and blogger and pastor John Pavlovitz.

This is why we’re headed for a split — between those who really want to follow Jesus and those who simply want to play church. The numbers might continue to drop — but He’d be OK with that, because then we’d know for sure just who’s serious about depending on Him.

It may have not been ‘racism’ after all

Most of you have seen the memes “Stop Asian Hate” in reaction to the shooting deaths this week of a number of women, a majority of them of Asian descent, who worked at massage parlors in the Atlanta area by a Robert Aaron Long. A clear case of racism, given that the South has always grappled with this subject and especially since former president Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus?”

I’m not so sure. It seems to me that his crimes were more “religious” in nature.

It turns out that Long had been very active in a Southern Baptist church, that denomination at the forefront of the evangelical movement that has helped to define American Protestantism over the last half-century. And that movement has always had an emphasis, perhaps an overemphasis, on sexual sin, an issue because Long has admitted to what he called a sexual addiction and, according to a story in The New York Times, had actually visited two of the spas he shot up.

Those of us who are steeped in evangelical culture have consistently had the potential destruction by sexual sin drummed into our heads as something to be avoided at all costs. Part of the problem with such a mentality is that it actually, and wrongly, makes women responsible for men’s behavior, specifically their inability or unwillingness to change it.

While I understand that idea of “capturing every thought” under the aegis of Jesus is optimum, it’s not a guarantee that things will happen right away and the struggle may continue. Ironically — and here’s why I referred to the overemphasis on sexual sin — the more you focus on such sin the less you focus on Him.

And that may have been Long’s initial problem. (He may have found himself consistently attracted to Asian women, the only connection to race I see here.)

But there’s something else that’s often left out of the discussion: Love, αγαπή in the Greek, for the other person, which would clearly be an outgrowth of love for God.

For me, it’s been less about avoiding temptation than “How could I as a Christian be so selfish as to want to ‘do that’ to her?” You see, one thing I’ve been privileged to learn over the years but rarely addressed in such circles is that women and girls also have sexual desires, though they manifest themselves differently (and for that reason it’s never been a big deal) — one woman I had dated about two decades ago joked about “cold showers” for herself.

Then, over the past 10 to 15 years I’ve been blessed to learn how to relate to women in a safe, healthy, God-honoring manner but still as women, often through partner-dancing. Since evangelical culture promotes male leadership in cross-gender relationships, I’ve found it more comfortable to do it that way and still grow as a man, my sexuality becoming more integrated into my total persona as opposed to an alien force working against me.

Let me state without reservation that Long, in shooting those women, violated not only the Word of God but also the laws of the state of Georgia and ought to pay for what he did. And as such, his failure was connected to failing to loving others as he would want to be loved, the second of Jesus’ two great commandments.