THE BLACK CHURCH HAS BEEN DEALING WITH IT
This blog post is a bit of a rant. I am saying this up front so that you understand the context in which I am writing. I feel its content deeply. I understand that for many the title of this Blog post may appear polarizing. It is not meant to be. I know full well that there is only ONE Church. I make the distinction because while there is indeed only one church, segregation started there. I wish we acted as if there was only one church, but we act as if there is not. We are all created equally in the image of God, but we are not all seen nor treated as equal. It’s like an all men are created equal, one nation, indivisible kind of vibe. Sounds good but….
I want to make clear that I am a child of God and as such I love everyone. I do my level best to assess folk based on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. I can completely love someone who has a differing of opinion or political view than I. Oftentimes that person lives in the same color skin I do. I can vehemently disagree with a person and still love them and respect their right to their opinion. God can transform any heart. To believe otherwise is to put limits on the power of God. His power is limitless, His love knows no bounds and His wisdom is infinite.
Let’s get into it.
To all of the people who believe they are more than because they “appear” to have more; to all the folk who believe they are better than because they believe they are superior to others; to those who think more highly of themselves than they ought - You are elevating yourself above others because of the big house you own, the car you drive, the clothes you wear or the bag you carry. In so doing you are assessing your worth based on worldly systems that are intrinsically oppressive and evil. It is dangerous and counter-productive in adding to the Kingdom.
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another”.
– Romans 12:3-5
When you believe that you are more worthy than someone else it leads to a dangerous mindset. See, all of the people you marginalize and call lazy are the people we in the Church serve every day. So, when you ask where is the outcry for the black on black crime after every time a black person is shot in the street at the hands of a white person, allow me to educate you on the fact that as a black community, and in particular as the black Church, we have been addressing it on an ongoing basis. We believe in those whom society discards. We sow into the lives of young people who you say are never going to amount to anything. We spend time praying and creating programs for folk who are struggling so profoundly that they commit crimes against others. We pray for the breaking of chains of generational curses and poverty.
We see people as human. We see people as being created in the image of God and everyone has a purpose. We go into institutions of incarceration and minister to those who have committed crimes because every repentant heart can be transformed. We feed the hungry that are in that constant state because of the oppressive systems that exist. We tend to and serve the victims of violent crime each and every day. We comfort the mothers and fathers, family members of those who are grieving.
We embrace the family members and friends of those who have been slain in the street. We encourage and sow into the lives of those in our community who have gone astray and made mistakes with the hope of repentance and reconciliation back into a right relationship with God and their fellow man and woman.
But you don’t think it’s possible. You don’t actually believe that folk can change. You sit on your self-proclaimed and self-constructed fraudulent thrones of superiority and make judgements on folk who do not look like you or do not have the same socio-economic background as you do. You value profit over people and will do whatever it takes to keep what you have. You are the person who says I got mine now you get yours. You post your insensitive ignorant points of view about things you know not of. You believe that nothing can touch you. You are the folk that say that something is untrue because you don’t have the capacity to understand it.
I heard a former police chief say in an interview some time ago, you know I hear people of color saying that they have to have “the talk” with their sons about how to act when they have encounters with law enforcement. He went on to say that it is no different than the talk he has with his kids. The utter arrogance and unmitigated gall to think that he knows and understand the intricacies of conversations a black parent has to have with their black children literally took me out. It is not the same conversation, sir. It is not the same conversation.
It is that same arrogance that uses an ALL LIVES MATTER hashtag because you are so offended that black folk started a grass roots movement to demand justice for folk that look like them. You are so marrow minded to believe that black folk think that only their lives matter when in actuality the point is that it has been proven over and over again that our lives do not matter to the institutions of law and government that are sworn to protect and uphold the rights of all citizens. If all lives mattered, then black lives matter would not have to exist. But it is par for the course and all so very typical that you would appropriate yet another thing that black folk have created and turn it into something other than what it was intended. Now that I’ve spent two paragraphs on this, I realize that it is a much larger discussion that is probably best articulated on a different kind of blog so I will leave that here and move on. It was flowing from my heart so I’m leaving it here on the paper.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that most of you are commentating and judging from your couch. You have never been in the trenches. You’ve never gone into a prison and met with a young person to encourage them to turn their life around. You’ve never volunteered to feed the homeless, to clothe the naked. You feel next to nothing for the homeless man or woman you walk past every day other than inconvenience you believe they have caused you.
To all those that are marginalized, oppressed, shunned, shamed, put down, mocked, criminalized, not believed, devalued. Know that God fights for you. He is the champion for the downtrodden and oppressed and is calling on all of those who profess Him as Lord to do the same.
We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39), and we are to go and make disciples of others who will do the same (Matthew 28:19-20).
It is my fervent prayer that we seek God and strive to do His will. To love Him and to love each other is His will for us. I challenge us all to look through the lens of the Gospel before we speak, before we post (God help me) and before we act. We are here but for a little while. What we do down here determines where we will spend eternity. I am striving every day to get there. Pray for me as I pray for you. Let us love one another, hold each other accountable to the Word of God and lift each other up.