I have tried so hard to avoid writing a post such as this one because I know there are going to be friends and family alike that will read this and disregard all I am saying. Maybe they will harshly and boldly disagree. Maybe they will quietly judge. However, this is a post that has been laying on my heart for so long. Pieces of it have been saved in my notes since before I even got the idea to start this blog, and I truly feel it is important to share; however, before I begin, I want to remind everyone that this is my judgement-free safe space. Please keep that in mind as you continue reading. Everyone is aware of the political uproar this country is in the midst of right now. There are so many things that so many people are upset about. Some of which I agree with. Some of which I do not. However, I respect those on either side of a given issue as human beings whether or not I personally agree with their beliefs and choices because, let’s be honest, Jesus loves first. I’m called to do the same. The issue here is, collectively, what I am seeing is we do not know how to do that. We are, as a whole, struggling to love first. When I step back and look at the world, I see people across all generations claiming to be Christians, yet they have forgotten Christians have been called to love first and all that entails. This is something that breaks my heart. How is it that we, as people who claim to love Jesus and live a life that resembles His, are comfortable being filled with hate for another person? How is it that we allow hatred rather than love to spew out of us? If we were all truly filled with Jesus, there’s no way we could project the kind of hate that so many of us are projecting right now. It’s as if we, as Christians, have forgotten we’re called to stand up for the hurting in our communities rather than ignore them because their struggles don’t personally effect us. Have we forgotten that our God is a God who consistently sought out and stood up for the “lesser” of us? It’s as if we’ve forgotten that He leaves the ninety-nine to seek after the one who is hurting or lost.
Yes, the other ninety-nine matter to Him.
That’s not what I am saying nor is it what Christ is saying.
What I’m saying, especially right now, is that one needs the extra support and love. The black people in our country and communities are hurting. Children are hurting. I hear daily stories from my elementary school students of hurts they’ve experienced that I, simply because I am white, will never be able to relate to. Why are we so keen on dismissing these struggles?
Why does it upset us so much to hear of their hurts? When we talk about the systematic racism in this country, why are we so fast to throw out “well I'm not a racist” instead of taking the time to step back and look at all the ways you may have been discriminatory? Because, I promise you, we all have been. Why are we so quick to defend our actions by saying “I never owned any slaves“ when that isn’t the issue we’re addressing? No one is accusing you of that. However, let’s get uncomfortably honest, Ruby Bridges is only 66 years old. For anyone who doesn’t know, she was the first black person to integrate into an all white elementary school in 1960.
That’s only 60 years ago. My grandparents are in their 60's. A lot of college age students have parents in their 60's.
With this in mind, when we step back and look at the centuries of slavery in this country followed by 100 years of Jim Crow laws, there is simply no way that we can say that, in roughly 60 years, everyone in this country is on a level playing field. It seems ridiculous to believe that we, as a country, can break down all of the racial barriers we have erected over a period of nearly 300 years in only 60 years. This isn’t to say we haven’t made progress, because we have, but we still have so far to go.
As Christ-followers, we should be leading the way to a country that loves and protects all of its’ people. We need to do better.
Having said this, I’m not excluding myself in the lack of action we, as white people, are taking. I myself hold biases towards people who don’t look like me.
We live in a country that socializes us to believe that the experiences of white people are the “normal.” I grew up, at no fault to my family, believing everyone had roughly the same experiences and subsequently opportunities as myself. However, that simply isn’t true. I’m so privileged, not only because of the wealth I grew up with, but simply because of the color of my skin. Because let’s be honest, there is no way to deny that, as white people in this country, we are inherently privileged. I mean something as simple as going into a store to buy bandaids and easily finding some that match our skin tone is something the black people in our communities don’t have the privilege of. While this may seem a little silly, it’s something I bet you never thought about that. However, as white people and specifically white Christians, these are things we SHOULD think about because, before we are able to combat our biases, we have to notice them. We have to recognize our privilege. We have to learn how to be uncomfortable. We have to be bold in standing up for a what is right even when it puts us in awkward situations with the people we love. I write all of this in an attempt to say we, as Christians, have such a large platform in this country. Why don’t we leverage it for those hurting in our communities right now? Why don’t we love these people like Jesus loves? Why don’t we simply accept the fault in our ways and actively take steps to combat them? I myself am daily fighting to recognize and correct the discriminatory biases I hold. My hope and prayer is that my fellow Christians will do the same.
I will leave with the following quote from Trey Smith, offensive lineman at The University of Tennessee: “All lives cannot matter until black lives matter.”
Sincerely,
Mads
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