BTSF in chronological order (most recent articles appear first):

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Friday Fruit (08/30/13)

Lots of folks to follow!
On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:
  • Lastly, John submitted this eyebrow-raising article for our amusement thoughtful analysis: 

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

MLK: 'I Have a Dream'

Don't just honor MLK because you've been told to. 
Read (or watch) his speech for yourself and ponder what it means for you today:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the  Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the “Unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold, which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the highest plain of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative process to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy, which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make a pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who ask in the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the very victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be
changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification”, one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low; the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we
will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country, 'tis of thee , sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my father's died, land of the pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. 

Read more of MLK's work here and here.
See also: The Dream: 50 Years Later

Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Dream: 50 Years Later

Much has changed since the 1963 March on Washington in which Rev. Dr.  Martin Luther Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. The hard work of those that marched, boycotted, and protested in those years has benefited the entire country. Let's be sure we live into that legacy today with gratitude, humility, and a sense of responsibility to the generations yet to come.

'I Have a Dream' is MLK's most quoted speech, particularly the parts talking about 'content of character.' Ironically, these words are often used to undermine some of the advancements for which the Civil Rights movement worked so hard. They're used to suggest that race doesn't matter as long as we are kind and nonjudgmental to one another.

This would perhaps be true if our society had indeed arrived at a state of universal racial equality. Unfortunately, many of the struggles that precipitated the March of Washington persist today, having simply been driven underground into less overt forms.

Click to enlarge
So how much has really changed since that time? MLK once observed that "when we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites…" Reflecting on this quote, Abagond notes that ~50 years later, little has changed by the numbers: "the black unemployment rate is 1.96 times the white one (2011) while black babies die at 2.36 times the rate of white babies (2005)."

Indeed, in her book, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander observes that more African Americans are under correctional control today (prison, jail, probation, or parole) than were enslaved in 1850. Similarly, more African American men are disenfranchised today than in 1869, the year before the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified.

Click to enlarge:
The Unfinished Business
of the March on Washington
All this is not to diminish the holy work of MLK and other justice seekers, past and present, that have made the world safer and more equitable for all of us. Their service brought us out of slavery and Jim Crow, allows the more nuanced conversations of today even possible.

But rather than resting on our 'Better than Jim Crow' laurels, their work is encouragement for we who benefit from their sacrifice. We are not to let go of the dream. We're not to forgo the protections that have been put in place. We must still strive to change a world in which innocent black boys are murdered, and church doors say 'for whites only.'

The following is a much less often quoted portion of MLK's famous speech that is still salient today:
"It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

On this anniversary week, set aside a moment to read the entirety of MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech. Indeed, take time to read some of his other work as well and ponder how many of his words still ring true for us today.


Thursday, August 22, 2013

Friday Fruit (8/23/13)

Source
On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Back to School Reading

Photo courtesy of
2100 productions
As we learn to let go of our colorblind habits, we also want to understand the practical ways in which justice and reconciliation function in the world around us. We want to live into what God is doing to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4:18). We want to ensure that our excitement and passion doesn't way to the humdrum of the day-to-day grind.

How do we stay grounded in our convictions and excited about the things God is doing in our world?

Here are some practical book suggestions to help keep the fire burning:

Reconciling All Things by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice
One of a series pairing theologians and practitioners of justice, Reconciling All Things examines the potential for radical reconciliation across many of today’s divisions.  Katongole and Rice have partnered together for many years as codirectors at Duke Divinity School’s Center for Reconciliation and bring the wisdom of their life experiences into their writing.  Encouraging us to go beyond conflict resolution, we see the opportunity in our world for a deeper reconciliation in Christ. Reconciliation pushes past diversity to achieve redeemed relationships, both with God and with our sisters and brothers on earth.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Though African Americans represent only 13% of drug users (paralleling national racial demographics), they account for 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of those sent to prison on drug possession charges.  Black men are 13 times more likely to be sent to prison than white men facing the same charge.  Alexander asserts that these disparities have tremendous consequences for families and communities, with lasting racialized effects on the nation. As thousands end up entangled in the Prison-Industrial Complex, claims of ‘colorblindness’ give way to the reality that serious discrimination is at work in our judicial system. Read a full review of 'The New Jim Crow' here.

Pursuing Justice by Ken Wystma
Wystma calls us to pursue God’s heart by remembering His commitment to justice. We’re reminded that Christ’s death of the cross was at the same time an act of reconciliation and of justice.  Wystma urges us not to forget the wrongs that must be righted in order to be in redeemed relationship with God’s creation. The beauty of God’s plan is that He invites us to participate in His work to restore justice to the world. Indeed, pursuing justice is itself an act of worship.  God invites us into relationship with Himself and with one another to fulfill this vision justice. Read a full review of 'Pursuing Justice' here.

Making All Things New by R. York Moore
Can we participate in fulfilling the dreams of God on earth? What would God’s dreams be for us? Making All Things New describes the possibilities of what the life on this earth could be, even as we recognize the real day-to-day consequences of living in a fallen world. Moore coveys a passion for global justice that is contagious. In Christ’s mission to redeem all of creation, we are given hope that we can be delivered from the nightmares of poverty, slavery, human trafficking, and famine.  Moore elegantly guides us through scripture describing what God might have in mind for us when He reveals a “new heaven and a new earth” for us to one day dwell in with Him.

What books help keep your passion for justice alive? 

The above has been adapted from a post originally appearing on the blog of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on July 24, 2013. 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Friday Fruit (08/16/13)

(Source, Via)
On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you
to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Is God Colorblind?


If you're colorblind, you can't find God 
Sometimes we like to see ourselves as colorblind citizens in a 'post-racial' society. But does that
attitude conform with God's heart?

God is not colorblind.  God rejoices in colorful creation, and wraps Himself in rainbows of color. Not only is God not literally colorblind, neither does God blind Himself to the cultures and nations of the people that worship Him. God created a world that would be inhabited by many races and peoples. Color is God's good intention.

In John's vision of heaven, he notices that "there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9). How would John have known this if they had lost their cultural identities upon entering heaven? John could have simply written about the unity of people praising God. But our cultural identities are important,even in heaven, and John affirms this with his words.

Would we really want to live in a world where we were all the same? Why shouldn't our racial identities be affirmed as part of what shapes us, and how we relate to God?

All eyes = no good
diversity of cultures is essential to the Body of Christ. We are not supposed to be 'colorblind.' If we pretend as if 'we are all the same' then we miss the richness that God gave us. God has designed the Church to be a body that is unified, but that has unique parts that need each other—we are not all eyes or feet. "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others" (Romans 12:4-5). Our many cultures allow us to bring a variety of gifts to bear for God's work on earth.

I understand the sentiment behind colorblindness. It tries to convey the idea that God loves all of us, which God certainly does. It also tries communicate that God does not judge us by how we look, which God certainly does not. But a colorblindness mentality misses the mark when we pretend that our differences do not exist or do not matter.

And the reality is, no matter how much we say it, we're never actually colorblind anyway. We do see differences between people. We notice when someone's hair is different than our own. We notice when skin is a different shade. The problem isn't in seeing difference. It's in acting negatively toward that difference.

We say we are colorblind, but we lock our car doors only in response to some types of faces. We clutch our purses when certain hues of skin enter the elevator, but not for others. We assume some people are citizens, while presuming others are not.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Kerry Washington
We all have implicit associations based on skin color, whether we want to have them or not (see post: Testing Racial Bias). Our minds automatically try to categorize people. It's better to acknowledge that fact and to combat it, "You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there!" (Jeremiah 6:14)

Modern racism owes its success to our ability to 'turn a blind eye' to the racialized inequalities in front of us. 'Post-racial' racism depends on everyday people harboring prejudices that are too subtle to outright repudiate, but that are strong enough to affect how we select jurors, who we send to jail, to whom we rent property, and who we hire for jobs.

Colorblindness is actually a form of denial. Indeed, there is so much racial disparity in the world, one surely must be blind not to see it. Colorblindness is not the solution. Kerry Washington notes of race "if it’s the only thing you focus on, then it’s a danger, and if you never talk about it then it’s a danger."

A lot of brokenness in our world results from our racial division, but race itself is not the enemy. Our racial identities can help bring one another closer to God. We can rejoice together in the richness of God's creation, and affirm the identities that God gives each of us. We can experience renewed intimacy with our Savior when we experience God in conjunction with the many different kinds of people God loves, and we can discover aspects of God's nature that we would would not have uncovered on our own.

When we learn to love the colors God created, we offer a witness of more holy Christian unity to the world. A unity that does not homogenize, but rather glorifies God through our heterogeneity (not in spite of it). Thus, we bear witness to the colors of heaven arrayed in splendor on earth.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Friday Fruit (08/09/13)

The Dream 9
On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Monday, August 5, 2013

What Black Gospel Music Taught Me

The following was originally published on the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship blog on June 19, 2013

IVCF Rockbridge 2010
When I started college, I couldn't have named a single Black gospel singer. I was a classical music major with a narrow range of taste. I thought I already knew everything about what 'good music' was.

Falling in Love with Gospel Music
But I vividly remember attending my first gospel concert during my freshman year. I only went to support a couple of my friends who were members of the Umoja Gospel Choir. They sang Fred HammondHezekiah Walker, and Kirk Franklin--and I loved it.

Not long after, the InterVarsity chapter at my school did a joint weekend retreat with Umoja that profoundly shaped my worldview and racial awareness. I learned that racism was alive on our campus, and that it personally affected the people around me every day. I learned that God created race, and wants us to celebrate it, not ignore it (Revelation 7:9, Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26). I learned how much I was missing out on. And that I could have a role in effecting change.

Concert Poster
I joined Umoja the following year, and the friendships I made there are some of the most important and enduring of my life. We sang together, prayed together, learned together, and grew together. The love and patience of that holy space was invaluable. I learned about myself, my world, and my privilege in it.

And I learned about music. I learned about Donnie McClurkin and Richard Smallwood. I began to attend churches with friends where I heard music by the Clark Sisters, Mighty Clouds of Joy, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. I felt myself growing from ambivalence to tolerance, and from tolerance to affirmation. And then I found myself connecting to God in a way I had never experienced before.

Loving God More Through Gospel Music
Gospel music became part of my own heart music--one of the ways I worshiped God that resonated with the core of my soul. I didn't leave behind other music I worshiped with, but gospel music helped me connect to aspects of God that I hadn't previously been accessing.

The talented Michael Coleman
I learned to meditate on words, and to wrap my mind and soul around repeated phrases, to conform my heart to their message. When I sang "grateful, grateful, grateful," I began to understand what it really meant to be thankful for God's grace and mercy. Just like in my academic life, I realized that I needed repetition to actually begin to comprehend what these concepts mean.

Through gospel music, I also learned to give God not just my mind and my intellectual understanding of him, but my emotions and my heart as well. I could dance, I could cry, I could shout. God could handle it. I learned to offer praise no matter my circumstances and to trust that God was sovereign through it all. When I struggled in my studies, I could lean in with Shirley Caesar, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. When was rejoicing in God's greatness I could jam to Tye Tribbett or Lonnie Hunter. No matter what I was going through, God was good.

Now with the Ubuntu Choir 4 All People
Leaning into a Legacy
Since leaving college, I've continued to lean in to the lessons God has for me through gospel music. Church 4 All People has introduced me to Walter Hawkins, Dorothy Norwood, and Kurt Carr. Most recently, I've enjoyed going farther back to the Blind Boys of MississippiMahalia Jackson, and powerful old spirituals.

Ironically, many of these songs were once considered "devils music" in white congregations (not unlike how rap and hip hop are sometimes treated by the Church today). The survival of this music came at a high cost for many artists whose royalties were stolen, careers marginalized, and lives threatened. And yet much of our modern music is derived from these roots. I'm grateful to those who made sacrifices so it could thrive today.

We miss out on so much of God's character when we limit our means of interacting with Him.We need to worship in His holiness, as well as His kindness. We need to understand His mercy, as well as His strength. Take time this week to explore worship music you are less familiar with. Join a gospel choir, sing in a different language, try dancing, or mime. No single culture or genre will ever be enough to express the magnitude of God' character.

I've had so much fun listening to good music in preparation for this post. I couldn't name them all. Who are your favorites? Leave your comments below. 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Friday Fruit (08/02/13)

Anala Beevers
On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you
to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.
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By Their Strange Fruit by Katelin H is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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