Thoughts on racism (part 13)

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Thatmom has an excellent post about racism on her blog. I just commented:

Karen, thanks so much for this post. You've expressed the issue so well --- and you've inspired me to take a more "organized" approach in teaching my children about racism.

I am deeply grieved that certain homeschooling circles have shown themselves to be a haven for racists. It reminds me of the accusations leveled against the "Christian Day School Movement" years ago. Apparently when more and more schools were integrated by busing in children from different communities and ethnic groups, some churches quickly started their own private schools in order to be able to continue keeping their children isolated from other races. When I was in college and a friend of mine heard that my younger brother attended a church school --- and that I worked at that same school --- she was upset that I would participate in such a racist institution. I was shocked because this is the first time I'd ever heard about the racist beginnings of some church schools. Our own church school was quite diverse; in fact, I was able to quote the statistics off the top of my head because I had just finished an ethnographic study of the school population.

Fast forward quite a few years. When we first began homeschooling, two of the women in our small but growing ISP/support group were concerned that they were perceived as doing something that was "white". While they never felt anything but loving acceptance from us, it bothered them that the homeschooling movement was seen, especially by outsiders, as a mostly white, middle-class phenomena. I would hate to think that, for some people, that might be its main attraction.

Thoughts on racism (part 12)

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From the Internet Monk:

Racial issues and racial respect are huge parts of my life because of my ministry setting. My own life history has been deeply effected by my beliefs on racial justice. My own integrity requires me to make a “zero tolerance” stand on racism. I don’t talk with racists. I don’t put up with them in class. I don’t listen to it in casual conversation. I get up and leave. To me, my witness to racial justice is one cloth with my commitment to Jesus as Lord.

Amen.

Thoughts on racism (part 11)

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Eldest Son recently attended a prayer meeting where he was the only "white" person there --- every other person was Asian in heritage. His descriptions of the passion that his fellow Believers brought to intercessory prayer made me so thankful that he is worshiping with believers outside of just his narrow ethnic and social boundaries. As I told him, the wonderful thing about fellowshipping cross-culturally is that we are able to see Jesus a bit more clearly, without our own cultural baggage --- baggage that we are usually incapable of realizing that we carry.

As the Body of Christ, what unites us is Jesus Himself. Culture and race should never divide us. Yes, there is something of great value in hearing the message of salvation in our "heart language", in being able to pray and fellowship in our native tongue. But there is something wildly freeing about stepping outside of our culture, outside of our race, and seeing Jesus as we've never seen Him before.

I fear that my words are woefully inadequate in expressing what I mean. Input, anyone? I'd love to hear about your experiences of cross-cultural church and christian fellowship.

Edited slightly for clarity.

Thoughts on racism (part 10)

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One of the arguments for kinism goes somewhat like this: "But we're just trying to pass on our European culture to our children and grandchildren!"

I'm not buying that argument. If that's all the kinists were concerned about, instead of trying to convince people of their segregationist arguments, they would be doing what my parents did to pass on their culture:

1. My mother taught us to speak her native language.

2. My mother taught us to read her native language.

3. My parents taught us a number of the traditional children's stories of their cultures.

4. My mother cooked "traditional" foods from both cultures, and both parents introduced us to music, art, architecture, history, legends, folk tales, and more.

5. My parents included their own cultural elements in our celebrations of holidays and birthdays.

6. Most importantly, my parents taught us to examine our two cultures critically, from a Biblical perspective, and to accept the good while rejecting the bad. They taught us to be nonconformists and to stand by principle, rather than by culture or by popularity.

They felt no need to segregate us from other ethnic groups or cultures in order to teach us about either of their cultural heritages.

I don't think kinism is about preserving and passing on a culture. I think it's about prejudice.

Edited to add:

The best cultural heritage my parents passed on to us, and continue to pass on, is our family culture. This culture is interwoven with our faith, and includes such things as prayer, Bible study, ministry, hospitality, "house music", strong marriages, lots of love, good food, laughter, hard work, an appreciation for art and beauty, and a lot of other things that permeate our lives and homes. Again, we didn't practice these things in isolation. In fact, we practiced them within the culture of the Body of Christ --- and that enriched us far more than avoiding other family and ethnic cultures ever would have.

The most important culture to preserve is one based on the truth of God's Word. Your family culture may look different --- your food and music may be different, for example --- but what binds us together is that we are all part of His Body.

Thoughts on racism (part 9)

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I've had some not insignificant differences of opinion and even theology with R.C. Sproul, Jr. But, as a friend of mine says, "Even a broken watch is right twice a day." I think Sproul, Jr. is right more often than that, and he was certain right in his open letter to Harry Seabrook, a kinist. Read it here.

More articles on racism, from the Highland Study Center publication "Every Thought Captive", can be found here.

Thoughts on racism (part 8)

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I'd been warned: when kinism gets discussed online, someone had commented over a year ago, all hell breaks loose. I've seen other discussions generate into ugliness, in the past and more recently. That's why I took the unusual step, for me, of moderating the comments on this blog.

But I'm just a little blog, read by few, and I don't think I have a whole lot to fear.

But, at the same time, it's been unreal. Kinist symapthizers (who get a little upset when you call them on their defense of kinism and kinists) are an interesting lot, to say the least. There's been a tremendous amount of dancing around the mulberry bush, hair splitting, contradictory statements, accusing others of lying, etc.

Although this is not at all an actual quote, this is how I summed up a recent long conversation:

Me: On the kinism.net website, they made Statement A, Statement B, Statement C, and Statement D. I find kinism contrary to the word of God because of this scripture and that scripture.

Kinist Sympathizer: Yes, but did you find the name of my favorite kinist sympathizer anywhere on those statements?

Me: No, I'm just looking at what the Kinist Institute believes, according to their own statements. Besides, they don't sign their names to every statement.

KS: How can you lie about my favorite kinist?

Me: I'm not even talking about your favorite kinist. I'm just trying to examine kinist beliefs and hold them up to Scripture.

KS: You're such a liar. You claim that kinists are opposed to mixed race marriages.

Me: I just quoted that in their own words from their own website.

KS: You also lied when you said that kinists want their own territories that would exclude people of other races!

Me: But I was just quoting that from their website. Are you saying that kinism.net doesn't say what kinists really believe? Can you point me to more accurate statements of their belief?

KS: Why do you keep attacking my favorite kinist?

Me: [groan] I give up!

Maybe that's the point.

I do know that the antidote to kinism and to being sucked into sympathizing with kinism is love --- the love of God.

All the law and the prophets can be pretty much summed up with what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments: that we love God and that we love others as much as we love ourselves. There is no room for loving our own race more than other races in there. There is no room for dividing the Body of Christ along racial or ethnic lines. Love God. Love others. Real love. That's the answer.

Thoughts on racism (part 7)

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Why kinists hide in the shadows (from kinism.net):

Open Letter To A Self-Important Gossip

While we find ourselves bemused that our comments on the hothouse strangeness, outright idiocies, and virulent gossip of the anti-patriarchism crowd, and Cynthia Gee in particular, have engendered such an impassioned response, we are not so foolish as to believe she has anything in mind other than the febrile attempt to expose us to public scrutiny and try us in the court of fashionable (heretical) opinion, in the hope that such personal exposure might provide impetus to a smear campaign similar to that being conducted against a former Kinist, once associated with this website. This is why we write under a nom de plume (or nom de guerre, if you will). The champions of “free speech and open discourse” seem to enjoy placing anonymous calls to employers and pastors when they can’t shout down your ideas with insults. Since we have mouths to feed, we’ll, pass on the ritual seppuku.

Hhhhmmmm...if kinism is so Biblical, so non-racist, and so impossible to refute (the anonymous author of the above later wrote, "While we don’t hold out hope that she will prove more formidable than any of Kinism’s previous opponents, who now speak into their beards, as it were...") then what on earth do kinists have to fear from anonymous calls to employers and pastors? They should be able to quickly convince these men as well. Or perhaps they are really afraid of more of their own numbers becoming "former kinists"?

These men so lack the courage of their convictions that they lurk in the shadows. My only hope is that they possess enough of a conscience to be rightly ashamed of the philosophy they espouse. If so, may that shame grow into true repentance.

CORRECTION: While the author's name (John Marshall) does not appear on the article page itself, it does appear on the main kinism.net page linking to the article. Of course, this is probably just a "nom de plume", but I wanted to be accurate.

Thoughts on racism (part 6)

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But what about interracial marriage? Why do the kinists oppose it?

Here is some interesting info about interracial marriage in the U.S. I had forgotten that it wasn't until 1967 that the laws forbidding interracial marriage were overturned. The kinists, of course, would like to bring back those laws.

Thoughts on racism (part 5)

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I had no idea. No idea whatsoever. This was such a painful read for me, taken from "The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects" (written about the Jim Crow Museum)

A thick naiveté about America's past permeates this country. Many Americans understand historical racism mainly as a general abstraction: Racism existed; it was bad, though probably not as bad as blacks and other minorities claim. A confrontation with the visual evidence of racism -- especially thousands of items in a small room -- is frequently shocking, even painful. In the late 1800s traveling carnivals and amusement parks sometimes included a game called "Hit the Coon." A black man would stick his head through a hole in a painted canvas; the background was a plantation scene. White patrons would throw balls -- and in especially brutal instances, rocks -- at the black man's head to win prizes. A person living in the 21st century who sees that banner or a reproduction gets a glimpse of what it was like to be a black man in the early years of Jim Crow.

And then this:

Near that time, I took a colleague's students into the Jim Crow Museum. I showed them the ugliness, the Mammy, the Sambo, the Brute, the caricatured sores foisted on black Americans. I showed them. Showed it all. And we went deep, deeper than ever before, deeper than I meant to go. My anger showed. After three hours they left, all but two -- a young black woman and a middle-aged white man. The woman sat, paralyzed, transfixed, and stunned before a picture of four naked black children. The children sat on a riverbank. At the bottom of the picture were these words: "Alligator Bait." She sat there, watching it, trying to understand the hand that had made it, the mind that conceived it. She did not say a word, but her eyes, her frown, the hand at her forehead all said, "Why, sweet Jesus, why?" The white man stopped staring at the items and stared at me. He was crying. Not a sob, a single tear stream. His tears moved me. I walked toward him. Before I could talk, he said, "I am sorry, Mr. Pilgrim. Please forgive me."

He had not created the racist objects in the room, but he had benefited from living in a society where blacks were oppressed. Racial healing follows sincere contrition. I never realized how much I needed to hear some white person, any sincere white person, say, "I am sorry, forgive me." I wanted and needed an apology -- a heartfelt one that changes two lives. His words took the steam out of my anger. [emphasis mine]

May we all be sincerely contrite...God forgive me...God forgive us all.

More:

The 21st century has brought a fear and unwillingness to look at racism in a deep, systematic manner. The hedonistic desire to avoid pain (or anything uncomfortable) is counter to our method of directly confronting the ugly legacy of racism. Moreover, there is a growing desire among many Americans to forget the past and move forward. "If we just stop talking about historical racism, racism will go away." It is not that easy. We may not talk openly about race, but that is not forgetting it. America remains a nation residentially segregated by race. Our churches, temples, and synagogues are, in the main, racially divided. Old patterns of racial segregation have returned to many public schools. Race matters. Racial stereotypes, sometimes yelled, sometimes whispered, are common. Overt racism has morphed into institutional racism, symbolic racism, and everyday racialism. Attitudes and beliefs about race inform many of our decisions, big and small. "Let's stop talking about it," is a plea for comfort -- a comfort denied to blacks and other minorities. The way to move forward is to confront the historical and the contemporary expressions of racism, and to do so in a setting where attitudes, values, and behaviors are critiqued.

Lest we think these racist attitudes have all died:

In the early 1990s I attended an academic conference in New Orleans. I searched local stores for racist objects. There were not many. Ten years later I returned to New Orleans. I found anti-black objects in many stores. This is disappointing but not surprising. Brutally racist items are readily available through Internet auction houses, most notably, eBay. Indeed, practically every item housed in the Jim Crow Museum is being sold on some Internet site. Old racist items are being reproduced and new items are being created.

And:

I will end with a story. One of my daughters plays on an elite soccer team, meaning her practices are never done on time. One day I sat in the van with my other daughter waiting for practice to end. Nearby several white boys were clowning in front of two girls. They were all teenagers. One of the boys wore a blackfaced mask and he mocked the mannerisms of "street blacks." He turned toward us and I immediately looked at my daughter. She had lowered her head and covered her face. If you have a child then you know what I felt. If your skin is dark then you know why I do what I do.

Thoughts on racism (part 4)

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The following is from "Racism: A Christian Response", and especially appropriate to the topic of kinism that I raised in my previous post:

JESUS CHRIST HAS REMOVED ALL BARRIERS THAT STAND BETWEEN HUMAN BEINGS, MAKING PEACE THROUGH HIS CROSS.

St. Paul writes, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end" (Ephesians 2:13-16).

Racism in the church poisons and cripples all sincere efforts "to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Physical characteristics or cultural customs are made to serve as "a dividing wall of hostility" that separates brothers and sisters in Christ -- to which the only appropriate response must be, "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:13).

Thoughts on racism (part 3)

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Racism takes many forms. One form that has invaded my world lately is something called "kinism". The advocates of this philosophy claim that it is not racism at all, although some of them, when pressed, might go so far as to admit that perhaps some kinists are also racists.

At the same time that kinist leaders are being named, discussed and exposed in an online forum, a number of kinism websites are suddenly being "cleaned up" or password protected. But here is a sample of some of the statements from Kinism.net:

[WARNING: This is really offensive, ungodly, anti-biblical, and ugly stuff. I post it for the purpose of exposing the deeds of darkness and warning fellow believers about a philosophy that is insidiously creeping into a small but growing number of Christian circles.]

"Kinism is the belief that the God-ordained social order for man is tribal and ethnic rather than imperial and universal. Mankind was designed by its Creator and Law Giver to live and to thrive in extended family groups, and all other “alternatives” to this pattern are inhibitory of the chief end of man, which is to Glorify God and to enjoy life with Him forever."

"Extended blood ties are the only natural and workable basis for a healthy society not subject to the horrifying ideologies of fallen man, be they socialist or capitalist, autocratic or democratic. We believe that an extended tribalism is the normative system for our people, the White races of Europe, the Americas, South Africa, Australia, Transcaucasia, or wherever our extended family finds itself in its modern diaspora."

"We at Kinism.net believe that our White peoples have an inalienable, that is, God-given right and duty to seek their own prosperity and existence as distinct nations, apart from all other genetic and ethnic families."

"When Kinism.net publishes materials disparaging of other ethnicities and races, it is for the sole purpose of exposing the incompatibility and essential uniqueness of the cultures of different racial-ethnic groups. "

"This seeking of prosperity and distinctness for our European peoples is primarily to be achieved by conversion to the religion of our only Savior, Jesus Christ. We therefore, we denounce the sin of miscegenation as a violation of God’s created order which has permanent consequences for every heritable trait. We appeal to God’s creation mandate of “kind after kind.” It is the obligation of both church and state to forbid mixed unions according to biblical laws prohibiting unequal yoking."

"Nevertheless, we stand or fall with no other but the White peoples of Europe, and their standards of beauty, their cultural achievements, the achievements of their civilization, established through the confluence of pagan and Christian traditions, are both irreplaceable and vital to our survival as a people."

"Kinism.net advocates an end all non-white immigration. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the worth and value to God of all ethnic division of men and would labor diligently to establish godly, honorable relations with our ethnic neighbors. The borders of a Kinist nation would be secure, and sensible anti-miscegenation laws would be enacted, while suffrage would be restricted to landed white males 21 and older, as we work toward a godly, free republic."

This is the "cleaned up" version of what kinists believe. (Compare their statements to what Scripture actually teaches; for starters, read my previous post.) Until recently, on the same website, it used to say:

“We will work to end all non-white immigration, We believe that all aliens (to include all Jews and Arabs) should be removed to their own areas and separated in due course from Kinist held territories, without respect to persons.”

There is no indication, especially in light of what they still posts as their beliefs and goals, that they no longer believe the above statement.

When I first encountered kinism on a few blogs about a year or so ago, I thought it was just a small group of racist nutjobs who had some disagreements with the so-called "Christian Identity" movement and had decided to go off and do their own thing. While there may be some merit to my initial reaction, I think the situation is far more dangerous and insidious than that.

So I'm posting this as a warning to my fellow Christians, especially those in conservative and/or private/homeschooling circles: this "white-washed racism" (a term coined by a friend of mine) may very well be insidiously creeping its way into your world. I've been surprised to discover a growing number of professing Christians who go out of their way to embrace kinists (even, I've been told, to the point of making sure kinist visitors to their church will not be made "uncomfortable" by the presence of mixed race couples) or to chat them up on their blogs or to defend kinists or to sympathize with their teachings, etc. One leading kinist has attended the church (and was welcomed to join in a picture of the "church family" that was posted online) of James McDonald who, along with his wife, is becoming increasingly more prominent in patriarchal and homeschooling circles. In an online debate, one kinist sympathizer who, while insisting she was not a kinist herself and admitting that some kinists were racists, stated, "Now, I think you are asking me if those at kinism.net are racist. I don’t quite know how to say this, but I don’t see that." She saw nothing racist in the statements I quoted; apparently in her mind, they were just not hateful enough.

What is the antidote to kinism? It's actually simple. Love God. Read His Word. Ask Him to give you a love for the lost. Ask Him to give you a love for the Body of Christ. Ask Him to remove any trace of racism and prejudice from your heart. Be humble. Pray and work for the unity of His Body. Let the mind of Christ dwell richly in you.

Love. The golden rule. Asking God to turn your heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That will go a long way in avoiding sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ.

And...speak out. Expose the deeds of darkness. Don't give a stamp of approval to kinists...don't let them or their sympathizers speak at your churches or homeschooling conventions...mark them as the divisive people that they are. Just because kinists may not have the power to enact their goal of dividing us all along ethnic and racial lines, does not make them any less divisive. Titus 3:10 tells us, "Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him."

That's what we need to do with unrepentant kinists, no matter how nice they may appear to be, and how neatly they may have managed to white-wash their racism. Warn them twice, plead with them, pray for them --- and then, for their sake and for the sake of the Body of Christ --- have nothing to do with them.

Thoughts on racism (part 2)

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"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created him." -Genesis 1:27

"Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living." -Genesis 3:20

"Do we not all have one father? Has not God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" -Malachi 2:10

"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word: that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." -John 17:20-24

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise." -Galatians 3:28-29

I love my extended family. I really do. It's wonderful when we get as many of us together as we can. We've joked that we're like a "mini United Nations". All of my cousins on my mother's side are at least bilingual, having grown up in homes where two or more languages were spoken. I love our history, our lore, our food, our many stories. Among the American contingent, in just a little more than my lifetime, we have the American success story ("poor immigrant boy works hard and achieves success"), the pioneer story ("Go west, young man!" complete with a covered wagon...er, trailer), the touching story of parents becoming citizens so their son could better serve our country, etc.

But what I really love about my extended family is our Christian heritage. Most of us are descendants of Abraham, because we belong to Christ. All of our truly exciting stories are testimonies of what God has done and how He has blessed us, protected us, guided us, and shown us His grace and love over the generations. I grew up on "faith stories". If there is one thing that truly defines our family, that makes us one, it is our shared faith in God.

We are all just a part of a much bigger family. Jesus taught that our membership in His family should take precedence over our relationships in our earthly families. (See, for example, Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 18:28-30, Luke 14:26)

But, as followers of Christ, we are not just members of the same wonderful family. We are also --- and it is such a glorious mystery --- the very Body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:27 tells us, "Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of of it." Just verses earlier, we are warned to avoid division within the body and to care for one another. We are told, "And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it..."

Racism in all its forms --- whether it is overt hatred or some white-washed version that seeks to divide us along racial lines --- has no place in the Body of Christ. We are all sons and daughters of Adam, along with every other human. Those of us who are followers of Jesus are brothers and sister in Him, and members of His Body. Christ, in Gethsemene, prayed for the unity of His followers. We are one in Him, with previous divisions and barriers (those of race, nationality, society, economy, or gender) removed. When one of us suffers, we all suffer.

Still today, many of our brothers and sisters suffer as a result of racism. In my comfortable, sheltered world, it is all too easy for me to forget that. I should be more grieved and more passionate about this. I should stand with my brothers and sisters, weep with them, pray with them, speak out on their behalf when necessary, and expose the deeds of darkness.

Thoughts on racism (part 1)

[This series of posts is inspired by a troubling discussion elsewhere on the internet, that in turn led to my reading on the topic of "kinism". I am not planning to write some sort of theological treatise or sociological paper. I have been accused of being "hysterical" on this topic. I don't think I am. In fact, I am praying that God would help me to be more passionate about the sin of racism in all its forms.]

I am pale of skin. In my silly youth, I tried many times to get a tan. Actually, as I would joke with a friend of mine, I tried to "de-pale my skin". All I did was turn red, get more freckles, and accumulate some sun damage. Sometimes I lost a bit of my ghostly pallor. One summer that I spent almost every weekend at the beach, I told my co-workers that I had a rare skin condition that caused the sun to bleach my skin. Two of them believed me.

The civil rights movement had a big impact on me as a child, even though I grew up in small towns largely untouched by it.

I was raised in a bi-cultural family. When I was in elementary school, I was teased about my "other" culture, once it was discovered. Sometimes the teasing grew quite ugly and mean-spirited. At least one parent refused to allow their children to play with me because of where my mother was from.

The high school I attended for 10th and 11th grade had a significant number of Hispanic students, reflecting the community demographic. (In fact, my father, a pastor, helped start a daughter Hispanic church that has long since grown to outnumber the "Anglo" congregation.) In our entire high school student body of 2000, there was only one black. The small private school I attended for my senior year was more racially diverse, but still predominantly white.

So what do I know about racism? In many ways, I'm an unlikely person to write anything on the topic.

During my junior high, high school, and college years, a surprising number of people would assume I was Jewish. (This tends to happen in our extended family. It turns out we do have Jewish ancestry. But we also have a lot of Old Testament names among us, and some other aspects to our family life and culture that sometimes lead people to think we're Jewish.) I made more than one Jewish friend that way. But I also learned, especially when I was collecting signatures for a petition regarding the plight of Jews who were "Prisoners of Conscience" in the former Soviet Union, how unashamedly and vocally anti-Semitic a surprising number of people were.

Other than that, I was pretty much --- like most WASPs --- blissfully unaware that all racism had not died out after the civil rights era. Befriending some black students at a denominational college-career camp knocked that naive ignorance right out of me. I was shocked to find college kids --- from California!! in the late 1970's!! --- loudly refusing to swim in the same pool as my new friends, just because of their color. That opened a floodgate, as one night we spent literally hours talking about the subject of race. I was shocked to discover how different the lives of these students were from mine, even though one of them had grown up just three miles from where I lived. I was horrified and grieved to discover that racism was still rampant in the hearts of many --- including those who called themselves Christian.

And I began examining my own heart...painfully...I confessed to my new friends my own prejudices, ideas, and actions, many of them based on ignorance. Some of them they explained and forgave, others they laughed at and assured me that I was hardly a racist or a bigot. ("No, playing with your friend's cute little 'fro doesn't make you racist --- we've all done the same thing!")

Fast forward a few years. I worked for an employment agency. On an almost daily basis, I had to deal with racism. I was flabbergasted, angered, and saddened at how many people didn't want to hire blacks. Some of my clients asked me what race every applicant was. Legally, I was not allowed to answer. I grew more and more outraged at the racism that I was supposed to try to dance around in an attempt to keep our clients happy.

It seemed as if, more often than not, the best candidate for a particular job working for racists would happen to be black. My dilemma: send a lesser candidate, even an unqualified candidate, or send someone into a potentially ugly situation? I tried to follow the golden rule: I certainly wouldn't want to be interviewed by racists who had made it clear they didn't want to hire someone of my race!

Once I sat down a young man and told him, "I've got a job that would be perfect for you except for one thing. The owners of the company are racist. They told me that they are never going to hire another black person, only they didn't put it that nicely. For all I know, if you show up there, they might lynch us both."

"I can handle racists," he said, "I'm willing to take the chance if you are." After the interview, he told me, "You're right. They are just about the worst racists I've ever met. But I'm desperate for work and they're desperate for someone with my unique set of computer skills." They hired him, and he used the job as a stepping stone for a much better job, working for better people. (Not long after that, this small business was closed down and the owners jailed for illegal activities that had nothing to do with their racism. But I have to admit that I was glad to see them end up in jail.)

I grew up with stories of the holocaust. My mother's family had lived, as devout Christians, under the Nazi regime. Their lives had been threatened more than once. God had spared them. Because of those stories, and family friendships with holocaust survivors, racism has always seemed far more ugly and frightening than it is to many others as pale as I am.

Knowing that my family heritage includes a hodgepodge of races and ethnic groups that have been discriminated against and marked for destruction has made the topic of racism more personal as well.

But it's not just personal. Far more importantly, it's a Biblical issue.

From another blog

Justine made the following statement in her disturbingly honest post titled "Terrible Apathy":

Cases like political oppression, economic oppression, and, most of all, the depravity of abortion are the ones that tie my soul into knots -- not a bunch of people who will, essentially, after a modicum of discomfort, be as before -- or maybe even, refined by hardship, better off than before.

This is what I commented:

Christian compassion requires us to bear one another's burdens. However, that is so hard to do when we cannot put ourselves in the place of our brothers and sisters. In American, so many of us have become so comfortable that we simply cannot imagine anything else. We are so used to the quick fix and the "happy ending" of TV programs, that we downplay human tragedy and suffering.

Thus, when we watch the TV news of the horrors that our brothers and sisters have faced on the Gulf Coast, we think, "Oh, it's not a big deal...soon their lives will go back to normal...the government will take care of them and maybe they will be better off than before!"

We can say that because we've never lost everything we own. We've never been separated from loved ones, with no idea of whether they are alive or dead. We've never had our six year old son and infant somehow, without us, manage to lead toddlers and tiny kids to safety. We've never seen the person we love most in the world swept away by flood waters, while we were helpless to save our best friend, our lover, the light of our life.

We've never spent days upon days risking our lives and health to rescue people trapped by floodwaters, while we had only a small boat and a board for an oar. We've never dodged the criminal element of our city while trying to save our neighbors.

We've never huddled all alone in the attic of our home, praying the flood waters would recede, praying we would not go into a diabetic coma.

We've never given birth in the Superdome and prayed that, although we had nothing to eat or drink, we would somehow be able to make milk for our newborn.

So it's easy to say, "Oh, these people only suffered a modicum of discomfort", while we sit in our warm, dry, comfortable homes with our nice computers, knowing full well where each member of our family is, knowing where we will spend the night, knowing we have a steady income, knowing we will be safe in our own beds and rise to be able to prepare breakfast in our own homes.

God save us from judgment. Some day we may be the ones who are dependent on the kindness of strangers. Will they save us from the floodwaters? Will they provide our next meal? Or will they be as apathetic and judgmental as we are now?

There is so much more I could have written, especially in response to something else she had written:

Maybe it was the fact that people continued to live in an area below sea level, where no private insurer would provide flood insurance. Maybe it was people who could wade through the muck to loot abandoned buildings but didn't proceed to wade their way out of the city. Maybe it was the immediate whining and finger-pointing, from local governments, advocacy groups and displaced citizens. Maybe it was knowing always in the back of my mind that the majority of these people were going to be just fine -- the government was going to step in a provide generously, no matter how much money private relief offered. Maybe knowing that either way my family was going to be paying for the multiple human follies that escalated this natural disaster to such an extreme level -- in taxes, higher fuel prices, raised insurance premiums -- that made me reluctant to step forward and answer the call to avail myself of the opportunity to serve my fellow man. It was probably a combination of all these things, but also this: there is only so much heartache and horror the human spirit can withstand before the soul callouses and terrible apathy comes to dwell in a tender heart.

It is easy to justify apathy. We even try to tell ourselves that it is a defense mechanism, that we are really so sensitive and so tender and so caring...

It is also easy to blame the victim. In every natural disaster that I can recall, those outside of the disaster area were quick to utter a response that has become so standard that my older brother and I referred to it as, "What sort of idiot would live in _____? Serves them right!"

Not to pick on Justine, but I couldn't help but note that she continues to live in the state of Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. Good grief, as every schoolchild knows, that is on the Ring of Fire! Who in their right minds would live in such an unsafe area? My family is going to have to be paying for the multiple human follies that will escalate the disaster that follows the next earthquake or volcano eruption. But, when that happens, I'll just tell myself that everyone up in Washington will be just fine; having your house leveled by an earthquake, losing your loved ones, etc., is just a "modicum of discomfort".

But, wait...I continue to live in California, also on the infamous Ring of Fire, so I can't point the finger at Justine for her poor choices in geography. All I can do is hope that those who name the name of Christ will be compassionate, rather than judgmental, after The Big One, and that they will allow the spirit of Christ in their hearts to move them to true tenderness and to action.

In the meantime, I'm doing little things that I hope will make a difference. I can't pick up and go to the Gulf Coast and be Jesus' arms and legs there, but I can raise some dollars here and there, I can pray, I can encourage others to be compassionate and merciful and gracious.

My grandfather used to often comment that suffering produces compassion. That always scared me as a child; I preferred to become compassionate without having to suffer, thank you very much. But for those who have never lost much --- whether it be our homes or our loved ones or our entire neighborhoods full of friends we've known all our lives --- it is all too easy to be callous. "Oh, they will be just fine. This is just a modicum of discomfort."

Perhaps this is so personal to me because I've walked some of those streets that are still flooded. There are faces that I remember. I will probably never know, this side of Heaven, how a number of those people survived...or if they did. What horrors did they endure?

On one of our trips, there were six of us crammed into one somewhat crummy hotel room. On our last morning, all the power went out in our room except for one outlet near the door. I had to cobble together an assortment of lamps, using them as extension cords, in order to get a light into the bathroom. The morning had numerous other frustrations as well, and I ended up not having time to put the room back in order (furniture had been moved to accommodate my five children) before we left. As we were leaving, the maid arrived to clean the room. She was such a sweet woman, with a careworn face that told of suffering only partially overcome. I apologized profusely for the state of our room and gave her a large tip, the largest I could afford. By her response, I knew that it was God who had moved me to tip so generously. Is she alive today? What about her family? Where are they? Did they, like so many others, lose everything?

There is the elegant, almost regal young woman who works at a restaurant I've visited several times. She has been in my thoughts and prayers, even though I don't know her name.

And there are so, so many others who have touched my lives, even in tiny ways.

Hack Bartholomew. Finally a name to put with a face! He ministered to me powerfully, not only on the day I met him at Cafe Du Monde, but in the months that followed my brother's death, when I played his CD's over and over and over...

I have no idea if he's in Heaven now, or scattered to the four winds, so to speak, somewhere in some shelter, far from his home.