Spiritual Conversations on Race Relations

The President, the Professor, and the Police Officer:
Oh for a Spiritual Conversation!

By the time you read this, President Obama’s meeting with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley will be filling the airwaves, the blogosphere, and print media.

Those who follow my writings know the importance that I place on intercultural relationships. You also know that several days before “the incident” became big news, I was blogging about the racial repercussions (http://bit.ly/TfTXK and http://bit.ly/eHE0X).

Everyone will be talking about intercultural racial understanding, which is a good thing—a vital conversation. Undoubtedly, President Obama will focus on improving racial understanding. Again, a very worthy cause.

But if we are to “diagnose” accurately the ultimate “cause” of “the incident,” then I believe we have to look at it spiritually. I’d like to suggest that there is another, deeper issue at work here. Further, I’d like to propose that unless we make this issue the primary issue, we’ll never adequately address race relationships.

What Causes Fights and Quarrels Among You?

Of course, much more could be said, has been said, and will be said about intercultural relationships. But most observers have left out the human element. They’ve omitted the psychological aspect. They’ve ignored the biblical explanation.

In James 4:1, James ask one of the most profound questions imaginable.

“What causes the fights and quarrels among you?”

James answer?

“Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures.”

Both Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley are good men, I’m sure. However, they are mere men. Mortals. Biblically speaking, they are sinful, fallen, and even if Christians, not-yet-perfected and still struggling against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

These two imperfect men handled an imperfect situation imperfectly. Well, let’s say it the way the Bible words it. They handled it sinfully and selfishly.

Let me be honest. I’ve done the same thing countless times. And the only way I’ve resolved such issues has been to confess my sinful selfishness.

I wonder what would happen if President Obama led Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley in a spiritual conversation that probed the personal heart motivations of each man. I wonder if the results might be confessions such as these…

From Sgt. Crowley:

“Look I can describe this situation a million ways and claim that I was only doing my job. But the truth is, in addition to trying to do my job, I let my sinful, selfish male ego take over. When Professor Gates antagonized me, I didn’t get what I wanted. I wanted respect. My peers were standing there watching me. I was being dissed.”

“Just like the Bible says, when I didn’t get what I desired (in this case—respect), instead of going to God and asking of Him humbly, I tried to control things on my own. I tried to prove that I was worthy of respect. I retaliated and I manipulated. Sure, I can state legal codes I used to justify my arrest of Professor Crowley. But none of those look inside my heart to see what motivated my actions and reactions.”

“I could have stepped away. I could have turned and ignored his words. I could have walked away and left the appearance that he had “won.” But I didn’t. I’m a male. A sinful male. And I hate to lose. I hate to lose face. I like being in charge, being the boss. I reacted selfishly. I reacted sinfully. He hurt me and so I hurt him back. He disrespected me, so I disrespected him. I was sinful, selfish, and wrong.”

From Professor Gates:

“Look, I can put all the spin on this in the world. I’m good with words. I can make myself look like the innocent victim. I mean, I was simply trying to get into my own home after a week away. But the truth is, in addition to just wanting a good night’s sleep in my own bed, I let my sinful, selfish male ego take over. When Sgt. Crowley demanded my ID in my own home, I didn’t get what I wanted. I wanted to be valued, to be seen as an equally valuable human being. Instead, I was being treated like a common criminal. Perhaps being viewed with racially tainted eyes. My neighbors were watching. My colleagues would find out. I was being humiliated."

“Just like the Bible says, when I didn’t get what I desired (in this case—being valued as an equal), instead of going to God and asking of Him humbly, I tried to control things on my own. I tried to prove that I was worthy, significant. I retaliated and I manipulated. Sure, I can state legal reasons why I am free to practice free speech on my own porch. And I can state historical, racial reasons why it was important for me to stand up for my race, for my people. But none of those look inside my heart to see what motivated my actions and reactions.”

“I could have calmed down. I could have simply shown my ID, thanked Sgt. Crowley for doing his job, and walked away and left the appearance that he was in charge and I wasn’t. But I didn’t. I’m a male. I’m a sinful male. And I hate to be overpowered. I hate to be bullied and put down. I reacted selfishly. I reacted sinfully. He hurt me and so I hurt him back. He tried to overpower me with his badge and legal authority, so I tried to overpower him with my words and moral authority. I was sinful, selfish, and wrong.”

Is That What We Will Hear?

Of course, that’s not what we are likely to hear. I’d love to be shocked and surprised though.

You see, when we only make relationships racial, and when we fail to see the personal issues—the moral, spiritual issues at work—then we fail to get at the heart of the issue.

We will never settle racial sin unless and until we deal with personal sin.

Yes, we need additional national conversations on race relationships.

But much more we need ongoing additional national and personal spiritual conversations on what truly causes the fights and quarrels among us. They are caused by our sinful refusal to humbly turn to God when others sin against us. We take matters into our own hands rather than raising humble hands to God. We raise angry fists to each other instead of raising open palms to God. We blame others rather than accepting personal spiritual responsibility.

Of course, it’s easy for us to point fingers of blame and guilt at either or both Professor Gates and/or Sgt. Crowley. But are we willing to engage in spiritual conversations with spiritual friends that expose our own spiritual selfishness?

I’ll say it again. We will never settle racial sin unless and until we deal with personal sin.

Black History Month: Day Nine--Another Side of the Story

*Note: For The Journey: Day Twenty-Two see my earlier post today.

Black History Month: The History and the Controversy

Day Nine: Another Side of the Story

Is Black History Month still a net positive or a net negative for African Americans? For America in general?

Yesterday we explored pieces of the article by AP National Writer, Jesse Washington who asked “Time to End Black History Month?” We gave some of his arguments for rolling Black History Month into year-round education.

Today, we explore portions of Washington’s article that support another side of the story: the continued need for Black History Month.

The President Thinks So

President Obama, like all his predecessors since the 70s, believes Black History Month should continue. On February 2, he lauded “National African American History Month” calling upon “public officials, educators, librarians, and all people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African American history.”

Historians Think So

Daryl Scott, chairman of the history department at Howard University and vice president of programming for ASALH, says Black History Month is still needed to solidify and build upon America's racial gains.

“To know about the people who make up society is to make a better society,” he says. “A multiracial, multiethnic society has to work at its relationships, just like you have to work at your marriage.”

“I don’t see it going away,’ said Spencer Crew, a history professor at George Mason University, adding that a diverse year-round history curriculum can still be augmented in depth during Black History Month.

“There’s a Women's History Month,” Crew said. “No one would argue that we don’t need to be reminded of women who have done things that are important.”

Encouraging the Conversation

I am not saying these are or are not my views. I am inviting conversation. Dialogue. What do you think about the conclusions of President Obama, historian Scott, and historian Crew?

Stay tuned for more perspectives . . .

The First African American Family: Then and Now

The First African American Family: Then and Now

Surfing the Internet, a prominent message one reads from African Americans about the election of Barack Obama relates to the joy many have at the thought of a Black family in the White House. Barack and Michelle Obama, along with their children Malia (10) and Sasha (7), will be an example of family life to a nation and to the world.

The African American Family Now

For instance, the November 5, 2008 issue of the New York Times notes, “As the first African Americans in the role, they will be a living tableau of racial progress, and friends say they are acutely aware that everything they say and do—the way they dress, where Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, go to school, even what kind of puppy they adopt—will brim with symbolic value.

“‘Here’s an intact black family, a happy family, with beautiful kids and a loving extended family,’” Ms. Williams (a family friend) said, “’and they happen to live in the executive mansion.’”[1]

The African American Family Then: Pulling the Rope in Unison

Unfortunately, it has become something of a cliché to imagine that Black families today find it difficult to experience stability because of a long history of instability caused by slavery and racism. While not at all minimizing the obstacles that enslaved African American families have faced, history paints a truer and more optimistic picture of their response. Though everything fought against them, enslaved African Americans battled gallantly to maintain family cohesion—a cohesion that provided a sturdy platform from which to handle life courageously.

In my book, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction,[2] I offer many examples of such family cohesion. For example, Jennie Hill was born and enslaved in 1837 in Missouri. Florence Patton interviewed the ninety-six-year-old Hill in 1933. During her interview, Hill adamantly resisted the notion that enslaved families lacked closeness. “Some people think that the slaves had no feeling—that they bore their children as animals bear their young and that there was no heartbreak when the children were torn from their parents or the mother taken from her brood to toil for a master in another state. But that isn’t so. The slaves loved their families even as the Negroes love their own today. . .”[3]

Communicating the message of African American family love was so important to Reverend Thomas Jones that he bore witness to it on the very first page of his narrative. “I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness.”[4]

Satan longs to blind African Americans to their legacy of family love. He wants all of us to believe that hardships make it too hard to love. Hill’s family, Jones’ family, and millions like them, belie that lie.

Enslaved African American couples sustained strong marital relationships. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, in Guinea, about 1729. Kidnapped at age eight, Robertson Mumford purchased him a year later. After living with Mumford for thirteen years, Venture married Meg at age twenty-two. They remained together for over forty-seven years, through many trials and tribulations, until parted by death.

Venture’s narrative contains an explanation for their marital faithfulness. On the occasion of their marriage, Venture threw a rope over his cabin and asked his wife to go to the opposite side and pull on the rope hanging there while he remained and pulled on his end. After they both had tugged at it awhile in vain, he called her to his side of the cabin and by their united effort they drew the rope to themselves with ease. He then explained the object lesson to his young bride. “If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.”[5]

Premarital couples, newlyweds, and seasoned married spouses would all do well to heed Venture’s guiding wisdom. And all families will be watching to learn what guiding wisdom they can glean from the example of the Obama family—the First Family.

[1]Jodi Kantor, New York Times, November 5, 2008, Online Edition.
[2]Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering, Baker, 2007.
[3]Blassingame, Slave Testimony, p. 593.
[4]Andrews, p. 211.
[5]Bontemps, p. 30.