Racism Today

So, Barak Obama is black and race is an issue in this presidential election. It's about time. This country has needed this day for some time. It is an especially interesting race now that Governor Sarah Palin has been tapped by John McCain for his vice-presidential running mate. One way or another, history is about to be made with either a black man or a woman in the top offices of this country.

I'm not sure who I will vote for in November. I'm still waiting to get a long, hard look at the candidates and their stand on positions I think are important to this country. War, education, health care, cost of living are all on my mind as they are on everyone else's. For me, race is not the deciding issue. The vote must go to the most qualified who has the best agenda for the country at this time in our history. Having said that, I am interested in the story of race in this presidential election because like it or not, racism is an issue in this country.

Our pastor for congregational care is an African-American who is one of my best friends. That's him and me in the picture. Norm and I have had countless private conversations over many issues including racism. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He has lived with racism all of his life. As he often points out, he feels the prejudging attitudes of other human beings based on his skin color. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear how he has been given the worst rooms in hotels or tables in restaurants because "you don't waste the good ones on blacks."

People are basically idiots at times. Norm is one of the best guys I know. He is talented, articulate, way smarter than me, a great listener, and a man who loves the Lord head, heart, soul, and mind. And yet, story after story is told of people who put their guard up around him, think he is a lowly hired hand, and treat him with little respect. Why? "Why else?" Norm asks. It is because he is black.

I grew up in the military in a family from the southern United States. Basically, from redneck Florida. It was an odd mix. Racism is prevalent in the south and yet in the military, there is a higher degree of color-blindness, especially for the children of military officers. One of my best friends in school was Lance. You had to get me to take a long, hard look to remind me he was black. He wasn't a race. He was a friend. A smart, funny friend. And then, as they say, there's the real world.

I lived in west Tennessee for several years. Small town, western Tennessee. About fifty percent black, small town western Tennessee. I asked whites and blacks if racism was an issue in town. "Oh yes" was the typical answer. Great. Hard data. Now to press for specifics. "How," I would follow up. Crickets. Silence. "Um, I'm not sure." The problem was there were no race riots on the square, no overt discrimination and no separate bathrooms or water fountains. It was much more subtle. It was the way a black and a white looked at each other when standing in line at the grocery store. It was the distrust that lingered quietly just below the surface of the other race. It was the jokes told about the other race. It was the extreme stereotyping. It was the noticeable absence of socializing between the races. Work and going to school together was great, but each person went home to "their own people" until the next day.

What amazes me is that the majority of people who feel this way in this country also claim to be followers of Jesus. The apostle Paul writing to a diverse group of Christians reminded them that "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Those who love Jesus have become new creations and former distinctions have all been replaced by a profound unity. All people who love Jesus have a profound unity and the distinctions placed by others do not exist. If you are a Christ-follower and Obama is a Christ-follower it is your duty to love and encourage him as you would any brother in Christ. Argue policy, make value-based decisions, but do not judge based on skin color.

Living the way of Jesus means color blindness. In Christ those distinctions we place on others mean nothing. If a person is "in Christ" we are blood relatives, no matter the color of the skin. The band D. C. Talk sang a song that said, "We're colored people and we live in a colored world." God made people of all races. Shame on human beings for creating labels on people God has only given one label--"my children."

Do you clutch your wallet when you see a black man? Do you put your guard up around white people? Do you entertain certain thoughts when you see a Native American? A Japanese or Korean man? Christ demands that what we see is a beautiful creation of His. Christ demands we see a brother.