People took part in vigils in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown , Garden Grove, Calif., and Philadelphia on Wednesday night following the shootings in Atlanta, while mourners grieved outside Young’s Asian Massage, one of the three spas targeted by a gunman. Photos: Alex Wong/Getty Images; Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images; Shannon Stapleton/Reuters; Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters
Standing with my Asian Brothers and Sisters…
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” ~1 John 3:15
Today I have, like you, read many tweets, thoughts, observations and news articles about the murder of eight people in the Atlanta Asian community. I would like to cut through all the spin out there surrounding this and first say that my heart is broken, and we in the Alliance NW mourn and grieve with our Asian friends, family, and churches that have already endured an intense year of racial hatred in America.
We stand with you… We grieve with you… We see you… We speak out with you against the rise of Asian-racism…
In my mind, I hear the words of my Asian friends who have told me that the message they were taught growing up was to “keep their head down, work harder than anyone else and try to keep beneath the radar ” if they wanted to get ahead.In other words, “Here is how to survive in a “White” world.
We have had a year of escalation of hate toward Asians fueled by a national conversation surrounding COVID19 by calling it the “Kung-Flu” or the “China Virus” or other names that center the pandemic on a “people-group” making them the enemy. The result? Destroyed Asian restaurants, businesses and attacks on Asian people.
Words matter… Sarcasm kills…
The spin has already begun…I have heard that, “The murderer had a sexual addiction, and the massage centers that the people worked in were a temptation… so, it’s not racial it’s sexual.”
It’s not that simple…it’s all connected…
As the murderer was a professed Evangelical Christian, blaming this on his sexual struggle misses the point. I see this as an unholy trinity of flawed sexual theology, unrepented of white supremacy systems, and an absolute devaluing of the sanctity of life…We have lost the concept of dignity towards others and we spin it in so many devaluing ways.
Is racism embedded? Yes Is sexism embedded? Yes Do we need to address our faulty sexual discipleship? Yes Do we need to address the ethnic biases that exist in our lives, communities and churches? Yes
BUT…those realities and our focus on those things also dehumanizes this tragic loss of life. We forget that eight families have lost people they love and they lost them in a horrible, devastating and violent way that will leave scars on their souls forever.
Today would you pause with me and remember their lives. Today would you pause with me and pray for our Asian friends and communities. Today would you stand up and say “No More”
Today your Facebook, Instagram, Linked-in, Twitter, and Tik-Tok feeds will be full of powerful quotes and images of Martin Luther King Jr. as they should be. The impact he had moving the Civil Rights needle forward is to be celebrated, remembered, and affirmed.
The problem with one-day memorials is that the impact tends to last only for the day. The moment gives way to matters more personally urgent as the daily grind washes the brain, acting as both desensitizer and eraser of everything it deems non-essential.
In 2020 we were living through history in the making. From daily COVID updates, information, and misinformation to confronting our racism in real-time. The death/killing of George Floyd by police officers sparked anger, unrest, and demonstrations resulting in some of the most widespread civil unrest in years. And rightly so.
The unrest has revealed how far we have to go in racial reconciliation in the U.S. In 2020 Confederate flag wielders, alt-right-white-supremacist-Aryan-hate-groups, and Q-anon types, felt safe to show who they were and what they believed. The visible hate and the support for that hate created many “I don’t believe what I am seeing!” moments. Perhaps what saddened me most was to see how some of these groups were proclaiming Jesus.
So, yes, that’s why I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. Day matters now more than ever.
Over the weekend, I re-read MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Have you read it? If your answer is no, I will encourage you to put it at the top of your list. You can download it HERE:
On April 12, 1963, a group of eight white clergy from Alabama issued a statement titled “A Call For Unity.” In their statement, they condemned the demonstration in Birmingham led by Martin Luther King Jr. The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was MLK’s response to the statement.
In the letter King writes:
“Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here.
Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”
The line “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” sparks my inner prophet. I can imagine hearing Jesus say similar words, “I am in Jerusalem because injustice is here, and my mission is to right the wrongs of sin and death, bringing an end to injustice everywhere.” The theme of justice baptizes His Messianic Mission statement found in Luke 4:18-19. As Jesus reads the words of Isaiah, He connects them and attributes them as His personal mission statement:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Help the poor; release the prisoners; heal the blind; free those oppressed; proclaim God’s favor. These words sing with justice images. These words echo the words of Micah 6:8, “What does YHWH require of you? To do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God…”
Doing justice is the call of every follower of Jesus. Doing justice happens when we work to create with God a world where every person has the access and opportunity to live and develop the life God designed them to live. To know Him and unleash the gifts He embedded in their soul.
So, as Jesus did, we work to eliminate the outcast, the marginalized, the ostracized, the least of these. Further along in King’s letter, he notes:
Further along in King’s letter he notes:
“You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.”
Did you catch what King gently states: “I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes.”
Pause.
Our culture is not grappling with underlying causes because we have chosen the superficial social analysts of Twitter, Facebook, News entertainment channels, and talk radio. When we do wrestle with the underlying causes, people tend to get antsy, squeamish, and often move toward shame rather than repentance. Shame calls upon her cousin Guilt and the two launch back at the truth with the vitriol of justifications and accusations.
Dealing with systemic sin is painful. It hurts, but it is the only healing path for us all.
MLK’s Dream was freedom and equality because this is how God designed us. King riffs on that theme when he said: “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it.”
Paul cries out to the Galatians (5:1), “It is for freedom that Christ has set; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Four Things You Can Do To Celebrate MLK Day Everyday.
RESPOND: When someone asks me if I believe “Black Lives Matter,” my answer is an unqualified YES. I don’t need to remind them that all lives matter, or blue lives matter, or pastor’s lives matter. The question is singular; therefore, the best response is not another justification that diminishes the question’s intent. This is one way to celebrate MLK Day every day.
ACKNOWLEDGE: Many people believe that since anti-discrimination laws exist the problem of racism is in the past. This is blatantly untrue. I can celebrate MLK Day everyday by acknowledging that discrimination, racism, and systemic evil do indeed exist.
RECOGNIZE: Everyone has implicit bias, which are attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. You can celebrate MLK Day everyday by reading books that will challenge you and educate you. I have previously written and given book recommendations in a post called, “Educating Monty, (on racism, injustice, and white supremacy) read it HERE.
ACT: Micah calls us to “do justice.” You can celebrate MLK Day everyday when you call it out when you encounter ethnic slurs, intentional limited access, or blatant racism. King’s non-violent protests, and the reason for them, stand in stark contrast to the events of violence, outrage, and sedition we have recently experienced in our nation’s capital. Our calling is to act, God’s responsibility is to heal, deliver, and restore.
May we refuse to allow this MLK Day become a one quote wonder. Choose to do all you can to Respond, Acknowledge, Recognize and Act in such a way that the beauty of Revelation 7:9-12 would manifest on earth as it is in heaven.
“9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.””
“There’s nothing left to sift.” This was the thought going through my mind as I stood at a distance watching a man sifting through the ashes for items where his home once stood. The dystopian-like devastation before me was surreal. The inferno of flames reached temperatures that bent steel and reduced absolutely everything to a substance-less than ash. What remained of the 2000 plus homes I saw was either a lonely still standing chimney of a house or the mangled and agonizingly misshapen cold-steel frame of a mobile home. In either case, all else was ash save the random ceramic pot that somehow survived what metal could not.
While the West Coast has seen millions of acres ablaze recently, the towns of Medford, Phoenix, and Talent Oregon were perhaps hit the hardest. In a four-hour tour, I witnessed well over two-thousand homes that had been completely annihilated by the wildfires, and that was just a peek at the devastation that had made an unwelcome visit. The loss, trauma, and needs experienced by these communities will take years to work through.
Two Christian and Missionary Alliance churches that have been in the thick of things are Medford Neighborhood Church and The Living Room in Central Point. Pastor Lee Gregory of MNC is also well known as “Bus-Driver Lee” The twin roles of local church pastor and bus driver have given Pastor Lee the opportunity to serve the parents and kids of his community well. The respect Lee has gained has also allowed him to rally his community of faith to be the hands and feet of Jesus when crisis struck in the form of wildfire blazes consuming homes and businesses alike.
I arrived early at the Jackson County Expo the morning I met with Lee. The Expo had become the staging area for fire crews, human services, and logistics. Lee wasn’t there yet; however, I saw his ICARE sign at a booth set up by one of his parishioners named Michael. Michael filled me in on the stories of people they had been helping. You could see the compassion in his eyes as he talked about the difference and impact they were having. Soon the booth was visited by Red Cross representatives and other humanitarian aid reps looking For Lee. Then I saw the bus roll through the parking lot. Lee had arrived, and people rallied around him.
I learned that Lee had lived in Paradise, California, another city hit hard by wildfires in 2018, which is currently feeling another threat (read more here). During the fires of 2018, Lee and the leaders at Medford Neighborhood Church developed a ministry called ICARE to help people who had been affected by the devastation. When the wildfires hit anew in the Medford area, they relaunched ICARE for another round of ministry, this time in their neighborhoods.
Over the previous few weeks, Lee and his bus had been shuttling people back and forth behind the fire line. As the bus approached the many restricted fire-hit areas, all it took was a handwave from Lee, and he was allowed where others could not go. As I boarded the bus with my wife Amy, Rachel from the Alliance NW District Office, and Max and Olivia from Alliance Video, Lee introduced me to some other passengers on our journey. Seeing how God uses Lee’s job as a School-bus driver beautifully interweaving with his call to ministry is still putting a smile on my face.
Driving a bus has networked Lee with thousands of families and leaders in the community. He has earned their trust and respect, allowing God to place him right where he needs to be at this time to be the hands and feet of Jesus, bringing hope and compassion to so many hurting people.
Lee’s son, Dan Gregory, who pastors The Living Room, a church plant in Center Point, was also on the bus. The Living Room has been active in serving the community as well. The church lobby is packed with items to help displaced families. Everything from clothing to toothpaste is arranged and organized efficiently for those who need it. It was a blessing to see two pastors, a father, and a son, respond with great compassion and a real tangible touch in their community.
The Living Room shares space with a Hispanic Church (The Potter’s House). Santiago is the pastor the Potter’s House and his home was not spared as the fires ravaged house after house. While Santiago was not able to join us, his wife Leonor along with some others from their church were on board and about to see what remained of their homes for the first time. Two other men (Fred and Scotty), members of Medford Neighborhood Church, would also be going to see what was left of their homes.
Lee and Dan shepherded well. There were moments of Holy stillness held in tension with grief and loss. Our companions slowly and sadly absorbed with their eyes what remained of their homes. Places where laughter and dreaming once filled the air were silent now, leaving you numb and brokenhearted. I talked with Scotty as we stood looking at the charred remains of his home. Scotty, also a bus driver, is a musician and plays on the Worship team at Medford Neighborhood Church. He was able to get some, but not all, of his guitars out of the house.
I wondered to myself, “If I only had 5 minutes warning to evacuate, what would I grab? What would be the most important thing I would take? How would my heart-break knowing what was left behind?” These are merely some of the questions that thousands of people are asking right now.
It is in the devastating moments like these that the church needs to rise up… It is in the days of dark valleys that the church needs to bring the Light of Christ… It is in the midst of despair that the church needs to bring a spark of hope…
These were the actions and responses I saw happening through my friends. ICARE, the ministry at Medford Neighborhood Church, Stands for “Compassion and Respect for Everyone.” Those words flowed out of Lee’s heart like a rushing river. “Why do we help like this?” Lee asks, “Because we need to have compassion and respect for everyone.” For Lee and Dan, this is not just a slogan; it’s a daily rhythm for a follower of Jesus.
We live in a time and culture that is alight with political, social, racial, and gender wildfires, to name a few. These cultural eruptions have created a deep divide in our country. There seems to be no middle ground, no room for different opinions, no capacity to consider the other person. We are ideologically entrenched, making enemies of each other. Compassion seemingly recedes into the underbrush.
I appreciate Lee’s heart around compassion and respect for everyone. He is right when he believes that expressing love in this way will put out the wildfires of upheaval all across our country. This posture is the heartbeat of Jesus’ teaching. Love and compassion indeed find welcome hearts when communities experience natural disasters. However, when we show compassion and respect for everyone, including those who are not like us, or those opposed to us, we follow the way of Jesus and become agents of healing in the world.
The road back will be long and hard for those who lost everything around Medford, Phoenix, Talent and Central Point, and other Oregon towns. Many will not be able to rebuild and will move elsewhere to start over. Many will need help for years to come. But as the rubble is slowly removed, I know of a couple of Alliance Churches that will offer compassion and respect to everyone they meet, which is the beginning of a renewed hope for many.
“You have heard it said, ‘Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.’ ~Jesus
I’m a white guy who has been working through my lack of understanding of systemic racism over the last twenty years or so. While I have engaged and taught on injustice, reconciliation, and all “ism” themes through the years, my depth of understanding was insufficient compared to the realities of life for so many people of color. I have needed to stay engaged by doing the hard work of continual learning. I wrote previously about being complicit, complacent, convicted, and confused in an earlier post. I won’t rehash those thoughts here, what I’d like to do is offer some materials for you to begin doing your hard work of seeing the need for race equity. My journey has lead to repentance, listening, and doing more work. While the list isn’t exhaustive, it is a good starting point.
Glenn Harris, the President of ‘The Center For Social Inclusion’ notes that racism affects us all when he states:
“Racial equity is about applying justice and a little bit of common sense to a system that’s been out of balance. When a system is out of balance, people of color feel the impacts most acutely, but, to be clear, an imbalanced system makes all of us pay.”
I was one of many in the energy-filled room for an organic neighborhood church conference in Seattle several years ago. One of the speakers was Dr. Christina Cleveland, and she was speaking on her book “Disunity In Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart.” Christina was a powerful and compelling speaker. As I began entering into her words, stories, and images, I hadn’t consciously connected how racial reconciliation and church planting might be linked. I left that day with a renewed conviction. I bought her book, and my journey of awakening went to the next, more rooted level.
Previously, I would have been one of those who said, “I see all colors the same because Jesus has called me to love everyone regardless of skin color.” Or, to put it another way, “I’m color-blind, I treat everyone the same.” While there is some truth to that, the whole “colorblindness” is part of the problem as well. My journey has caused me to see and celebrate skin color because our skin color creates a lived experience and tells the story of generations.
In actuality, being “colorblind” continues systemic injustice towards people of color. When I acknowledge color, I recognize a real human story, a tangible experience, a reality that our neighbors of diverse ethnicities encounter every day, and their stories are heartbreaking.
But, once you see, you can’t ever unsee.
As I began to grasp the more significant, accurate picture, I knew I had two choices. I could decide to live for justice and inclusion, or I could play it safe and try to keep everyone happy. I chose the former because the truth of the latter will leave us blind and numb to the plight of our brothers and sisters of color, and that is not the Gospel Jesus proclaimed. A Gospel devoid of social justice implications is a truncated Gospel at best, a half-Gospel that continues the generational curse rather than inaugurating generational blessings. I long to be prophetic, not political.
If you are a white person, and especially if you are a white pastor, it is time to do your homework. It’s your responsibility to educate yourself on these issues. Please don’t expect those who have experienced the boot of systemic injustice to try to teach you, that is not their job.
Let me list some things you can do to begin this journey, as well as some great resources to consider. There are many more books than the ones that I have read (I am still in the process), so if you have some that have impacted your life, please post them in the comments.
Things You Can Do:
1. Read books that make you squirm.
2. Watch documentaries and films that make you uncomfortable.
3. Shut down racist tirades by your friends, family & co-workers.
4. Share what you’re learning with the people you know.
5. Listen to the voices of People of Color without diminishing their story.
6. Let the lament of people of color become your lament.
7. Do life with POC, not as projects but as friends.
8. Start a discussion group using any of the resources I will list.
9. Speak out, show up, and say no to the status quo.
10. Never stop learning.
11. Repent and confess the bigotry and racism that you begin to see in your life.
Learning to “see what you don’t see” is an uncomfortable process. You will lose many of the illusions with which you have lived. Your pre-suppositions and pre-understandings will shake to the core. But lean into the disruption anyway, it will benefit us all.
As we begin to see every person as Jesus in disguise, as divine image-bearers, we will fulfill Jesus’ commands of the high ethic of love and Micah’s prophetic vision revealing how God desires we live:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8 (NIV)
Some of the Books, Documentaries & Films I have learned from:
Powerful: Ava DuVernay’s documentary explains the prison industrial complex from the 1800’s to the present.
Classic: To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s book turned into an Academy Award winning movie.
Eye-opening: This is Angie Thomas’ 2017 young-adult novel about a young black girl growing up turned into a movie.
Wow: This Netflix series follows five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they’re falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story.
Another good Netflix series that follows a group of black students at a predominately white university.
This movie won Best Original Screenplay. I think my jaw hit theground a number of times. This is white-supremecy turned into a horror flick.
The Spike Lee film based on a Biography ofMalcolm X. Covering key events in his life including incarceration, conversion to Islam and starting the Nation of Islam movement.
The Spike Lee film that shows escalating tensions that ends with civil unrest. Patterns we are still seeing today when our focus is on the destruction of property over the loss of human life. The film ends with contrasting quotes on the use of violence as self-defense vs. the use of non-violence with Malcom [X] and Martin [Luther King, Jr.]
This is Ava DuVernay’s historical drama about the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Marches, starring David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr.
USA Today noted that: “There’s a moment in the film when one of the racist Southerners slaps him and he quickly slaps him back. I call it the ‘slap heard ’round the world,’ ” Boyd says. “So instead of standing there, taking the slap and turning the other cheek, he fights back. “That scene is really satisfying because it ties to the politics of the late ’60s after the assassination of Martin Luther King – a lot of people are no longer willing to be so peaceful.”
TIME’s critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote that “Peck’s aim seems to be to reintroduce Baldwin and his way of thinking to the world. Not that Baldwin is forgotten, but sometimes we need a bold red arrow to help us redirect our thinking, especially in a media world as cluttered and noisy as ours.”
imdb notes: “The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman‘s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.”
These titles are an excellent starting point. I would appreciate hearing what resources have helped you grow in your understanding. Please leave your suggestions in the comments below.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
