There’s two comments I keep coming across and I think they’re both betraying an implicit assumption that destroys the speaker’s credibility in the eyes of minorities. The first is one I mentioned earlier that goes something like this: “It’s not excusable for black voters to vote for a black candidate solely on the basis of race without considering the pressing issues of the day.” The second is, “It’s good that an African-American is president, but I hope that he’s president for reasons besides the fact that he’s African-American.”

Both betray the assumption that race is not a, “pressing issue of the day.” And when most African-Americans hear you say this, most will immediately ignore you. Why? Because the fact that you think race isn’t a pressing issue indicates that you have never spent any length of time in serious dialogue with them about these issues.

If you had, you’d know it is indeed a pressing issue and that for them race is simply the one issue that swings their vote, just as abortion is the one issue that defines the voting choices of many white Christians.

Think of it this way: You don’t think of yourself as white. If you think of the main things that define you as a person race won’t come to mind. I never once thought of race as a defining trait for me until I spent a summer in Zambia. Suddenly I was a racial minority. In fact, I went an entire month without speaking to another white male. Then I started identifying myself as white.

I think the takeaway from this is that we identify ourselves by what makes us unique. Put another way - you’re not cognizant of the traits you share with everyone around you. You’re aware of the traits that set you apart, the traits that aren’t “normal.” In the USA, white is the majority. Therefore white people don’t identify themselves in those terms. Black people as a minority, do identify as black. In fact, I’d take this a step further - often what is dominant becomes “normal,” in the vernacular of the culture.

This means that what is a non-issue to whites is a huge issue to African-Americans, even if there were no traumatic history preceding it. It’s an issue simply by virtue of the fact that it cuts at something that is fundamental to their identity. When you add in the impossible-to-overstate injustices to which they’ve been subjected for 400 years, the issue becomes that much larger.

I think there’s two applications we need to take away from this:

1) We need to be very careful in how we think and speak about these issues. We need to understand that these issues - though they exist as mere abstractions to us as whites - are profoundly personal for minorities, especially African-Americans.

2) When we’re forced to take a side on this issue, the pattern ought to be that we side with the marginalized or oppressed group. This seems to be the pattern we see in Jesus in the Gospels, he constantly sides with the marginalized peoples of his day when forced to pick one side or the other. That doesn’t mean we disregard all other criteria in our thought process or that we uncritically accept everything we are told. And it certainly doesn’t mean our primary loyalty is to that one marginalized group. Our chief loyalty is always to Jesus, but when it comes to applying his lordship to our lives on a practical day-to-day level, I’d much rather find myself living in the margins with the oppressed and forgotten than living comfortably with the wealthy, affluent, and comfortable.

Well, while they were in route, a school in Port-au-Prince collapsed. Please pray for the people of Port-au-Prince and for the team while they’re done there this week.

I’ve read comments by several conservatives bemoaning the fact that so many African Americans seem to have voted for Obama primarily for race-related reasons. I could write a scathing 800 word column denouncing these attitudes as both profoundly insensitive and historically ignorant (which they are) and I plan to do that for the Daily Nebraskan. In the meantime however, I wanted to post this video of Jesse Jackson responding to the news of Senator Obama’s victory. This is a man who watched Dr. King crumple to the ground 40 years ago when he was murdered in Memphis. And now, 40 years and seven months later he has lived to see a sign that much of Dr. King’s dream - and his own dream - has come true. Imagine how that must feel - to see something for which you’ve fought for 40 years amidst such great opposition finally come true - as you watch this video. (Note: I’m tagging this with the category we use for diversity/missions themed posts rather than our political tag. That is intentional. This is not an issue of partisanship, but of racial equality and justice.)

“These [the idea that most northern developments in the Christian mind were brought about by African thought] are bold assertions. They remain to many European intellectuals largely ignorable. They are entirely counterintuitive. Why? Is it because the intelligentsia and refined historians have intuitively assumed the mental superiority of north to south? Dare I say it? Can I take it back? It seems like an incredible charge, cheeky even to think, shameful to say out loud. So I’ll state it more modestly: Well-meaning European and American historians have a tilted perception of the relation of African and European intellectual history in the third and fourth centuries, and thus at the apex of African influence. This perception is prejudicial. The facts show that the intuition is wrong.”

– How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, p. 30-31

Yes, I’m going to love this book.

I’d be interested to hear any thoughts you guys have on these issues. If you’re interested, here are the organizations I use to get news:

Voice of the Martyrs

Open Doors USA

Right now, all monetary gifts they receive are treated as emergency gifts, which means all the money goes to buy food and water to take to Gonaives, which is the region most affected by the hurricanes. If you want to give, send any checks to this address:

ESMI
c/o Haiti-Hanna Disaster Relief (write in check memo. line)
13651 S. Biscayne River Drive
Miami, FL 33161

If you want more info, check Mike’s blog or Grace Chapel’s website.

I’m also going to be writing my column for the Daily Nebraskan about the situation in Haiti, so I’ll probably link to that later in the week. For regular updates, check Mike’s blog.

Nikolas Sarkozy may have said it best, “[Mwanawasa's death] is a great loss for the Zambian people who respected and had great affection for him. It’s a great loss for the African continent as a whole, which appreciated his political courage. It’s a big loss for democracy, for which he was an ardent defender his whole life. France salutes his memory, full of courage and liberty.”

I just spoke with a friend in Zambia and she told me that no one knows how Mwanawasa is doing - or if he’s even alive. Many think he’s being kept alive by machines. In the meantime, corruption has returned and government officials recently increased their salaries by 100%, and they already had “hefty” salaries according to my friend. Further, many medical workers are on strike demanding better pay from the state-run medical system, but the government says they  don’t have the money. Consequently, many people are dying unnecessarily in under-staffed hospitals. Finally, the place I spent much of my time, the University of Zambia, is currently closed due to striking faculty members and rioting students.

Please, pray for Zambia.

Most recently, he has been in the news for issuing a call to fight global poverty and his condemnation of Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe.

If you’ve not read up on Mandela’s life-story, you really must because he has led a remarkable life. If we’re truly serious about Jesus’ words, “blessed are the peacemakers,” then Christians everywhere should be celebrating Mandela’s life today because few individuals have been greater peacemakers than Madiba.

Don’t misunderstand, I realize that individuals are different and this difference is shaped by their culture and environment. But this fact is a tool to learn more about the unique individual before us, not to presume we already know it. Scripture recognizes the divisions of man, but it never advocates them. Indeed, its purpose is to demonstrate how God and the gospel cross these boundaries. Genesis stresses the descent of all humanity from Adam. The prophets make clear that no nation, whether God’s chosen Israel or the surrounding lands, can escape his just law. The whole culmination of everything includes the destruction of these boundaries - every tribe and tongue and nation. The only valid way to divide the world right now is into those inside and outside His covenant people, and even then our unity in Adam should create love and sympathy in us rather than a sense of superiority for the other side.

There are of course valid ways to use some of these categories. For instance, my friend is Canadian, meaning that he has to have a green card to work here. However, as soon as Canadian becomes a way for me to talk about him as something other than a human being and a brother in Christ, and especially when I start advocating social action or public policy on the basis of his Canadianness rather than his humanness, I am in rebellion against Scripture.