Thoughtful Engagement

I Have Something To Say

11/2/2016

I have something to say.

I have something to say because I love you.

I am living in the South and some of the most insensitive and hateful comments have come from those who call themselves Christians. I cannot for the life of me understand the heartlessness which emanates from men and women when another person rises to voice a grievance or concern.

What I have come to learn from my education of living in the South for the last ten years are the following:

My concerns are not as important as your worship of this nation and its political process.
My concerns are characterized as liberal and progressive while yours are the models of patriotism.
My concerns as a Christian and citizen of this “great” country are trivial while the concerns of a non-believing citizen of Middle Eastern country are matters of national security.

My concerns are based on whining, being thin skinned, sensitive, and spineless.

I take a knee and you complain.

I march quietly and you complain.

I write words and you complain.

But when you do such things, well it’s the height of virtue and righteousness!

My concerns are meaningless because my only education is through the liberal progressive media. So instead of intellectually and gracefully considering my concerns you demonstrate the intellectual and emotional shallowness to have me remain hurt on the Jericho Road.

And you want to be missional.

I have something to say.

Your resistance to my pain only demonstrates the ugliness which remains in your heart. You cut me and many like me off because it does not agree with your view of reality. Your resistance to my pain is curious as you say, “Pray for America,” and “Let’s rally around the Pole.” Maybe you should pray for yourself.

You have something to say, “Simply get over it.”

I’ll get over slavery and I’ll get over blackface. I’ll get over Jim Crow and Segregation. I’ll get over redlining and gentrification. I’ll get over the monkey characterization of President Obama and men like me being called a super-predator.

I’ll get over these issues when you tell a Jewish man or woman to get over the Holocaust.
I’ll get over these issues when you tell 3,000 families to get over September 11, 2001.
I’ll get over these issues when you tell yourself to get over the pain caused in your life by someone else.
I’ll get over these issues when you tell God to get over slaying his own Son on my behalf and yours.

I have something to say but more than likely you will tell me to get over it.

I have something to say, “I’ll love you nonetheless.”

Mike Kidd

11/2/2016 01:04:05 pm

Well put my friend!! Thank you for having something important to say!!

Counter

11/2/2016 02:52:47 pm

Taking a knee to what? To the national anthem? That's fine. Up to you. Also up to me to complain.

Marching quietly where? All I hear is noise. I'm complaining about he noise and lack of peace. If you're marching quietly, I have nothing to complain about.

Writing what words exactly? Because words that are empty or ignorant are vain and likely dismissible, and words that are full can be full of life or death. What words are you writing?

The issues you claim you won't get over, have you lived through them? Have you been shot at by a police office or have you been racially profiled in a way that affected your well-being? I have. I'm over it.

Another Counter

11/2/2016 03:00:39 pm

Counter,

Maybe you got over it, but not everyone did. I'm black but who knows anything anymore. I wasn't around during slavery, I didn't live through the Dr. King protests. I don't know a lot of this struggle. I'm over it but I don't know why everyone else isn't. How do I have the right to live upset about something I know nothing about?

Riposte

11/2/2016 08:34:43 pm

Words full of Life:

"For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less part of the body.And if the ear should say, 'because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body.If the the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you'. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor...

But God so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be NO DIVISION in the body, that the members may have the SAME CARE one for another. IF ONE MEMBER SUFFERS, ALL SUFFER TOGETHER; if one member is honored, ALL rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

I Corinthians 12: 14-27 (emphasis added)

I hear the cry of my brother. I hear the pain of my brothers and sisters, fellow members of the Body. Because they suffer, I will suffer with them, because we are part of the same Body. Therefore, I, too, cannot "get over it" until the Body of Christ in this nation functions as God designed the Body to function, as described in the above passage, and until it is truly "over" and truly "ends." And as long as the pain and heartache continues...it is not over.

A bro

11/2/2016 09:00:04 pm

I can't get over the fact that black people assume something about my status and work ethic because I'm white.

People are "suffering" about anything and everything. You can't have it both ways. You have to care for each member of the Body, not just one race. That's the problem with "Black Lives Matter." It takes care of "black" members, not the entir Body.

11/2/2016 09:16:17 pm

Dear Bro,

The passage in I Corinthians 12 does not say that we are to dismiss or ignore the suffering of the foot or the back, because the head aches too, and the knee joints are in pain. Can you imagine your head telling your foot or back to just "stop hurting or stop complaining?" Doesn't really get any results. It will keep hurting despite the head ordering, demanding it to "get over it."

Sides? The Body is one. I have seen throughout my life countless examples of the brown-complexioned members of the body reaching out and showing love, care and concern to me and to others of my particular complexion. Most of the greatest acts of "caring for one another," the most sacrificial love I have witnessed in my life were carried out by our brown complexioned brothers and sisters. I have never observed the "brown" members of the body exclusively looking out for themselves. However, sadly, I have seen the reverse again and again, which is what brother Fletcher is referring to above.

As for BLM, I have yet to hear its members, leaders, organization proclaim itself to the world as representatives of Christ on this earth, as his hands and feet. However, every Christian church in this nation and the people who attend there, have proclaimed that very thing. We are called to "love one another as Christ has loved us and gave himself for us." And, our Lord told us,"By this will men know you are my disciples, by how you love one another." That is what each and every Christian church in this nation proclaims to believe. Its member proclaim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

As believers, we should not expect the world to meet that criteria, particularly when the church, particularly certain sectors that share my complexion, are failing to live up to it ourselves.

11/2/2016 09:23:46 pm

Agreed. No sides in the Body. No race. If a black person is hurting, we need the Spirit. If a white person is hurting, we need the Spirit.

Disagree that blacks vs. whites on who loves whom the most. That's a discernment of character, a comparison, you're basing on race. The Spirit is what matters. Apart from the Head, you have no Body. Apart from the Spirit, the Body has no life. The Spirit cancels out race and makes one new man. Care for each man, all colors.

11/2/2016 09:30:14 pm

Counter,

What would the practical application of the Spirit look like regarding a hurting member of the Body?

Accept your disagreement of who loves whom the most. I am basing it not on race, but on my personal experiences with the character and actions flowing from that character of people with brown complexion who demonstrated they are followers of Christ. I stated that I have seen little of that sort of love demonstrate from believers of the pale complexion toward the brown complexioned believers. I am not basing it on race, but rather, the character demonstrated by those individuals, who happened to have a brown complexion.

In what way, Counter, do you see how we might go about showing caring for each man of all colors? What would that look like?

Hope

11/2/2016 11:13:58 pm

I have kept quite as well. I have felt that in this whole matter I haven't had a voice because my desire to live by the Word of God and spread His love, His hope, and His grace gets overshadowed by the fact that I am white. So because you have chosen to speak in such an eloquent way, I feel safe to speak as well.

In this world, there are two controlling forces. There is evil and good. There is Satan and God. If something does not come from Satan then it comes from God, and if something does not come from God then it comes from the enemy. Maybe this is too black and white literal way of looking at the word, but the enemy is in this world, he is presently working to create chaos in the church, in the world. I have a dear friend (white) who is married to a most honoring Christ following chocolate man. I love them dearly, and each time I see something on the news that I am confused about, I feel safe to call her. She will not hate me for my questions, and she will not get angry. She explains. The last time I spoke with her she said this, the enemy comes to seek out, deceive, destroy, and that is his only purpose. He is going to find any avenue that he can find in order to create this havoc. He is going to use interpretations of the Bible, politics, race, sex, economics, etc. He cannot defeat a unified church, but he can defeat a separated one. God created life. It matters. The enemy wants to destroy life. That is his job, so in all things we wrestle with God, we humbly seek him, and when He gives us words, we speak, when He gives us actions, we act. Therefore, I struggle supporting any group or movement that comes from the world. What breaks my heart is that I have dear friends of color, friends I would give my life for, who now disregard me due to my inability to support the BLM movement. This is happening even though I do not support any movement other than the movement of Christ. My heart is broken. I tell you the truth, I never really understood myself as white or as the beautiful person next to me as black until all of this. I knew cultures were different. I valued the beautiful skin color of each an every person. I loved to hear about the different foods that are cooked in the homes, about the different attitudes. I love everything about people of different ethnics or color. But I never realized that we were different until now, and God has had to shield my heart and remind me that we are not different. For there is no black, white, male, female, poor, rich in the Lord's kingdom. There are individual souls. People who are growing and learning, and loving. There is the old man of color in Chicago that told me the story of how he had to flee Arkansas to get a job and then realized that the North was not a safe place to be as well. In the same way there is my step-grandmother that grew up with the Vanderbilts and has to have everything just so so. I support and love the hurting. But I am not gonna lie, I am scared. My youth pastor and his family were attacked outside the Conway I-Hop by a BLM group. The man accidentally bumped into one of them, and it turned out to a huge fight involving two elementary aged children. There are places I no longer go after dark because I am white, and I know that the black community has suffered this reality for way too long, but turning the tables is not going to fix the community. Somehow we have to finally meet in the middle. There has to be apologizing, grace, and forgiveness on both sides: none of which is hard. There can't be revenge. Revenge doesn't solve. Justice belongs to the Lord. We humans are not to seek justice. My father is a racist because his father was killed and robbed by three black men. My father wants justice for the death of his father, but has it done him any good? No, he has lived a life of anger and fear. Likewise, at the same place I met the sweet older man who was so willing to tell me his story, there was a woman that told me to get away and take my Jesus with me because I didn't belong there! Why, because I was white, and she had been hurt by the white, and she wanted justice. Justice creates hate. God is the only one that can handle justice, judgement, revenge without hate, and it belongs to Him. I am so sorry that I am white. I am so sorry that my white ancestors may or may not have contributed to the harsh treatment of the black community, but I never have. Not once have I ever treated someone different because of their skin color, but not all of a sudden I am being judged because I am white. It makes me sad and frustrated.

But I do have some understanding. I have taught history, I know the story. I know the hatred and horrors the black community has had to face, and it wasn't long enough ago to forget or let it go like you say. It is still an ever present wound, but I have a theory for that as well. Hope... hope in anything but the Lord is dangerous. Hope in a politician, hope in

11/3/2016 10:35:59 am

Hope,

We all have a voice, regardless of our color. All we have to do is open our mouth. There may be many reasons that we hold back and are silent, but I think that silence is a large part of the problem. This is particularly true in the Church. The Church, particularly the white part of the church has sat mostly in silence for centuries in this country, insisting this has nothing to do with us, and this is not a problem worth discussing.

Then, when someone such as our brother, Phillip, speaks things the white members of the Church do not want to hear, acknowledge, or deal with, they are dismissed, demeaned, and cut off. It is time for the Church as a whole to cease to be silent and cease to attempt to silence others. As white believers we need to join the dialogue on these matters that our brothers and sisters of color keep trying to have with us for generations. We need to both speak and listen, as it appears you are doing.

It is certainly true what you stated about Satan seeking to divide, separate and destroy the Church. These battles are ultimately spiritual, as Ephesians 6 explicates. However, those spiritual battles are manifested in our physical world. Therefore, they have to be addressed in both realms: the spiritual AND the physical. We cannot ignore suffering and injustice as followers of Christ.

With regards to your statements concerning justice, I must lovingly disagree with you. It is true that scripture states that vengeance belongs to the Lord. But vengeance and justice are not the same, though sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between the two.

Our God is a God of justice. He loves justice. He created us in his image; since we are created in his image, we too have in us a longing for justice. This is present in us as very young children, as we insist on fairness (at least for ourselves).

In Isaiah chapter one, God describes his disgust with the rebelliousness of his people, with their sinfulness and iniquity. He expresses his disgust at their "worship" and "sacrifices" they offer to him. In verses 16 & 17 he instructs them:

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; SEEK JUSTICE, CORRECT OPPRESSION; BRING JUSTICE to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." (emphasis added)

Isaiah 56:1 and the entire chapter of 58 speak to these same issues. A key sin or iniquity that God was so angry and disgusted about was the failure to "do justice." Clearly, we are to DO justice. We are not to leave it in God's hands and expect him to do it and we do absolutely nothing. Prayer is a necessary component, but in such matters, we must be careful not to use prayer as "cop-out" or excuse not to take action or to speak out when we know there is injustice, oppression, suffering and need in our midst.

When one has experienced and/or continues to experience injustice, the human soul cries out for justice. Justice does not create hate. But the absence of justice very well can create hurt. The absence of justice can create an ongoing hurt and pain, anger, and in some cases, hatred and bitterness. Justice can be the healing balm for the hatred that grows out of injustice.

With regards to BLM, it is a movement that would simply not exist or be necessary if justice was present. I also believe that BLM would not exist if the Church in this country would unite together in one Body and demonstrate that love to one another, and be a moral and spiritual voice for racial justice and racial reconciliation in our country. We see secular movements attempting to do the very things that the Church refuses to do. So, how can we judge them? They simply fill a void that the Church should fill, but hasn't; a void the Church created in the earliest founding of this country, and has maintained for generations.

I appreciate you being honest about your fears. I too, have many fears. Sometimes I fear the human ramifications of personally speaking out and taking actions on these matters. But those are not my greatest fears.
My greatest fears:
*standing before a holy and righteous God and being held accountable for my silence and inaction in these times.
* possibly witnessing greater racial division, separation grow into violence and blatant hatred in my community, and wondering if there was something I could have done to help prevent it.
* that I might through inaction and silence be just as complicit as my ancestors and forebears in passing this on to the next generation.
* that I might have to explain or rationalize or justify to them "why" I didn't do something.
* what will happen in our community, our nation, if we, the Church do NOT do as God instructed us regarding these matters.

We should not be worried about being judged because we are white. We should be worried about being judged by a holy and a righteous God. We should be worried about being judged by our own consciences. We should be worried about being judged by own

11/3/2016 10:52:46 am

Continuation of part that was cut off:

We should be worried about being judged by own children, grandchildren and descendants for our silence and inaction, as we have judged our ancestors for theirs.

My dear sister, Hope, please do not be sorry for being white. That is the color God created you (and me), just as He gave our brother, Phillip the color He gave him. To God, both colors are beautiful. It is man that elevates one over another. As a result, both colors come with their own burdens. Jesus told us to "bear one another's burdens."

I agree with your statement,"Somehow we finally have to meet in the middle." This is something our brothers and sisters of color have been trying to do for generations. Let us join them. Because there can be no meeting in the "middle" if they are the only ones who show up for the meeting.

In that spirit, I would like to invite you to participate in an initiative that our city is sponsoring in our community: The Conway Community Race Relations Initiative.
There are several sub-committees that are addressing different sectors of this initiative: education(k-12), Colleges, law enforcement, community outreach, and faith.

The faith committee is meeting next Monday evening. For more information on how to get involved, times, locations, etc. you can contact Conway Deputy Mayor Aaron Knight @ (501) 513-3502 or aaron.knight@cityofconway.org.

I hope you will join us in this opportunity to "take back some of the ground" that the enemy, Satan, has stolen. I would love to meet you and serve alongside you in working to heal this wound.

Be blessed, and keep listening and speaking up

11/4/2016 11:12:44 am

I don't have time to give a long response, but Inloved your words. You are right about justice, as long as it is justice we seek on Biblical grounds. I guess the word I was looking for is revenge. Thank you for the information, I will most certainly look into it!

11/2/2016 11:25:05 pm

It didn't let me finish, but a quick summary.. The black community has had more instances of hope destroyed than any other community in the nation. In every season since the beginning of the country, hope was given, and then destroyed by another reality. Somehow, we have to restore that hope in Jesus is the only hope worth holding onto. Hope in anything else is temporary and idol worship.

I was told I couldn't get pregnant, and I worked with a girl that couldn't get pregnant. We both got pregnant one year, but my baby died and her baby lived. She was a mean and spiteful woman, and she came into my room every day and told me about the baby growing inside of her. It was the cruelest, hardest period of my life. I had hope, and then my hope was destroyed. It would have been easier had I never gotten pregnant. If I hadn't know what it felt like. I cried every single day that year. But at the same time, God taught me something beautiful about hope. We can place our hope and trust in him even in the persecution. Even when the enemy uses others to try and break you, and even in the brokenness God is there.

Finally, I wanted to tell you that we don't know what the next step is. I don't want to follow what people post on facebook because that is from people, and I want to hear the Lord clearly on this matter because it is so tender. The enemy has gained much ground on this subject, and I don't want to give him more ground but I want to take some ground back! So we are waiting, praying, and being still and humbling asking the Lord, what do we do next? How do we approach the hurting Lord and lead them back into the precious arms of Jesus where they can find rest, peace, and hope despite the broken world.

One day, we will all stand before God, and as one church, black white, hispanic, Indian, etc. We will praise His name. I look forward to that day so much.

Comments are closed.