Systemic Racism (fb)

Drug sentencing laws have long been one of the most blatant examples of systemic or institutional racism.  This chart in a recent article in the WSJ (Crack Sentences Still Tough, 12.22.10, Gary Fields) clearly reveals that we've got a long way to go.


Alexis de Tocqueville, commenting on the American experiment in 1835, said "I do not imagine that the white and black race will ever live in any country upon an equal footing.  But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the United States than elsewhere.  An isolated individual may surmount the prejudices of religion, of his country, or of his race, and if this individual is a king he may effect surprising changes in society; but a whole people cannot rise, as it were, above itself.  A despot who should subject the americans and their former slaves to the same yoke, might perhaps succeed in commingling their races; but as long as the american democracy remains at the head of affairs no one will undertake so difficult a task; and it may be foreseen that the freer the white population of the United States becomes, the more isolated it will remain." (Democracy in America)  But our hope doesn't lie in our system of government, our hope is in a group of people called Church who live differently because they reserve their highest loyalty for their King- a king who has already surmounted all prejudice.


According to a 2000 study by Michael Emmerson and Christian Smith (Divided by Faith) only 4% of white Protestant Christians believe that racism is among the top issues Christians should be concerned with.  Contrast that with 25% of African-American Protestants who believe that it is the number one issue that Christians should be concerned with.  


Systemic racism is perpetuated when we deny that it exists.  We don't have to look for hints and whispers, there are shouts all around if we'll pay attention.  Change begins with awareness - the Bible calls that "bringing the darkness into the light."   It can change in one generation but it will require the Church really being the Church at her most radiant - astonishing at her unity through diversity and tenacious heart for the justice of the true King and his Kingdom.

He noticed me (fb)

"He noticed me."  That phrase has haunted me in the most wonderful way for weeks now.  It comes into my mind when I'm driving to work, at random times during the day and when I lie down at night.  The words were spoken by a teenage girl in a song that she wrote during an incredibly intense time in her life.  Intense, exciting, scary, uncertain, supernatural.  I wish I could tell you more about her I really do.  Was she outgoing or shy?  Popular or unknown?  Beautiful or challenged?  Easily embarrassed or life of the party?   The answers to those and a gagillion other questions we don't know, we aren't supposed to know.  I'll tell you what we do know. She was a teenager- with all the fear, insecurity, confusion, hope, and longings that teenage girls have.  She was from a smallish town that was kind of a "not such a big deal" place.  She had a fiance.'  She had never had sex- which I think is the thing we're most supposed to know.

Suddenly in the midst of a life probably not unlike the lives of her friends and their moms before them- another world breaks through with an excitement almost uncontainable.  It began with an angel, glowing from exposure to 180-proof glory- enough to make any teenage girl or warrior fall on their face- standing in her room talking to her.  The angel told her God knew her, wanted to bless her, that she would become pregnant, name the child Jesus, and watch as the child became King over a kingdom that would never end.  Overwhelming, outrageous, too much to process, happening so fast - what must she have thought?

She became pregnant and soon went to visit a relative, a woman named Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was older, a woman who loved God, who had recently had some supernatural events breakthrough into her world as well.  Did Mary go to see Elizabeth for perspective?  Wisdom?  Some time away to process?  The answers to those and a gagillion other questions we don't know, we aren't supposed to know.  I'll tell you what we do know.  Elizabeth practically fell at Mary's feet when Mary walked in the door, declaring her to be the most "blessed of all women."  Elizabeth reacted as human beings who have longed for God's presence for a lifetime respond when He enters their world.  What must Mary have felt?  Like teenage girls before and after she wrote a poem, a song, a journal entry- she had to get it down- what she was thinking and feeling.  And knowing now what we do know now- we can claim her song as our own.  An expression of a heart that has been made new by the life and death and life of Jesus.

She begins... "My heart praises God, He makes my soul happy because He noticed me"

May I tell me and may I remind you that what was true of her is true of us?  When the human heart experiences the reality that He noticed me the religion goes out the door and the relationship becomes consuming in a way that would turn anyone into a lovesick singer-songwriter.  "He noticed me...He knows my name...He's real and close not far away...He pursued me...He knows EVERYTHING and He still wants to be my friend...His mercy is compelling...the reality of God intervening in my life has changed its trajectory forever and I am finally discovering what life is and who I am - I'm starting to Live!"

For 2000 years the Church has called Mary's song the Magnificat - but you can call it He Noticed Me- may it haunt you in the most wonderful way.