A few weeks ago, my wife and I visited our daughter’s family. Along the way, we saw farms and forests, rolling plains and majestic mountains, corn fields and cattle ranches, grain elevators and stockyards.
In Colorado, we visited Paint Mines, a natural wonder that I’d never heard of before. You might google it, and look at the photographs. It is a place of stunning beauty, comprising multi-colored layers of clays that have eroded into canyons with fantastical spires, caves, and other formations. As we were leaving the Paint Mines, in the afterglow of encountering this majestic beauty, we saw a pickup truck, decorated with decals unambiguously proclaiming the white supremacist beliefs of its owner. The conversation changed.
America is a beautiful, and complex place. As we walked through Paint Mines, we encountered many other groups of visitors. They all appeared perfectly civil, and the closest thing to anti-social behavior we observed were people climbing on the formations in defiance of the signs and potential for damage, in search of the perfect selfie. Most of the groups were white, but there were groups of Hispanic visitors and at least one African-American couple. Except for that truck, there was no visible indication of racial animosity. But the truck was undeniable witness to the animosity held by some.
The extent to which white supremacist views have become normalized over the past few years shocks me. Perhaps they were kept in check by the World War II generation, who understood Nazism as politicized white supremacy and wouldn’t abide it. I remember the sense of shock when KKK leaflets began to appear in local south-side communities a half-dozen years ago. Now, such things hardly raise an eyebrow. I believe we have a particular responsibility to stand against the rising public manifestations of white supremacy.
Our faith calls us to believe in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” and that “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” We remember the story of Acts 8, that the first Gentile convert to Christianity was a black man. Black lives matter.
2 comments:
certainly you recall the vacation site in BRAVE NEW WORLD in colorado where the beta and gamma folks could go to see humanity the last of indigenous americans before it was controlled in such efficient fashion by the laboratory class the good scientists remember a soma in time saves nine a gramme saves a damn you my old friend my once upon a time sparring partner in the halls of LS you are talking the idealist dream you actually think it is about WE THE PEOPLE it has never been about we the people and the only people who seem to believe it could be about WE THE PEOPLE are the good christians who want to instill some decency into the social atmosphere which feeds on animosity not peace and justice there needs be ethnic turmoil it's part of the design don't chya know what dedicated christians need to figure out is how to be true to one's faith without being subjugated by the deleterious attributes of LIBERTY run amok...i for one have chosen to favour my catholic faith over and above the troublesome and trite ethics of LOCKE and jefferson and madison and adams...it's good of you to be considerate of black lives but all indications on the street by the blacks themselves is they do not matter thay can kill one another with relative impunity as has happened on the streets of mpls/st paul with murders up over 100% since last year and the vast majority of those being black on black i can only say this: there's something neurotic in our continued inability to adjust to african peoples and it goes someting like this - listen to the lyrics of HIP HOP listen to the wit and wisdom of your average gangbang hood gathering it's all pretty sexy and violent isn't it well they tend to act out they tend to not be afraid to walk the talk muthuhfuqquh they pop a cap in yo ass no flinching and well let's be honest as white people let's just say they scare us a little bit ... when the ideals of christianity can be understood as ranking in importance far above the principles of american self governance then we can say black lives matter...as long as the dynamic of 'racial' strife is sparked into the social atmosphere it will explode with misunderstanding...and i maintain the provocation is intentional and deliberate and feeds off general human ignorance...derek who?...blm used to be about land management...until black consciousness can accurately assess their own culpability there will be strife lord there will be strfe...my personal aesthetic assessment is that the black comunnity forgot how to play the blues and left it up to existentially frustrated upper middle class white boys like me to carry the burden...go back to the blues you disgruntled africans....maybe there we can talk
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jh -- great to hear from you. I'm surprised I'm just seeing this now.
Let me be provocative: I consider most criticisms of black culture in this country to be projections.
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