Sermon delivered on Sunday, June 26, 2022

Did you hear the good news today?

I know it is hard to hear anything good after a week full of bad news. Like many of you, I have felt a range of emotions in the wake of the decisions of our nation’s highest court. I’ve felt frustration, anger, disappointment, anxiety, and even fear. The overturning of Roe v Wade is a reminder to all of us that freedom and human rights—including the right to privacy and the freedom of self-determination—can quickly be taken away. This week, women were told once again that they still have no guarantee of equal protection under the law. Their bodies are once again subject to the will of the state and the will of men, based on the logic that the right to choose isn’t rooted in our nation’s history and traditions.

Which begs the question: What is rooted in our nation’s history and traditions? The answer is painfully clear. Our history and traditions are patriarchy and white supremacy and discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. This is the world our Supreme Court evidently wants to return to—a world where entire groups of people are disenfranchised and marginalized and even criminalized.

But did you hear the good news today? There is an alternative world that is rooted in God’s love and grace. It is a world that rejects the human definitions of acceptable and unacceptable. It is the kingdom of heaven that Jesus announced.

Did you hear the good news today? God invites those who have been fed the crumbs off the floor are invited to sit at the feast—a feast that is available to all—not just those who can afford the chair. (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Did you hear the good news today? Jesus sat with the people labeled “sinners” and even ate with them. Those who were rejected by the judges and condemned by “law and order” crowd were welcomed and accepted by Jesus. (Luke 15:1-7)

Did you hear the good news today? The Holy Spirit doesn’t do background checks on those she baptizes into the body of Christ to see if they have acceptable credentials. No, she gives each person a place—no matter what their religious heritage, no matter what their economic status, no matter what their gender label. (1 Corinthians 12:12ff)

Hear the good news again: Those who have been rejected because your status, you are welcome at God’s table. You are included in God’s kingdom. Those who have been hated because of your genders, you are loved; you are safe. Those who have been oppressed because of “history and tradition”, you are free. There are no dividing lines or labels In the world that the Spirit is creating. Here, there is no hierarchy of gender. Here, there is no binary of sexuality. Here, there is no supremacy of skin color. Here, there is no primacy of ethnicity. Here, there is no priority of class. The divisions and separations of the old order built and maintained on “national history and tradition” are passing away, and the new order of God’s kingdom where the last are first and the first are last, and where all are free is coming into fullness.

The Spirit is shaping us into the likeness of Christ and forming us into a beautiful multicolored, multicultural, multilingual, multigendered body of Christ—a picture of heaven on earth. And together, as the diverse and flamboyant body of Christ, we renounce the old creation with its oppression and bondage and embrace the God’s new creation of liberation and love.

So, together, let’s set the table and welcome every person just as they are. And let’s prepare a feast for every person that God has made and redeemed. Let’s offer a feast of full equality, a feast of radical grace and extravagant love, a feast of freedom and self-determination. Let’s prepare a feast of universal healthcare, a feast of living wages, a feast of secure housing, a feast of clean water and clean air, a feast of creativity and joy, a feast of education, a feast of safety, and a feast of inclusion and affirmation so that no one is denied access to the fullness of life ever again.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, rain down. Holy Spirit, baptize us anew into the glorious body of Christ. Holy Spirit, work in us and through us to make God’s future a reality in this time and in this place. Amen.

Song: “We Are Setting The Rainbow Table”

Sermon delivered by Rev. Bruce Ray on Sunday, October 3, 2021

Today, we are concluding our series “Creation is Waiting / La Creación Espera” with a recognition of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is best known as the patron saint of animals and the environment, and he is often depicted surrounded by animals of all kinds. He believed that faith and care for God’s creatures went hand-in-hand and he considered all of God’s creatures to be our sisters and brothers. Stories are told of how he would go into the forests and preach to the birds and animals and trees, calling them to love and praise their creator.

Every year on or around October 4, Christians throughout the world celebrate the Feast of St. Francis with prayers for creation and a blessing of the animals. We will follow this tradition later in our service.

I’m so glad that we shared the story, “The Tantrum That Saved the World,” with the children today. I think Sophia – the girl in the story – and St. Francis would be great friends. I think St. Francis would be very sad to see what is happening to our sisters and brothers because of climate change and the destruction of habitat for animals, birds and people. I think St. Francis would be angry that so many animal voices have been lost. One of those voices belonged to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was the largest species of woodpecker in North America. Its wingspan was 3 ft with a flaming red crown and two white stripes down it’s side. People would see the huge, strikingly beautiful bird in the swamps and bayous of Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana and would say, “Lord God!” It became known as the “Lord God Bird.”

There is only one video and audio recording of the Lord God Bird in existence. It was filmed and recorded in 1935.

The Lord God Bird doesn’t exist anymore. The woodpecker was last seen in Louisiana in 1944. This week, it was officially declared extinct by the US Fish and Wildlife service.

What happened? The Lord God bird is no more because human greed and ignorance destroyed its home. Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens, wrote a song “Lord God Bird” suggesting that the bird was sacrificed on the altar of the industrial god by a sewing machine. Yep. A sewing machine.

The Ivory-billed woodpecker was doing just fine until the industrial revolution of the 1800s. In 1911, the Singer Company purchased over 80,000 acres of old growth forests in Arkansas that was a prime habitat of the Ivory-billed woodpecker. The company cut down the trees to make the cabinets for their famous sewing machines. Conservationists warned that the logging would put the woodpecker in danger. But despite efforts to protect the bird and the land, Singer Company sold the land in 1937 to the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company for more extensive logging. Within 6 years, there were no more ivory-billed woodpeckers.

Now a lot of people would say, “It’s just a bird!” But after reading the Scriptures today (Genesis 7:11-16, Psalm 104:24-31, and Matthew 6:25-33), I’m reminded that every bird, every animal, every tree and every flower is part of God’s wondrous creation—made by God at creation, preserved by God during the Great Flood, cared for by God throughout time. Human beings may be made in the image of God, but that does not diminish the worth of all other creatures. They too have a purpose in God’s plan. They too are made to display God’s glory and sing God’s praise.

And as God’s “Image-bearers” we have a responsibility is to do as God would do. That includes protecting all of God’s creatures from harm and providing for their well-being. It means preserving their voices and ensuring that they call fulfill God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. It means to loving them as God loves them.

While we (collective humanity) failed to prevent the extinction of the Ivory-billed woodpecker, dozens of species on the verge of extinction have been saved thanks to one piece of government legislation: the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The Act identified threatened, endangered and critically endangered species for the purpose of protecting them and restoring them to sustainable numbers so they would no longer need federal protection.

For almost 50 years, dozens of species have recovered thanks to the Act including Humpback whales, American Bison, bald eagles, and California Condors. Chicago has participated in saving an endangered species too. We all know Monty and Rose, the beach-loving piping plovers who have returned to Montrose Harbor every year since 2019 to nest and hatch their eggs. This year, the pair successfully hatched 3 new little piping plovers, aiding efforts to ensure their survival as a species.

We’ve made progress, but there are hundreds of other species that need our protection. And progress is never guaranteed. Human greed and ignorance can reverse even the best environmental policy. So we must always be vigilant and watchful.

Creation is waiting. So on this day, let us rise up like St. Francis and pray a blessing over creation and then take action to protect the voices of our sisters and brothers. Let’s be the “righteous ones who take care of the needs of the animals” (Proverbs 12:10a). Let us pray for creation and bless our brothers and sisters, the creatures of the earth, and then go “throw a tantrum.”

I don’t own an American flag. I’ve never flown an American flag from my porch. But, for the first time in my adult life, I want one. On Saturday, November 7, 2020, I was proud to be a citizen of the United States, part of “We, the people.” I was proud that almost 80% of eligible voters participated in the democratic process. I was proud that state officials of both major political parties protected the integrity of the election (despite accusations of widespread fraud). For the first time in a long time, I was proud of America.

Full disclosure: I am not a big fan of Joe Biden, but I am relieved – no, I’m almost giddy – about the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election. We, the people, removed Donald Trump from office! We voted for an end to bombast and vitriol. Today, I can breathe.

Let’s be honest. The last four years have been exhausting. Every day, we woke up in the morning hearing about Donald Trump’s overnight ALL CAP tweets. We watched him mock people with disabilities and listened to him disparage immigrants, destroy the reputations of honorable people and spout quackery and outright lies while tacitly endorsing violence against people of color. We were assaulted with his arrogant self-aggrandizement and shameless self-promotion. Every time Donald Trump opened his mouth, we worried about what would come out of it. Every time Donald Trump picked up his pen, we worried about which law or regulation he would roll back and which group of people (or what part of the environment) would suffer. But all that is coming to an end. Whew!

On Saturday, for the first time in four years, I was able to sit through a presidential speech without my heart rate increasing out of anxiety that it would devolve into a train wreck. Joe Biden’s victory speech was balm for my weary soul. His calm call for healing in itself was healing. I felt safer hearing his promises to reactivate DREAMers, rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and revive a science-driven COVID task force. His tone gave me hope that we will become a quieter, more thoughtful, more compassionate nation under a leader who isn’t a playground bully. Aaah!

Yet, for all the relief I felt on Saturday, I have an tightness in my spirit that I cannot shake. My uneasiness was identified in a statement by the Associated Press: “President Donald Trump lost. But Trumpism did not.”

You won’t find the word, “Trumpism,” in an official Webster’s Dictionary—at least, not yet. It came into our lexicon in 2015 when Donald Trump first announced his intention to run for President. Today, Wikapedia has a page dedicated to the word, and various online dictionaries have weighed in on its meaning.

Urban Dictionary offers this definition: “A social/political movement based on elements of (a) racism, (b) religious bigotry, (c) demeaning attitudes towards women, (d) attempts to intimidate the press, (e) economic uncertainty, (f) rejection of scientific findings and (g) general expressions of hatred that are reminiscent of German National Socialism of the Hitler era …” and “… often characterized by completely baseless false statements.” (submitted by Andrew Sarkas)

Dictionary defines it as “a political philosophy that is an anti-establishment blend of economic populism, reactionary nationalism, and strong militarism summed up in Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Due to bigoted statements Trump had made and the viewpoints of some of his base, Trumpism [has been] associated with white supremacy.”

This election, despite Joe Biden’s win for the presidency, we failed to see the much anticipated “Blue Wave” materialize in races down the ballot. The loss of seats in the House of Representatives and the anticipated retention of the Senate majority by Republicans reveal that voters by a slim majority may have rejected the personality of Donald Trump, but not his politics and policies. It is disturbing to me that Donald Trump actually received 6,000,000 more votes in this election than he did in 2016! That’s 6,000,000 more people who wanted him to be the president for another four years! Unlike 2016, they didn’t cast a ballot for him because they were against his opponent. This time, they voted for Donald Trump. They believed in his MAGA vision.

Honestly, that scares the hell out of me. It scares me because those 6,000,000 people will likely vote again in 2024. And they will be looking for a candidate that mirrors Donald Trump’s policies and practices, if not his personality. They may even look for “the Donald” himself to return.

We may have a reprieve from Trump’s bluster for the next four years, but the seeds of Trumpism have been planted in the soil of our democracy, enriched with mistrust in the electoral process and suspicion of those who work for the government. Those seeds will germinate and burst forth in greater strength than ever. Like the enemy who sows tares in the wheat fields of Jesus’ parable (see Matthew 13:24ff), Donald Trump has masterfully sown invasive and destructive weeds in the field of our nation’s democracy and it may be a long time before those weeds can be removed without destroying everything around them.

If it is true that Trumpism actually won in 2020, that means we all lost.

• Truth lost.
• Science lost.
• The environment lost.
• Immigrants and Refugees lost.
• BIPOC lost.
• LGBTQ folks lost.
• The working poor lost.
• The Church lost.

As a person of Christian faith and a pastor, that last one is especially disappointing and challenging for me. I grieve that once again, more than 80% of my evangelical sisters and brothers in the faith have selectively chosen one or two issues upon which to build their political houses while seemingly ignoring the full revelation of God’s values and inclusive global agenda. I grieve that many influential faith leaders who preach the sanctity of life have tacitly accepted (or even boldly embraced) policies that lead to death and destruction, seeing their compromise as a small price to pay for achieving their narrow goals. I grieve that a generation of young people now see the church as having so tethered itself to the Trumpist politics of misinformation, “law and order”, nationalism and “whiteness” that it has become hostile to the higher values of inclusive love and social justice that Jesus taught. I grieve because many members of the white evangelical church have, in their embrace of Trumpism, amputated some of the most essential limbs of the body of Christ—our African American sisters and brothers.

I believe Christ is still the head of the Church, and He who holds the seven spirits of God says to the Church: “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” (Revelation 3:2-3)

The sooner we wake up, the better. There is still time for the church to renounce its complicity in the spread false doctrines of Trumpism, but the window of opportunity is closing. The world needs a prophetic church now more than ever.

Part 1 – Pastor Ray’s sermon on November 8

In 1990, psychologist Dr. Paul MacLean wrote a popular book called “The Triune Brain in Evolution.” In it, he described his theory that the human brain functioned on three levels that had developed over evolutionary history. The deepest (oldest) part of the core brain he called the “R-Complex” or “Reptilian” brain. This part of the brain is completely focused on survival and propagation of the species, and regulates behavior around a bunch of F-words: food, fight or flight, freezing up, and fornication. According to MacLean, the most developed part of our brain – the neo-cortex that controls reasoning and creative thinking – usually can control the reptilian brain, but there are circumstances that can literally shut down the higher brain functions so that we react impulsively out of the core. While much of MacLean’s theory is no longer accepted by neuroscientists, it remains a popular concept. It feels true.

We have all experienced moments when we feel threatened and we react. This year, we’ve witnessed people with reptilian brains at work. Maybe you have experienced being controlled by your own inner lizard. I’ve witnessed it when I see the empty shelves in the toilet paper aisle of Target. We’ve seen it in the threats against peaceful protesters. We’ve seen it in the rise of conspiracy theories. We felt it as election results dragged on and on and on. And honestly, I feel it rising in me even now. Even though the election has been called in Joe Biden’s favor, and even though he has declared victory and delivered an inspiring message of reassurance that we have turned the corner, and even though I have the same sense of relief that so many others feel, I also feel a nagging dread about what might happen next. I know that wounded animals are extremely dangerous. Bad things can still happen. My mind and body are still on high alert. The lizard brain in me is strong.

Dr. MacLean had one thing right. Human beings behave – often irrationally – due to external triggers. And one of the biggest triggers is uncertainty. Our “survival instinct” kicks into over-drive. We begin to “live by fear.” Fear is a powerful, controlling emotion. Fear is a necessary emotion for our survival, but when it becomes the dominant force in our lives, it is counter-productive to the very survival we crave. Fear drives us toward the things that diminish fullness of life – the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.

For instance, fear drives us into protectionism. Fear motivates us to build walls around ourselves (or our nation). Fear motivates us to buy guns and ammo in record levels. In fact, I just learned that there is a shortage of ammunition! Fear motivates us to view those around us with suspicion and mistrust. They are our competition and we live convinced that they will take away what is rightfully ours.

Fear also drives us into selfishness and greed. The parable Jesus told of the farmer is a story of greed. The farmer has too much and decides that the only thing to do is to build bigger barns to hold it all. We think, “what a greedy farmer!”, but I also think that fear is beneath the surface. People hoard because they are afraid that they will not have enough for themselves. Hoarding is a reptilian response to uncertainty and vulnerability.

Finally, fear drives us into forgetfulness and despair. How quickly fear erases the memories of God’s faithfulness and the gospel story of God’s salvation and replaces it with reliance upon the self and upon the resources of security the world proposes.

In a popular phrase, when we live in fear, we do not “live into our best selves.” At the end of the day, fear drives us from the things that lead to life: community, empathy, compassion, and generosity.

I have never seen the movie “How To Train Your Dragon,” but the title seems like an appropriate phrase for how we should approach our reptilian brain.

It’s unclear if we can retrain our lizard self, but we can restrain it. It is said that #16, President Abraham Lincoln, had a nasty temper, but it rarely was seen. When he wanted to tell someone off, he would write a letter to the person, pouring out all of his anger through his pen. He called them his “hot letters.” He would then put the unsigned letter in a drawer in his desk. Lincoln would return to the letter several days later and read it to decide if it should be sent. Most of the letters were never sent. He burned them instead. We could all learn something from Lincoln. How much harm we could avoid, if we stopped tweeting or posting our first reaction to everything that triggered us. How much more civil we would be if we filtered our words and thoughts through the filter of our faith. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” When the reptilian brain reacts, we need to take those thoughts captive and hold them so they cannot destroy relationships and community.

A second way that we can restrain the lizard is to do the exact opposite of what it tells us to do. This is the Jesus way. Jesus taught us to not return evil for evil, and to bless those who curse us. So Instead of saying “Screw You!” we say, “God Bless You!” So, when your lizard brain says “don’t trust people that are different from you,” you can choose to listen to their story and learn about them. When your lizard brain says, “build a wall,” you can choose to break one down. When your lizard brain says, “Hoard,” you can choose to give some of our resources to others. When your lizard brain says, “I won, sucker!” you can choose silence. When your lizard brain says, “Hold that grudge,” you can choose to remember your own need for grace. When your lizard brains says, “protect yourself,” you can choose trust in God’s protection and love.

We can restrain the reptilian reactions triggered by fear with acts of love that come from faith. When we do this, we show that we have passed from death to life and that we are led by the Spirit of God. It is counter-intuitive, but every act of empathy, compassion and generosity will actually create the community that will sustain us and lead us into the fullness of life. What is dominating you? Fear or faith.

On September 30, 2020, I was asked to make a brief statement before a group of Christians about why I support the Illinois ‘Fair Tax’ Amendment. This is what I shared (adapted for print). Illinois currently has a “flat tax” income tax rate of 4.95% for all earners. The McDonald’s worker making minimum wage pays the same rate as the McDonald’s CEO who makes almost 400 times the average employee. The Illinois Fair Tax Amendment would increase the percentage for those who earn more than $250,000 annually, and decrease it for lower-income working individuals and families.

I am a person of faith, and because of my faith, I support the Fair Tax Amendment.  

I support the amendment because our current “flat rate” tax structure is unjust and is oppressive to low-income working families. I support the amendment because I serve a God that defends the poor and upholds the cause of the oppressed. I support the amendment because I believe God is pleased when we recognize economic disparities and treat those who have less with policies of compassion and justice…because that’s what God does. 

You heard me right. That’s what God does. God distinguishes between those who have more and those who have less. It is fair to say that God divides people into “the haves” and “the have-nots,” and God has different expectations for the haves.  It’s biblical.

It’s in the book of Leviticus.  Now I know that nobody reads Leviticus. The entire book is devoted to describing the different sacrifices that are required for various infractions of the law. We don’t make sacrifices, and as Christians, we often say, “we’re not under the law – we’re under grace.” So we don’t read it. That’s unfortunate, since Leviticus shows us a principle that has a direct bearing on the issue before us.

According to Leviticus 5:6, everyone is required to offer a female lamb or goat as a guilt offering.  But in the very next verse, God gave people without economic means options that fit with their economic status. Those who could not afford a lamb or goat were allowed to offer 2 doves or 2 pigeons instead.  And if even 2 pigeons were beyond one’s ability to pay, they could bring a “tenth of an ephah of flour. That’s about 9 cups.  God doesn’t have a “flat rate” sacrificial system.  For those who have more, more is required.  For those who have less, less is expected. This is not equal, but it is fair.

God makes a distinction between those who have the resources and those who don’t. Our current tax structure makes no distinctions. And because it does not, it is unfair.

If God is just and fair to the poor, then we, as the people of God, have an obligation to seek justice and equity for the poor. So I will vote “Yes” for the Amendment on my ballot this November 3. I will vote yes, because a progressive tax structure is faithful to the heart and justice of God. I encourage you vote “Yes” too.

In fourteen hundred and ninety two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue…

I learned that little ditty in 1960’s grade school. It was taught in elementary school history without question: Christopher Columbus (aka ‘Cristoforo Columbo’ en Italiano and ‘Cristobál Colón’ en Español) was THE man who “discovered” America while searching for a shorter trade route from Europe to Asia on behalf of the Spanish monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand. We knew this man was important because on October 12, 1968, and every October 12 after that, the world stopped (or at least there was no mail delivery) in his honor.

But how in the world did a person who never set foot on North American soil become so embedded in our national story through statues, city names, and civic holidays? It’s a fascinating story of immigration, definitions of race and international politics. Read on!

Between 1880 and 1920, more than three million Italians had immigrated to the United States. Many Southern Italians and Sicilians arrived in New Orleans and helped dig the canals and work in the sugar cane fields. In Italy, northern Italians often looked down on Italians from the south as backward and uncivilized and racially suspicious due to their darker skin tone.

Upon arrival in New Orleans, the southern Italians and Sicilians tended to be lumped together with former slaves and treated with the same dehumanization. These Italians often lived in Black communities and were frequently referred to as “white n——rs.”

The racial tensions exploded in 1891, after popular New Orleans Chief of Police, David Hennessy, was murdered as he walked home from work. Nineteen Italian immigrants were rounded up and charged with the murder. After six of the men were acquitted of their charges by a jury, a mob numbering in the tens of thousands descended on the jail, demanding blood and accusing the Sicilian “mafia” of bribing the jury. Finally, a smaller group broke into the jail and went on a murderous spree. In the end, 11 Italians were killed and their bodies were desecrated by the mob. No one was charged with the crime.

The initial response to “America’s largest lynching” was generally celebratory. Even The New York Times dismissed the mob action, noting that the victims were “sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins.” However, the incident had international repercussions. The Italian government broke off diplomatic relations with the United States and there were rumors of war.

With the 400th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage and the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892 on the horizon, President Benjamin Harrison used the opportunity to ease tensions with the Italian government by asking Congress for legislation to protect foreign nationals from mob violence, by giving the families of the victims a monetary settlement and by declaring that October 12, 1892, would be a “one-time national holiday” in honor of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. President Harrison’s declaration gave Italian-Americans the opportunity to insert themselves into the story of America by casting Christopher Columbus as the “first Italian immigrant” to the Americas and a symbol of Italian creativity, determination and religious devotion.

New York Times writer and author Brent Staples refers to the New Orleans lynching and the subsequent acts of President Harrison as the moment that “Italians became White.” This explains why there is such objection of the removal of statues of Columbus within much of the Italian-American community. Four hundred years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he posthumously gave Italians access to the privileges of whiteness in America. To remove Columbus from his pedestal in the American story (even if it isn’t “true”) is to erase Italian-American progress and put them at risk again for a return to racial inferiority.

As much as Italian Americans should be fully embraced as equal citizens in the American democratic experiment, they should not need a statue of Christopher Columbus (or a monument to fascist Italo Balbo) to justify it. There are plenty of other Italians that better exemplify creativity, determination and religious devotion.

At the same time, we are in a moment to acknowledge Columbus’s complicated legacy.  For many other marginalized groups, Christopher Columbus has been and continues to be a symbol of the destruction of indigenous cultures throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. Thanks to Columbus’ failed voyage to Asia, millions of people suffered. The conquistadors didn’t just bring Christianity; they brought disease, enslavement and exploitation. It is this legacy that has been erased from history.

It’s time to tell the honest truth about Christopher Columbus who did not “discover” America, but simply revealed it to the Europeans so they could come again and again and rape it for profit. It is time to remove the statues of Christopher Columbus (and other questionable historical figures) and place them in a new “Museum of Distorted History” so their stories can be told in a broader historical context.

It is also time to find new symbols that we can hold up to affirm the value and humanity of everyone. As a person of Christian faith, that symbol is the cross of a middle-eastern prophet who crossed the accepted social boundaries and showed us what love really looks like.

“I’m not racist.”

I hear that all the time. I’ve even said it about myself at one time or another. It’s the “go-to” response to the question, “Are you racist?”  But it’s not the right answer.  It’s the wrong answer because it’s not the right question.

Mike Novotny writes in his devotional “Race Grace Justice Jesus,” “I believe it’s a mistake to make racism a yes/no question.”  He adds, “We don’t do that with other [character traits].  Are you proud – yes or no?  Patient – yes or no? Selfless – yes or no? We recognize that pride and impatience and selfishness are sins we sometimes commit but are trying, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to resist.”  He then suggests that we a different question: “How racist are you?”

While I don’t agree with Mike on a lot of topics, I appreciated how he framed the question about racism because it recognizes that from birth we have been raised in a culture where race is a fundamental factor in the way we understand each other in the social structure.  The idea of race and the hierarchy of skin color is so deeply embedded in us that it is impossible not to be racist even if we object and try to deny it.  Racism is so pervasive that people (and by people, I mean “white people”) don’t even see it. People of color see it all the time. It really is always about race because race is the foundation upon which our society is built.

We are all racist. We are all racialized.  And again, by “we” I mean “white people.” Some of us are more overtly racist than others. Some literally wear their racism on their sleeves (or their flags) which gives the rest of us plausible deniability. Yet, we are all guilty of participating in and benefiting from the structures and institutions that were built on a racialized foundation. And most of us are guilty of micro-aggressions and routinely assessing people on the basis of internalized racial stereotypes and biases.

If we can finally admit that we are racist because we have been marinated in race all of our lives, we can begin to deal with it and ultimately be free of its distorting influence.

The apostle Peter was finally able to see his internalized racism when God confronted him with a sheet full of unclean animals and a family of Spirit-filled Gentiles (surprise!). (Acts 10:34-35).  Peter confessed that he needed to change his understanding of God and begin to fully accept those who were different from himself. (Acts 10:28).  Unfortunately, like the chicken pox virus that remains inside our bodies and resurfaces in other forms, Peter was so infected by racism that it later resurfaced and he fell back into old patterns of racialized behavior (see Galatians 2:11ff).

I have to confess that I’m more like Peter than I would like to admit.  I get confronted. I jump forward, but then I slide back into “default” thought and behavioral patterns. I get confronted again, and I jump forward a bit further. The more I am confronted with my internalized racism, the more likely I am able to see it’s hold upon me and resist it.

Am I a racist? The answer will always be “Yes.”  How racist am I?  The answer is “I’m working on it daily so racism’s grip on me will loosened. When I’m confronted with it – lovingly or otherwise – I humbly accept the rebuke and get back on track. When I sense it rising within myself, I renounce it and repent. When I fall back into old patterns, I hope someone will call me on it, and I will hear them out.  When I see how racism operates in the world around me and how it is embedded into systems and institutions, I reject it and work to dismantle it.”

May the Holy Spirit push us forward until all the walls fall down and the sun of justice shines fully upon us.

The song, ‘America the Beautiful’, was sung by Beyonce at Barak Obama’s first inaugural event. It is a beautiful, stirring and moving rendition in a moment of great hope for our nation. It would seem that the prayer for brotherhood had finally been answered.

Unfortunately, that moment seems eons ago and we are faced with the realities of today. Interestingly, the song was not originally written as the patriotic hymn we know it as.  The author, Katherine Lee Bates, actually wrote it as a critique of the nation and a call to be better. She once wrote to friends that unless “we are willing to crown our greatness with goodness and our bounty with brotherhood, our America may fail as other nations who have been “great” but not “good.”

While the words acknowledge the beauty and inspiration of America in lines like “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, ” America’s beauty was only skin deep. In Bates’ view, America was not living up to its ideals. As a Christian socialist, she watched as the robber barons of capitalism crushed the labor movement with the help of the government. As a feminist, she watched as women were denied the right to vote.  As an advocate for social justice, she grieved the end of Jubilee Reconstruction and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the former Confederacy. Her refrains are just as relevant today.

We are familiar with the first refrain:

“America! America! God shed his grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” 

But she also wrote these refrains:

America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!

and…

America! America! God shed His grace on thee
‘til selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!

and…
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
’til nobler men keep once again thy year of jubilee!

Love and grief; Appreciation and prayer. America will only be great when it is good. We have a long way to go.  So let us confess, repent, and pray for the healing of our nation.