Just what am I thinking about these days?

It's been an interesting week, or a bunch of weeks, and into a year, hasn't it? 

COVID-19, COVID-1619 (aka, systemic racism) political division, social unrest has flooded the streets of America's cities, towns and hamlets.

Just over a year since the murder of George Floyd (there really is not any softer term for it), it's still open season on black people. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) has become the bandwagon buzzword of the day. Companies all over the world large or small, are creating departments of diversity. More webinars, ZOOM meetings, YouTube trainings, seminars, certificate programs abound all over the internet. Even the terms used suggest that one people group is "better off;" inclusion into what, diversity from what?? What is the norm used to define these terms? 

For many people, of whatever hue, all this holus-bolus is too much. There are those who say, "Let's drop the whole racism thing, and just love each other." To them I ask, "How's that done for us so far." Love looks like something, and with all the disparities in First Nations communities, and communities of color, love might merely has exhibited itself as a liberal sentiment.

For others who say, "We gave you Obama, what more do you want," I reply thusly: If after 260 years, we have a Black president, and if his presidency was a gift, it has given far too late. Isn't it proper to present gifts to your host at the beginning of the party, as you walk in the door??? This party called America started 400-plus years ago, so a gift in 2008 was given far too late!

And as for the church, a recent survey conducted by Barna Research revealed that 29% of Christians who attend multiethnic churches have encountered racism. A similar percentage of believers feel that they jettison a portion of their ethnic heritage while attending a multiethnic church. Strangely, the beauty of diversity in unity is nearly deified in nature, yet in the human sphere, unity continues to mean uniformity. 

So where do we go from here? The one thing we cannot do is rush to "fix" everything about us, without a thorough examination of how we got here, and to deconstruct the forces behind exclusion, supremacy and dominion. That is work. Critical work.

I do not mean to say that this work is about dragging one people group through the mud, slinging complicity upon them, as a woman caught in adultery. The work requires all people to look soberly at their social experience, and take responsibility for where we are as a nation, and move toward conciliation.