Dear New City Church Family,
Have you been groaning a bit this week? I’ve grabbled with what I could write that would be helpful in processing all that has transpired and is transpiring. I can’t recall facing a moment of racial discrimination. I can’t pretend to understand what it is like to be unfairly treated because of my skin color. Because of my middle-class background, I can’t understand the hopelessness of a better financial future.
I’ve never been treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. Therefore, I don’t understand what it is like to fear the police and the courts. I don’t own or work at a business affected by the violence of recent days. As a result, I can’t understand what it is like to see my dreams and future destroyed in response to a tragic death in Minneapolis.
Having a conversation about race is an extremely delicate thing to do. On top of that, we also live in a culture that no longer knows how to have a conversation. We've lost that ability in so many different ways, largely fueled by the divisive design of social media. "My friends" and "Not my friends." "My interests" and "Not my interests." Fueled by that, we have lost the ability to speak to one another, to disagree civilly, much less lovingly, about matters many hold deep convictions about.
Even in the church some Christians have lost the capacity to genuinely and humbly talk with one another about differences of perspective. In my pre-marital counseling sessions, we talk about active listening so you hear and learn before responding. Our knee-jerk reaction often is to be quick to speak, slow to listen, and sadly enough, quick to be angry about things, even though we understand as God's people that the anger of man never produces the righteousness that pleases God.
How do we, as the people of God, who have hopes of growing in racial intelligence and racial empathy, become reskilled in thinking, listening, and speaking with one another about race in light of the gospel? What are practical ways that we can walk in a manner worthy of the gospel in regard to racial justice and harmony?
Our race is obviously not the only part of our heritage that has shaped and continues to shape our perspective and preferences. Our ethnicity shapes it. Underneath white or black or brown is male or female or class or geography or generation, whether you're a Millennial or a Baby Boomer. All of that shapes our perspectives and our preferences; yet in deep and transformative and inevitable ways, our racial heritage and racial identity is a shaping influence in our worldview.
This can be for many of us, for me, a difficult reality to wrap our minds and hearts around. Most of us grew up in families and neighborhoods and schools and other social settings that were also majority, if not exclusively, white. By the way, if that's you, you don't need to feel guilty about that. For you to feel guilty or be made to feel guilty about being born white into a white family in a white mainstream culture is every bit as much an affront against God and sin against the Creator God than if you were feeling superior to being born white. Racial inferiority, just like racial superiority, is dishonoring to the Creator God.
White guilt will never motivate you or me to live loving lives. That's why we sing about shame and guilt being gone, because what motivates us is the love of Christ. That's what compels us, not guilt, not shame about our skin color or anything else. We must reject any misplaced guilt about our heritage of whiteness, but we have to recognize it, and how it has shaped our perspectives and our preferences in ways that maybe we're not even aware of.
If you have grown up in mainstream American culture as a white person, you can live your entire life and never really have to think about being white… unless you get bussed to a certain school where you're the minority, or you get lost in the wrong neighborhood, or you go on a missions trip. Then it becomes really relevant and really noticeable, and you feel it in a way that you typically don't feel it in the mainstream culture that you're a part of. You don't need to feel guilty about that, but you do need to recognize that's a unique advantage you have as a white person.
From the beginning of our nation's history, white people have established and held the location of dominance in our country's racial hierarchy. What this has meant, among other things, is also that just numerically speaking, we have held political dominance and economic dominance. Whites have disproportionately controlled or influenced political parties, the legal system, government agencies, industry, and business. Again, I'm not saying you need to feel guilty about that. It's what it is. It's inarguable historically.
This has gifted white people in this country, generally and comparatively speaking, certain structural advantages that generally and comparatively speaking, racial minorities have not had. These structural advantages are expressed all over the place if you have eyes to see it. The majority had the capacity to pass housing laws that favored their racial group. That's a structural advantage. Next time you go into Target you'll notice in the hair-care section you have two or three rows, and then there's about half of a half of a half of a row for ethnic hair-care products. I don't think Target is racist. That's a structural advantage based on the fact that we're the majority.
We'd do well to consider the advice from Nick Carraway's dad. He's the narrator in The Great Gatsby. In the opening paragraph of The Great Gatsby, Carraway says, "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'" I think that is helpful advice, specifically in regard to race in our country and culture.
Besides merely acknowledging and recognizing our advantages, what else, as those in the majority, can we do to steward those gifts we've received in service of others? Danny and Lisa and I want to encourage you to consider your whiteness so that you can understand your racial identity and heritage, so you can recognize the advantages you have been given as a majority person in this culture as a gift, and so you can think through how to put those perspectives and preferences that have been shaped by your advantage into service for those who are not as advantaged as you.
Continue to think about that personally, and then also as a predominately white church how can we, together, continue to humbly and lovingly steward those advantages, as we challenge our perspectives and continue to lay aside our preferences in pursuit of a lifestyle where we're living in a manner worthy of the gospel, generally but then specifically, around racial harmony and justice. Let’s keep in step with the Spirit, making God's love visible.
Bill ~
CHURCH SURVEY
As stated in last week’s Friday Briefing, our target date for re-opening NCC for gathered worship is July 5th. In order to prepare for the regathering at our church, we need your input. The Session has put together a brief survey to help with this. Please use the link below to access the survey. The safety of you and your family is of utmost importance to us, and we want to assure you that we will use every caution to prepare for the day when we can meet together again. Thanks for your help.
Here is the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/oCjkiLAg6WhPzJ4v7
HAVE IT / NEED IT
Check out our new tab "Have It / Need It" on our website. It's under the "More" tab. If you have an item to give away or you have a need, list it on the Have It / Need It list.
SUBMIT PRAYER REQUESTS
The Elders and Prayer Team take seriously their commitment to pray
for the requests of our church family. You are encouraged
to submit them here.
UPCOMING
Sunday Worship Service Simulcast - 9:30 AM www.newcitychurchsb.org
New Member Orientation - Interested in knowing more about membership at New City? Join a Zoom seminar at 11:00 AM Sunday. Register by email to bill@newcitychurchsb.org, and a link to the seminar will be sent to you.
Tuesday Bible Study with Lisa Lait via Zoom - Tuesday, June 9, at 5 PM. Contact: Lisa Lait
Wednesday Night Bible Study via Zoom - June 10 at 7:30 PM
"What Happens When a Christian Sins"
