I've been seeing so many @ClemsonFB fans criticizing the football team wearing Black Lives Matter stickers on their helmets. As a former athlete, I had some thoughts. So I wrote a little on when white Clemson fans get tired of Black lives. #GoTigers
Lord, the hate mail from Clemson fans is heavy....
But, so is the love.....😏
Thank you all who have read and sent me such encouraging notes. I’ve tried to read all of them. This actually blew my mind. 😩 and super cool! In this critical moment, as Toni Morrison wrote, is when we writers go to work. It’s good to see so many resonate. Thanks!
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Evangelical Christians don’t have a Jesus problem, per se. They have a white supremacy problem. They have a hatred problem. They have a capitalism problem. They have a homophobia problem. They have an arrogance problem. Jesus is just the vehicle. White supremacy is the driver.
In James Baldwin’s last known publication in 1987, just about a month before he died, you know what he chose to address? The way Christians we’re using and weaponizing Christianity for bigotry, arrogance, and hatred. THE LAST ONE. That’s what he chose. And little has changed.
There is, I think, three important years in Baldwin’s defense against Christianity. It wasn’t when he left as a kid. One was in 1963, another in 1968, and the last in 1987. In ‘63 he comes out with The Fire Next Time and goes on tour with CORE —specifically to Southern churches.
I was reading the gospels and more than once, Jesus had to correct the disciples when they were arguing. In one instance it was about what they couldn’t do and who wasn’t like them — their addiction to visibility and power. I imagine Jesus has to correct us today as well.
As Christianity was passed down through the ages, much of the faith and tradition moved from justice, mercy, and family to power, violence, and control. Scriptures where Jesus corrected unhealthy ways were evaded and replaced with an image of a warrior and fighter.
We don’t need to wonder why we modern Christians are also addicted to being right, arguing, and reinforcing boundaries that were never meant to exist. So many of us have made the disciples heroic and Jesus’s words of no relevance. The Bible becomes god and faith becomes war.
The greatest threat to Christianity is not secularity. It is certainty. When you are so convinced that you are right, then you will create all types of enemies and cut yourself off from all the ways God is active in another person's experience.
I am reminded of the gospel story where Jesus had to correct the disciples who were complaining about someone doing good work but not like them. For them, their proximity to Jesus blinded them to God’s power in someone not as close. A tragic thing faith can do to us.
The older I get, the more I realize the greatest threat to my faith is not my doubt. It is my desire for certainty. Faith is not about being certain or right. It is trusting the truth that God’s love and grace remains even when my faith leaves.
My driver picks me up this morning. About 30 mins into the drive he asks what I do. “I’m a writer,” I say. “Have you ever heard of Thomas Sowell?” I laugh. He begins going on a long right-wing diatribe. Fox News is playing in the background. Whiteness is exhausting. Truly.
He was sure to tell me about his black friends, how Martin Luther King Jr is his hero, why black people need to offer solutions, why he wouldn’t trade places with black people, why we need to just stop talking about race, and more. At 7 am in the morning.
If I’m honest, it legit made me sad and angry because, once again, I am reminded that no matter how much we try to avoid it, many white people just don’t care about our peace and what we actually go through.
I was getting coffee with my daughter this morning. A white woman saw us, came over to us and said, “ohhhh, whose child did you steal.” I laughed and said, “only white people can steal other people’s kids and act like they’re theirs.” She grabbed her coffee and left.
It never fails: at least once a week, when I’m out with my children, some white person says some foolishness. Ol’ girl the other week, touched my velvet shirt and said, “I love this. I just want to pet you.” Like what.
Let me say something about this: this is not just about one person making one comment at one time. From her perspective, I’m sure she thought the approach was “harmless”. But, in reality, the question becomes, what goes through your mind for that to be the “first” thing.
If you are 30 or older and you not “where I’m supposed to be”, I see you, am rooting for you, proud of you, and love you. I want to affirm your goodness, your right to feel what you feel, and believing with you for the future you imagine for yourself.
It is okay to be sad, envious, jealous, regretful, angry, exhausted, and whatever else you feel in this season.
I am praying after all you feel, you come home to yourself and treat that person with kindness, revisit you goal board, and take one more step again.