Since Easter, we have been reading
from the Gospel of John on Sundays. Each
Gospel writer has a distinct voice, but John is quite different from the other
three. They are so alike that they are
called the synoptic Gospels – the look alike Gospels.
What Jesus has been saying to us in
this Gospel is that he was sent by the Father, to show us the Father. He and his Father have a uniquely loving
relationship that he wants us all to be a part of, the Beloved Community. To be a part of it, we need to listen to his
words of love, to believe that they are from the Father, and to follow. Just and Jesus and his Father are one, so we
should also be one – with each other and with the Father and Jesus. ONE
Well, we all know that ONE is not
something that we have really lived into.
Yesterday as I listened to the news I learned about three young women
who had spent 10 years as captives of three brothers in Cleveland. The nation listened in amazement as Charles
Ramsey described how he heard one of the women screaming and he helped her kick
the door down. We heard him describe his
surprise to learn that there were three women and a child involved in
this.
As the story unfolded we had villains,
victims and a true hero in the person of Charles Ramsey. His interviews went viral on the
Internet. He was funny, and down to
earth. He had nice details about
bar-b-queing with the neighbors who seemed like regular guys. Charles Ramsey was perfect for this. He’s on top of the world! I say, “Good for him!!”
Then I noticed something in his
story, and I wasn’t the only one. I read
it on Slate and at NPR. Charles Ramsey
was telling another part of the truth.
He said, describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives,
he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a
black man's arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”
RACISM
This is not some white person “doing”
something to this man, but his lived experience that has become completely
internalized. He knows, living in what
is described as one of the most segregated cities in the country, that white
women do not trust black men and would only turn to them in extreme
circumstances. I hope it made you weep
as it made me weep.
When I posted my observations on
Facebook, I got two general responses.
From other liberal white people, I got likes and sentences of
support. From black people, I got more
of a “business as usual” response. As
one friend Kathy Boeschenstein, an Episcopal priest in Colorado, said, “We are
in so much trouble. Racism is everywhere including our blessed church.”
The church has made some serious miss-steps
in our history. This is true in the
Church Universal, but specifically in the Episcopal Church. Rather than becoming the beloved community
where we share in the love of the Father and the Son as Jesus prayed, we became
the church of the segregated community.
We not only did not tear down the walls that divide us, we put them up
and put crosses on top of them and called them holy!
As Jesus prayed, “20 I
pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come
to believe in me. 21 May they
all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also
may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” (Joh
17:20-21 NJB) May we truly become the
people who can lead the world to the Father, by becoming those people who show
the love of God in our love for one another.
As they say, from your lips Jesus,
to God’s ears!
2 comments:
Cori,
I mean no offense, but I read your posted thoughts and am very confused.
You wrote this very general blanket statement:
"The church has made some serious miss-steps in our history. This is true in the Church Universal, but specifically in the Episcopal Church. Rather than becoming the beloved community where we share in the love of the Father and the Son as Jesus prayed, we became the church of the segregated community. We not only did not tear down the walls that divide us, we put them up and put crosses on top of them and called them holy!"
What I'm wondering is where do you see this going on today? You say it exists and we are segregated, can you give some examples? And what are some specific things that you would do to change it.
Hope all is well down south! Can't wait to see you in a few months.
Blessings,
Randy Winton
Thanks Randy, I certainly did not mean to be confusing. The miss-step I was thinking about specifically had to so with the establishment of segregated churches in the early part of the last century. The first African-American Bishop to serve in the US was Bishop Denby of Arkansas. He was elected as a suffragan bishop to oversee what they called "colored works." (Bishop Delany of North Carolina was ordained a couple of months later with the same title in North Carolina.)
This was a case of the church following the society around it rather than being a leader following Christ's prayer that we all be one. The experiment in segregation began at the same time the US Supreme Court upheld the concept of separate but equal in the case of Plessy v/s Ferguson.
In our church we see the results to this date. I grew up in Delray Beach where the historic black church of St. Matthews is three blocks away from the historic white church of St. Paul's. The older historically black churches here struggle with lack of resources and older buildings. We are still struggling overcome the original miss-step.
As to today, look at the church. When I look on-line at the churches who are looking for new clergy, most of the time, the people who make up the individual churches are of a single race. The people look alike.
The real insidious part of racism is that while it can be easily observed in the aggregate, it is harder to identify in the particular. For instance, we have elected over 1,000 bishops in our church, but only about 40 have been African American. The racism of the system is hard to identify in each race, but is pretty clear in the totals.
That is what I was trying to get to without going on too very long!
See you in OK!
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